For more information visit: http://www.nexonabsolute.com.au/

1. HOW TECHNOLOGY
POWERS AN AGILE BUSINESS.
A GUIDE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES.
We are living in an era of unprecedented change. New
technology is providing new ways of working and of
doing business. Traditional business models are being
disrupted across all industries, challenging the way that
we all work. Think of Uber, AirBnB or Amazon, among
many others. New competitors are emerging daily and
no industry is immune.
The good news for small and medium business
owners, MDs or CEOs is that small businesses are
uniquely positioned to succeed in this increasingly
competitive environment. Small businesses can change
direction quickly; can promptly react to – or pre-empt –
opportunities and threats; and can structure their ways of
working to meet the demands of the modern world.
DISCOVER WHAT UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS COULD MEAN FOR YOU.

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¹ The Microsoft Asia Pacific New World of Work SMB Study was conducted in March 2015 with 2,000 respondents working in small and medium enterprises with less than 250 employees in
10 Asia Pacific markets including Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
It is vital that Australian small businesses make the
most of these opportunities. A recent Microsoft study
surveyed small and medium businesses placed Australia
seventh in its New World of Work Index¹. This
compared the capacity of employees to work flexibly
and productively in the digital workplace, and involved
2,000 respondents from small businesses across 10
Asia Pacific countries.
Why is Australia placed so low? The technology that would enable small
businesses to have the agility, flexibility and mobility they need is more
accessible, reliable and secure than ever. But it seems Australian small
businesses are not adopting technological solutions as quickly as others in
other Asia Pacific region – often on quite limited budgets.
It may be that terms like ‘unified communications’, ‘cloud communication
solutions’ and ‘online productivity tools’ are mystifying to some small
business owners, MDs and CEOs. But these are just buzzwords. Ultimately,
what’s required to meet the demands of the hyper-competitive landscape
is technology that enables you to access all of your business tools –
including your business phone – anytime and from any location, simply and
seamlessly.
In this white paper we explore the problem, take the mystery out of unified
communications solutions and give you a glimpse of what agile, responsive
and flexible ways of working could mean for your business.
How technology powers an agile business. A guide for small businesses.
The Australia of the future has
to be a nation that is agile, that
is innovative, that is creative…
we have to recognise that the
disruption that we see driven
by technology, the volatility in
change is our friend if we are
agile and smart enough to take
advantage of it.
Malcolm Turnbull
Prime Minister, Australia

3. How technology powers an agile business. A guide for small businesses.
3
CONSTANT CHANGE,
CONSTANT CHALLENGES
Scenarios can be all too familiar
to many small businesses.
The rate of change is not going to
slow down anytime soon. If anything,
competition in most industries will
probably speed up even more in the
next few decades.
John P.Kotter
Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, Harvard Business
School, in his 1996 book ‘Leading Change’
‘I’ll get onto that when I get into the office – that’s
where I have the tools and information that I need.’
‘I need urgent input from the critical knowledge worker
– I’ll call them three times on their mobile, send them an
email, call their desk-phone.’
‘Establishing that call centre or remote office is a
great opportunity but the set-up cost is too great.
We just can’t justify it.’
Three document collaborators
and three different versions
‘I left you a voicemail!’
‘Yes, but you left it on my desk phone.
I haven’t been in the office for three days.’
‘I’m stuck in the office until I get this done.’
Outcome: Wasted time, needless travel
Outcome: Wasted time, frustration, identical
messages left on numerous devices
Outcome: Growth potential is limited, competitive
edge impacted, advantage to competitors
Outcome: Confusion, risk
of releasing an out-of-date
document
Outcome: Missed opportunity, negative
impact on reputation
Outcome: No flexibility, inability to meet
other commitments, poor work/life balance,
unhappy employees

4. 4
This ever-changing landscape puts pressure on systems and
people in a number of ways:
• Customer expectations are increasing. Customers expect
rapid responses to queries and requests. The level of service
they experience will determine whether they continue to
work with you and whether they recommend your business
to others.
• Competition for top talent is fierce. Having a good
work/life balance is important to most employees. Yet
they’re increasingly required to be contactable outside
work hours and being asked to do ‘more with less’. Critical
knowledge workers can be lured by competitors offering
better conditions – and their departure could really hurt your
business.
• Needing to be more agile than the competition. Getting
ahead of the competition is challenging – staying ahead
even more so. Sometimes there is a limited window of
opportunity to test out a new idea. But setting up the
infrastructure for a new office or remote team can be costly
and time-consuming.
• Losing business focus. If the small business owner or the
managing director is involved in setting up and maintaining
technology solutions, they have less time to spend on what’s
important – running the business.
The risks of not embracing new ways of working – and the
right technology to enable this – are clear. Business could be
affected by poor customer service or the inability to innovate
and respond to opportunities. Employees could be at risk if
they can’t work the way they want to.
It is not all bad news, however. By embracing new
technology and innovative ways of working, Australian small
businesses have a unique opportunity to gain considerable
advantage and to leap ahead of the competition.
How technology powers an agile business. A guide for small businesses.
Technology is fuelling the rate of
change, with traditional businesses
constantly being challenged. New
competitors are appearing daily.
The global, connected marketplace
also means that local markets can
be – and are! – serviced remotely
by overseas players.

