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It's great to be able to work from anywhere, largely uncaring about conditions on the ground. As long as there's power and a working Internet connection, it's entirely possible to go to work. Anyone in the Midwest hit by that line of storms this weekend is likely seeing that point clearly, but by like token, this major sea change in the way we live and work is bringing with it some major changes. Particularly, changes are hitting the business communications market, and forcing providers to reconsider the future thanks to new developments like the bring your own device (BYOD) doctrine.

A recent survey released from RingCentral, conducted by Dimensional Research and entitled “Workforce BYOD Rises Dramatically” provides some insight into just what's going on in terms of business connectivity, and how rapidly changing technology is fundamentally altering the way we do business. The survey—which encompassed 309 independent sources dealing with either purchasing or using business phone systems—tackled what these individuals thought about current technology issues. What the study revealed, meanwhile, was actually shocking on several levels.

For instance, the study showed that fully half of respondents would use a mobile phone even while seated at a desk commonly including a desk phone. In addition, 88 percent of employees would turn to mobile phones for work purposes even while on personal time, like lunch, evenings, or even during vacation time. 70 percent of employees actually think that the mobile device will replace the desk phone, and among those, the millennial employees involved are the most likely to believe that.

RingCentral (News - Alert)'s president David Berman offered some comment on the matter that underscores just what's going on in the wider field, saying “Mobile devices are turning into true business tools and are transforming the workplace as a whole, from shifting traditional business hours to changing how employees interact via voice, video, text and other business applications. We believe that all these changes are making legacy on-premise phone systems obsolete as they do not meet modern business needs.”

This by itself is raising a host of issues, including the topic of work-life balance—why are employees turning to mobile devices to handle work matters in such large numbers?--but one point becomes quite clear. When such a number of millennial employees—essentially the future of a company—are so convinced that the mobile phone will replace the desk phone, it may well be that, in fact, it will if only on a de facto basis. It's a point worth considering, if nothing else. After all, mobile devices can commonly do quite a bit more than desk phones can, so turning to a mobile device instead of a desk phone may make sense if on nothing more than a functional level. Additionally, the mobile device can leave the office, a point the desk phone could never make. We're already seeing some suggest that the Xbox One might prove to be a major business device thanks to its connectivity capabilities backed up by Microsoft (News - Alert) Lync, so more remote work could be an option only makes sense.

While the future of connectivity remains somewhat up in the air, preparing the office—and those employees within it—may ultimately be a strategy worth planning for. A decentralized office has its perks, many of which have a clear impact on the bottom line, so being ready for the future of connectivity as one that's not always in the office is a reasonable response. 

Edited by Cassandra Tucker