Businesses looking to enhance or augment their communications systems, and gain a competitive advantage in the process, have an ever-growing range of strategic options to draw from.

Here Gordon Adie, Managing Director of Aberdeen-based communications specialist Arrowdawn, offers his take on ten of the top features of the communications landscape – be they voice, video or data – and how they can benefit companies.

1 – A united approach
The range of options to take technology beyond dialtone – and create integrated systems that encompass voice, data and video – grows by the day. Unified communications is all about tailoring those options to suit your precise needs – from standard telephony systems to sophisticated networks embracing areas such as web conferencing and virtual collaboration. In other words, using the right means to get the right information to the right people, wherever they are.

2 – Getting it together
Using a single converged network for all voice and data communications – and increasingly, in the modern business environment, including video– reduces the amount of hardware and cabling required, cutting capital expenditure and lowering maintenance costs.

3 – Customer care
A boon for customer liaison services – special customer relationship management (CRM) software immediately identifies customers from their telephone number whenever they call, and provides instant on-screen access to relationship history and other key information.

4 – A team game
Secure platforms for online meetings and collaboration, such as Cisco’s WebEx solution, help to eliminate travel time and costs. They enable application sharing, whiteboard functionality and video collaboration.

5 – Instant connections
Linked to no. 4, instant messaging solutions like Cisco’s WebEx Connect can quickly be ‘escalated’ to voice call or video conferencing with colleagues anywhere in the world, at any time.

6 – Top speed
Data acceleration is a technical tool that helps businesses get more bandwidth for their buck – colleagues in different offices can collaborate quickly and effectively on the development of documents via more efficient use of their available bandwidth.

7 – Wireless wisdom
Wireless is of course an established concept that offers a specific benefit in terms of facilitating – and controlling – rapid access to your company’s network services: it allows for the right degree of system access to be permitted for users, whether employees, contractors or visitors to your location.

8 – Safety first
Network admission control (NAC) keeps you safe, ensuring a device is ‘clean’ whenever it joins or re-joins the company network. If, for example, a laptop has picked up a virus while off-site, the network won’t become infected. It also allows guest users to join the network safely by assessing the security of their device and allowing the appropriate level of access.

9 – On guard
State-of-the-art firewalls keep your network perimeter protected from external attacks while at the same time ensuring reliable, high-security access for remote workers.

10 – Take care
After care is a traditional facet of business but one that simply can’t be ignored in the technological era. Not only about providing 24/7 technical assistance and follow-up support for customers, but taking it further: online access to resources, tools and guidance to help them make the most of their investment in your technology.

A Cisco Premier Partner, Arrowdawn provides and supports a portfolio of Cisco products, from voice over IP telephony to data network infrastructure and security. It was named Cisco Scottish Commercial Partner of the Year 2010.