A decade ago, it would have been rare to meet someone who could carry out their profession from anywhere. For most, “going to work” involved physically going to a place of business. Today, because of the swift development of collaboration tools and the ubiquitousness of connectivity to the internet, working from anywhere is not only an option, but is often preferred by both employer and employee. Studies have shown that a mobile workforce tends to be more productive and experience higher job satisfaction.

Voice over IP (VoIP) technology is one of the major facilitators of employee mobility. Here we highlight some of the functionalities and tools that allow for a seamlessly mobile workforce.

Even in this digital age, your business can’t afford to ignore voicemail

There’s a lot of talk out there about the obsolescence of voicemail. But companies that don’t give importance to voicemail do so to the detriment of their customers' experience.

CRM.com reported that small- and mid-sized businesses experience up to 75% voicemail abandonment, referring to the people that call the company but hang up without leaving a message when transferred to voicemail.

This startling statistic is in part fueled by a lack of responsiveness on the part of the voicemail recipient. According to Nuance, 27% of those surveyed reported that when they get a voicemail, they feel burdened by the process of retrieving and listening to it, and 19% said they actually get annoyed when they receive a voicemail!

Luckily, it’s possible to have the best of both worlds and reap the benefits of voicemail while removing the hassle for company associates.

Ignore them at your own risk!

As we gear up for Channel Partners Evolution later this month in Austin, we’ve been thinking about the incredible pace at which digitization is taking over every aspect of business and the importance of a nimble enterprise structure that can continually adapt to this progress.

It can seem overwhelming keeping up with it all, so we’ve boiled it down to five trends that will define the evolution of VoIP over the next decade. Ignore them at your own risk!

Part 2 of 2: Cloud communications offer many advantages, but some businesses benefit less than others

In Part 1 of this series, we reviewed some advantages of cloud-based unified communications (UC). Among other things, we emphasized the ease of use, streamlined functionality, and cost savings of this platform as compared with a similar on-site deployment. However, there are situations where cloud-based UC is less advantageous. In this article, we look at the prerequisites for using UC over the cloud as well as some specific examples.

There are many ways the IoT can leverage, and be leveraged by, VoIP systems to create a more productive workplace.

A useful yet vastly underused functionality of SIP is what is known as presence technology. According to Salesforce, 86% of executives surveyed blamed lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures. This is where presence can help.

Sneak preview of new enhancements coming later this year

By Kate Clavet, Marketing Specialist, Grandstream Networks

It’s becoming imperative for any business to have tools available that not only enhance their internal communication but also keep their customers coming back. With so little face time (thanks to the internet), a customer’s experience is increasingly important. Grandstream’s UCM IP PBX series is a practical way to manage your communication without compromising on features or emptying your wallet. After all, we’re always striving to improve our customer’s experience and, by extension, yours.

To maintain a high level of service, there must be tools in place that highlight efficiency and collect data so that customer service, lead follow-up, etc. can be measured. Without metrics and data for evaluation, maintaining a positive customer experience is nearly impossible. Grandstream wants to make that easier for you. In the second and third quarters of 2017, a lot of enhancements are coming your way.

When most people hear about VoIP, they think of telephony over the internet. Online services that offer extremely-low-cost phone calls or even free calls may come to mind. Although such services do utilize VoIP (voice over internet protocol), IP telephony in a broader sense is technology and architecture that uses VoIP to allow you to create an internal telephone network within your organization that leverages the existing data network infrastructure.

IP telephony operates on converged network, which supports both voice and data. The advantages of this to a business are numerous and are well worth the investment. If you are considering a migration to IP telephony, here we present some information that can help get you on track.

Grandstream and Ubiquiti add excitement to desk phones by leveraging the power of Android OS and a modern interface. By integrating the Android Operating System into the phone, thousands of business productivity applications like Skype, GoToMeeting, Gmail and more can be downloaded onto these phones from the Google Play store.

Advanced apps ranging from Pomodoro Technique Timer to more obvious solutions provided by Google Calendar will make workers in any industry more productive as they perform phone call campaigns and meetings with one device instead of two. The versatility that the Android platform provides is a huge differentiator that separates these phones from a typical IP phone.

Here we look at five SIP endpoints from Grandstream and Ubiquiti that use Android OS.