5. SOLUTION
Tomorrow’s technology is here today – and is
more accessible than ever
Technology might well be the disruptor, but it is also the
solution. Vendors are levelling the playing field and making
enterprise-grade solutions available to companies of all
sizes. A complete solution brings together voice, email,
instant messaging, presence information, video and office
productivity tools (such as Word and Excel) into one, simple
interface which is accessible through any device.
The benefits to small businesses include the ability to do the
following:
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How technology powers an agile business. A guide for small businesses.
Collaborate with ease. True unified
communications means tools such as
email, social platforms, instant messaging,
document creation and sharing, and virtual
meetings are designed to work together,
rather than being disparate pieces of
software.
Jump on new ideas. Until recently, setting
up a new office or a call centre to service
a new segment meant buying new systems
and physically installing them in a new
location. With the cloud, you only need a
network connection and a flexible pay as
you go, pay as you grow model to get a
new site up and running.Provide the experience your customers
expect. Having a single dial-in for all your
devices means you’ll no longer have to worry
about missing an important message. You
can also have instant access to the files and
information you need, and be able to quickly
contact experts for support – the ‘presence’
functionality even tells you if they’re available
right now!
Fit more into your day. Because you can
access all your business tools – from email to
video conferencing – from any location at any
time, you won’t need to waste time driving
back to the office for that important meeting or
conference.
Enable better work/life balance. The ability
to work at any time from any location means
key staff will not only be more productive, but
they’ll be better able to integrate work and
life – an important indicator of job satisfaction
for many.
Sounds simple? It is. It is also incredibly
powerful and sophisticated.
So your choice of partner in implementing the solution is
vital. Consumer-level solutions that are not designed to work
together will not meet business standards and will introduce
unnecessary complexity – you might end up managing four or
five different systems that were not designed to work together.

6. 6
How technology powers an agile business. A guide for small businesses.
MYTH 4
‘I can’t run a contact centre in the cloud’
Not true. Often vendors focus on the core technology and
other market players deliver more specialised solutions such
as contact centres or receptionist consoles. This offers greater
choice and flexibility of set-up, as is the case with the Microsoft
Office 365 solution. A number of its independent software
vendors provide contact centre solutions on a per agent, per
month basis.
MYTH 5
‘You can’t trust the security of cloud solutions’
Not true. In many cases, the security profile of cloud solutions
is better than a traditional small business on-premise set-
up. When done properly, cloud security is provided by
organisations that are entirely focused on just that – cloud
security.
It’s vital that the technology partner you work with has an ‘in
country’ solution where the server infrastructure sits in Australia.
This helps to ensure quality of service in a way that an
overseas set-up cannot.
Never be afraid to ask questions of your prospective partner
about backups, disaster recovery and quality assurance.
MYTH 6
‘The total cost of ownership is too great.’
Not true. With the cloud, you pay for what you need and for
what you use. And the benefits are enormous – you’ll always
have access to the latest technology and automatic software
updates. This means you’ll be able to keep up with the pace
of change and with current industry best practice.
MYTH 1
Consumer solutions are fit for business
‘I use Skype to call my relatives so I can use it to handle
overseas business calls.’
Not true. Skype that you use to chat to family and friends is not
the same as Skype for Business. It doesn’t offer enterprise-grade
security or the ability to handle online meetings involving large
numbers of people. Consumer Skype might be free, but it offers
no service guarantees. It is also often hindered by consumer-level
internet connections.
This goes for all consumer solutions. They don’t have the flexibility
to be tailored to your business. You need solutions that work the
way you do, not the other way around.
MYTH 2
Cloud communication solutions are not reliable
Not true. Cloud communication solutions can be tailored to the
individual requirements of the business. They can be configured
to match or exceed the level of service possible through an on-
premise network set-up.
MYTH 3
Cloud communication solutions are too costly to
set up
Not true. With cloud communication solutions, you pay for what
you use. You also pay as you grow – for example, if you need
to expand to new premises. This model offers the flexibility for a
staged implementation if that’s what suits your business best.
In most instances there is no up-front set-up cost for a new cloud-
based solution. For more complex projects (for example, moving
an old server Exchange set-up to the cloud) there will be some
professional services fees – but these are usually under $10k.
As with most things, there are many
technology solutions out there. Making
sense of all the options can be complex
and time-consuming. It is vital to focus on
what you do best and work with someone
who can set up the solution and tailor it to the
way you work. Someone who can make what
is a sophisticated solution really simple for you.
Remember: solutions need to be simple and
seamless for users to embrace.

7. To find out how Nexon Absolute ensures Skype for Business does exactly what you need it to,
call us at 1300 800 000, email us at enquiries@nexon.com.au or visit nexonabsolute.com.au
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NEXON ABSOLUTE
Nexon Absolute is a cloud-based unified
communications solution that encompasses
Skype for Business and allows businesses to
experience its full potential. It combines and
integrates all your communication capabilities –
voice, video, audio, web conferencing, instant
messaging and desktop sharing – onto a single,
easy to use platform.
Built on the Microsoft technology stack and bringing together
leading security and call centre experts, Nexon Absolute is a
complete unified communications offering. It replaces your PBX
and enables enterprise-level voice features, it provides an
integrated call centre functionality and works seamlessly with
Office 365* subscription while leveraging the Exchange for
voicemail.
*Don’t have Office 365 in place? No problem, we can help in
setting it up.
Take control. Remain flexible. Embrace change.
Call us for a free, no-obligation demonstration of what Nexon
Absolute could mean for your business.
Brought to you by Nexon Asia Pacific, Nexon Absolute is a
sophisticated communication solution, delivered simply in a
pay as you go, pay as you grow basis.
With 1000’s of users under management, Nexon Asia Pacific
is proud to be the trusted IT partner to more than 50 Australian
businesses – industries include retail, not for profit, government
and financial services – and to be helping them operate with
the flexibility and scalability they need to grow and prosper in
the new economy.