VoIP Gateways Article

If it seems like more people are working remotely these days, that's not just a misperception. Despite some high-profile reversals in the global mobile workforce like those of Yahoo and IBM, more and more workers aren't working in an office any more. New reports from Strategy Analytics (News - Alert) say this number will only rise, and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) gateways might be a bigger help here than some expect.

The word is that, between 2016 and 2022, the numbers involved in the mobile workforce will only rise. In 2016, the mobile workforce counted around 1.45 billion to its ranks, and in 2022, that number is set to rise to 1.87 billion, a significant percentage increase.  Generally, most major industrialized nations have been discovering workforces that are both aging and shrinking, thus the general concept of tapping other regions for employees is proving more popular out of a sheer necessity.

Certain regions are set to benefit from this measure in particular; in all but Japan and South Korea, workforces throughout Asia are on average growing and getting younger. This is also the case in elements of the Middle East, Africa, and South America, which means corporations will need to expand their nets in order to find a workforce of any type, even as unemployment in the United States is still fairly substantial.

Strategy Analytics' executive director of enterprise research, Andrew Brown, commented, “If we compare regional data, North America and Western Europe are still the leading regions in terms of leading the mobile worker penetration. The mobile workers in these developed regions adopt and use far more mobile technologies...than any other regions. Businesses are also continuing to take advantages of telecommuting, and offering employees flexible working environments.”

This may not sound like the greatest environment for VoIP gateways—why would VoIP gateways, primarily an in-office technology, be useful to employees who may never set foot in an office?—but there's at least one major use case for such systems. Employees on the move still need a way to rapidly communicate, and if a VoIP gateway can be established to accommodate remote workers, it may allow for a means to access VoIP communications remotely and provide that much more in communications capability.

Remote workforces are fundamentally changing the employment game as we know it today. Being ready to accommodate these changes is the first step toward taking the fullest advantage of the new conditions and ultimately coming out ahead. VoIP gateways can represent an excellent new tool for mobile workers, acting as the backbone of an operation if used properly.