Dynamic Business

All in the timing
Time management is one of the biggest factors in productivity. If you’re well organised, you might already have a process in place where you block out your time for certain activities. Unless you have a closed-door office without a phone however, it is more common that distractions such as phone calls and staff queries interrupt any scheduled work patterns.

Managing your time becomes a matter of managing ‘presence’, explains Mark Anderson, chief technical architect at Siemens Enterprise Communications. “The whole concept of presence is there’s a number of different areas where you can get information,” he says. “If you look at my calendar at the moment I’m in an interview with you and I’m on the phone right now. If you link those together and add rules, the system would know that there’s not much point putting a call through to my mobile. However, if I had the same thing that said I’m travelling, it would divert to my mobile or the system will make a decision whether to put it through to voicemail or put it through to someone who assists me.”

Siemens’ HiPath Open Office is a system that unifies desktop tools such as your computer and your phone, to add value to the communication process. “Programs like Outlook and voicemail systems, up until now, have been disparate items. What we’ve done with Open Office is brought them together to give them an overall productivity factor by letting them share the information they have to add value to each item,” says Anderson.

You might be familiar with this typical contact path: a client contacts you on your direct line, only to be met with voicemail. They select the option to be put through to reception, only to be told you are out. They try your mobile number, only to reach another voicemail.

With a system like Open Office, one contact number will produce a faster result. If you set a rule that marked that client as a priority, in the same scenario, even if you were in a meeting, the system would put the call through to your mobile from your direct line.

“Your investment is that you spend time with the system so it knows about you, your telephone number, your mobile number and your voicemail,” says Anderson. “If you keep your diary up to date and use keywords like ‘travel’ and ‘meeting’, the technology will take care of the rest.”

Open Office also allows better time management internally. On the system you can see that your colleague is on the phone, so it’s probably not a good time to approach her for a discussion. The technology can also be used across an entire network, so if you have offices in other states, for example, you can choose the best time to call.

Anderson believes unified communications will evolve as more links between devices are created. Wireless technology will allow even more possibilities. “You could tie this into a wireless LAN system, so if your mobile had a wireless component and you were in your warehouse, within the network area, then it would come through as an internal call. If you left the premises, then it’d be an external call. It’d be managed by the system.”

Perfect—if only you could resist the temptation to schedule a daylong meeting for some productive peace and quiet.

Improving your business’ productivity can not only save you time and money, but give you peace of mind.

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