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Communication technology is an evolving process, with new innovation, functionalities and tools being released at a breakneck pace, but it would appear that one function takes priority — voicemail. Whether you have a hosted PBX (News - Alert) or legacy system, the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend and increased use of mobile has yet to disrupt the importance of getting one’s messages.

A recent study from AccessDirect, which took a look at how small businesses (no larger than 10 employees) answer the phone and the results gleaned from it, spoke volumes. Holding on to a narrow edge, 48 percent of respondents label their desk phone as their primary means of communication, with mobile not far behind at 42 percent. A mere 10 percent list both.

Age plays a major factor in these findings. Some 82 percent of employees over the age of 60 have a desk phone and 67 percent want to keep it that way.  There is a slight decline in those numbers for employees 45-59, but the drastic difference is with employees 30-44 where only 44 percent have a desk phone and only 38 percent wish to keep it.

So it would appear that much like the dinosaurs, the desk phone is facing extinction but voicemail is not going anywhere. In total, 56 percent of respondents replied that they check voicemail frequently. Five verticals stick out with their reported use of voicemail: legal/consulting; business logistics; real estate; insurance; and healthcare & pharmaceuticals. All reported a rate of 60 percent or higher of checking voicemails frequently, with legal topping the bunch with a reported 100 percent rate of readily checking voicemail.

John Kinskey, president and founder of AccessDirect predicts, "The desk phone faces extinction with upcoming generations, but voice messaging will remain a staple in small business communications."

With over 58 percent of respondents proclaiming that small business will choose affordability over function, it would appear the piece missing for many is the system update sending voicemail to email.

This study is an interesting look at business communications because typically the enterprise is only concerned with the enterprise. Small business communications hold the same priority, so when choosing a provider it is extremely important to check quality, reliability, cost and – obviously – how you would check for voicemail.