Small- and medium-sized businesses – those ubiquitous SMBs – represent around half the gross national product of many countries and have done for many years. But until recently they have been poorly served by the ICT industry.
The main reason was the fact that it took almost as long to make a sale for a VoIP system or a UC solution to an SMB as to a much larger company, so the latter was more profitable. Moreover, SMBs tended not to have much in the way of technical resources, so more hand holding was needed.
That situation has changed. Technology advances have given us out-of-the-box solutions, intuitive interfaces and more recently, UC software as a service. But downsizing solutions designed for enterprises does not deliver the requisite functionality for SMBs.
Mobile UC: A Slow Starter
Unified Communications (News - Alert) is a well-established technology but it got off to a slow start. In my opinion it was because the presence and availability did not work well on the small screens of mobile phones. However, that changed with the arrival of smartphones, which are really hand-held computers having significant processing power.
Fonality (News - Alert) has done a particularly good implementation on both Apple and Android (News - Alert) platforms. The solution, known as Fonality Heads Up Display (HUD) Mobile delivers access to cloud-based VoIP, UC and contact center solutions with a single, secure and user-friendly interface. In addition, it’s based on the earlier desktop version.
A neat feature is the seamless transfer to and from the desktop and the mobile device. This used to be an issue that enterprises addressed using a somewhat clunky technology known as fixed mobile convergence. Plus the fact that a solution can be implemented within 48 hours.
The Right Stuff
Fonality states that it is North America’s fastest growing business company, which they attribute to the creation of a solution that was specifically designed for SMBs and smartphones. And to back it up, the company commissioned a survey on mobility trends from Webtorials.
The survey showed that around 50 percent of SMB employees are mobile at some point during their day, spending approximately four hours working while away from the office. Other findings include the increased use of tablet computers, which look to become the standard mobile device within 18 months. And the intention of 43 percent of SMBs to deploy cloud-based or hosted solutions.
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Bob Emmerson is TMC's (News - Alert) European Editor. To stay abreast of the latest news affecting the European market, check out Bob's columnist page.
Edited by Jennifer Russell