Addressing Dual Persona as Part of Mobile Unified Communications

 

First, an explanation: DiVitas provides the ability for calls to be placed, and received, on either of two distinctly separate phone numbers associated with a single smartphone. One number is the private cell phone number (the personal persona) assigned by the carrier (AT&T, T-Mobile (News - Alert), etc.). The other is the business number (which is the same as the deskphone number, and referred to as the business persona). The Dual Persona feature was first developed by DiVitas, specifically for its Mobile Unified Communications (News - Alert) (Mobile UC) solution almost two years ago. And technically, it can only be available in mobile-communications systems that run as an application on the mobile client. The DiVitas Client software sits on the mobile phone as an available application that when launched handles all business communications needs (business phone, Presence, IM, contacts, etc).

 

The Albuquerque, NM 13^th Judicial District Court has issued DiVitas phones to its probation officers (as well as more than 100 other highly mobile staff, including judges, administrative staff and staff attorneys).

 

Today a major part of a probation officer’s day is spent in the field, monitoring assigned cases as they move through the court system.

 

Because the probation officer’s DiVitas mobile device carries the same number as his deskphone — his business persona — he is equally reachable during working hours, whether he is in the office or out in the field. This provides the benefit of a Single-Number reach — meaning he is reachable by a single number (no need to provide a personal cell phone as a deskphone backup). And he only has to manage one voicemail box, email box, Instant Messaging (IM)-log and call-record log.

 

Here’s where the Dual Persona capabilities kick in. The probation officer is like any other business user. He doesn’t want to provide his personal phone number on his business card, and yet it is typical for cell phones to serve as business as well as personal cell phones.

 

With the DiVitas business persona, the probation officer no longer needs to provide his personal cell number to make himself available to people involved in his individual cases — a critical privacy feature in this line of work. The number displayed on his business card rings on his desktop and his DiVitas mobile phone, which he carries with him. Because his DiVitas phone roams seamlessly between WiFi (News - Alert) and cellular, he is always available, regardless of location. Meanwhile, he can keep his personal cell phone hidden — his personal persona — because no member of his probation cases ever needs to know where to find him on a Saturday night. But the important thing is that his personal persona (personal cell number) is available on the same DiVitas phone when he needs to make a personal call. He does not have to mark a contact as a personal or business contact using DiVitas. The system automatically asks which persona to use when making a call.

 

Dual Persona also addresses a more serious business issue that can involve thousands, if not millions, of dollars. The DiVitas Mobile UC solution automatically addresses that antiquated, but still utilized, IRS law that is lurking out there. It can result in serious tax liabilities for organizations who issue cellular phones to mobile workers. The details of the business persona calls are logged and its history is made available compliments of the DiVitas Dual Persona feature.

 

Following a 2007 IRS audit, UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) was recently hit with a $239,196 bill for back taxes for employees using corporate cellular phones. They were caught in this predicament because they could not produce call history records proving exactly how the phones were used. All the call detail information was in the individual monthly statements and not in a consolidated form. And UCLA was not alone in being in the predicament. UC San Diego was fined $190K by the IRS for the same infraction.

 

Had these universities deployed the DiVitas Mobile UC solution, they could have avoided the nearly quarter-million-dollar tax bills by providing a single, annualized call detail report. DiVitas, and its Dual Persona feature, lets companies automatically track and log all calls and then supply a tidy record for the IRS, should the need arise.

With DiVitas, a mobile worker may be reached through their business number, regardless of where they are located. Only one number needs to appear on a mobile worker’s business card, and this is the number associated with the business persona. Outbound calls from this device would display the business Caller ID number, so a consistent business persona can be maintained for accounting purposes.

 

Most individuals, however, on occasion have a need to use their mobile phone for personal calls, and in this case they would dial out using the personal persona (the phone number that is native to the mobile phone). It is a number that end-users would make available using the same discretion used as they would with a personal phone.

 

In essence, a DiVitas phone addresses the need for a business number and a private number — without intermingling the two, and by eliminating the need to carry two phones. Calls made through the DiVitas business persona are automatically tracked through the DiVitas Mobile Data Records (MDR) feature and the carrier provides detailed records of all calls made through the personal persona (native mobile number). Together, they provide the detailed call history required by the IRS.

 

IT managers don’t need to scrutinize calls every day. They have better things to do. But should audit day arrive — any type of audit — any company using DiVitas will be happy for this safety net.