These four innovations are taking business communications by storm.

What’s hot in telephone communications these days? In a word, the subscriber. Technologies that are catching on like wildfire allow more reliability, more flexibility and steeper cost savings to the customer. Businesses that stay agile and commit themselves to keeping their systems current can reap substantial productivity and financial rewards. While there are a great number of noteworthy innovations, here we focus on four that are making business communications sizzle.

(1) Mobility

Subscribers want it all, they want it here, and they want it now. This is a big driver behind many of today’s communications technology advancements. Call them road warriors, mobile workers, or nomadic sales reps, users want email, voice, presence technology, collaboration and more at their fingertips from their mobile phones.

The next evolution of this trend will be for apps themselves, which currently operate in little silos on a device, to collaborate more together, making smart phones even smarter. Data captured by one app will inform other apps on the mobile platform. Still other apps will become increasingly multifaceted, allowing you to do multiple things (such as voice, email, video, collaboration, instant message, etc.) on the same app or platform.

(2) BYOD

Not only do users want it all here and now, but they want it all on their mobile device; they don’t want to be told which device they need to use for what. BYOD (bring your own device) is the phenomenon of employees’ using their own personal devices such as smart phones, computers or wearables for work. Even though the practice has only been around since 2009, it has already revolutionized the workplace, with 74% of businesses surveyed in November 2014 by Pro Tech Research either permitting or planning to permit BYOD.

While businesses have perceived tangible productivity gains with BYOD, there are still some kinks to work out, especially in terms of security since sensitive information on devices the company doesn’t own is clearly more difficult to monitor and protect. But these challenges won’t stop the practice’s proliferation. Hand in hand with this trend is the development of new security solutions for companies that allow BYOD.

(3) OTT VOIP

Over the top (OTT) voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) refers to using packet technology to carry voice on top of a cellular network. For example, if you use your Skype app to make a phone call on your mobile phone, you are using OTT VoIP. As more portable devices are VoIP enabled, OTT will continue to ride over the top of that wave (pun intended).

While the OTT trend was first met with resistance from traditional telephone service providers, they quickly came to understand how unstoppable it is and many of them now offer their own OTT or cost-effective alternatives – all of which is good for the subscriber.

(4) VoWi-Fi

As more companies get used to IP telephony, an increasing number of companies are applying the technology internally using Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi). This allows employees to bypass the traditional or cellular phone networks and make calls via Wi-Fi.

A popular application of VoWi-Fi is in large complexes such as airports and hospitals where Wi-Fi can allow on-premise employees to communicate with each other at negligible cost. Another situation where this technology is valuable is in areas where the cellular signal is spotty. In this case, workers can use OTT technology to make IP calls via Wi-Fi from their cell phones or wireless IP phones. Some corded IP phones can also be used over Wi-Fi using Wi-Fi adapters or dongles, if they don’t already have built-in Wi-Fi. Your TeleDynamics contact can tell you which endpoints are compatible with this technology.

CONCLUSION:

Recent developments in telephony all have at least two things in common: increased value and cost savings for the subscriber. As a telephone systems reseller, integrating the latest technologies into your total voice solutions will not only maximize your value to customers but also sustain your own company’s success.