Member Article

Telephony is changing

Sooner rather than later, the desktop office phone will become a thing of the past according to Andrew Robson, CEO of Perfect Image. Here, he explains how telephony is changing and how in fact, the integration of stand-alone communication systems will benefit your business.

Take a look at your desk and what do you see? My guess would be a computer of some description – perhaps a desktop or a laptop – a keyboard, a mouse, maybe even a few pots with pens and highlighters in them. But what else do you see? Right now, resting between note pads and to-do lists, there’s probably an office phone nestled somewhere on your desk – but for how long?

The fact is telephony is changing. Within a few years, the clunky phone on your desk will be no more and there’ll be a blank space in its place. Why? Because telephone systems are rapidly becoming an integrated part of IT systems. For example, in the US, Microsoft is trialling telephony systems as part of its Office 365 package, meaning all calls will come to you (and of course be made by you) from either your Windows phone, laptop or computer.

So what benefit could this bring to a business? It’s all down to a concept called Unified Communication. UC, as it’s known, is the integration of real-time communication services such as email, instant messaging and social media, along with voice communication methods such as telephony, mobility and conference calling, all wrapped up and built around document and information sharing systems. In essence, it’s all types of communication, whether it’s voice or the written word, in one place and at one time for users to access.

It’s important to remember that UC is not necessarily a single product. Rather, it’s a set of different systems working together to provide a consistent, unified user-interface and user-experience across many different devices. It could be a laptop, smartphone or tablet – the essence of UC is that the experience and ability to access shared data is the same regardless of where from or how you are accessing the information.

Of course, this also ties in nicely to how we tend to work today – it’s called a mobile workstyle. In other words, we rarely work the what-was-once-typical 9am to 5pm pattern, sitting at the same desk in the same office Monday to Friday. Rather, we’re out and about, meeting customers and suppliers, networking or attending events – the list goes on. It seems rather odd then, that if we’re not physically tied to our desk to pick up a land-line office phone when it rings, that we even need an office phone in the first place. Surely if you’re away from the office but using a laptop to keep in touch with your team back at base, then it would make sense for calls to come through to your laptop too. That way you’re always connected when on the road, and using the same equipment to receive the same calls for the times when you are back at your desk in the office.

And not forgetting there’s the Green Agenda too. Without the need for desktop phones in the office, as a business you will not only be massively reducing the cost of sourcing the equipment, not to mention phone line charges, repairs work and so on, you’ll also be saving on your utility bills too. The fact is with telephony as part of a UC system, the voice piece can often be free – there’s no tariffs, no call charges, you just save money while increasing efficiency.

While this type of technology isn’t yet widely adopted, at Perfect Image we predict big things for telephony as an integrated part of your IT system. Due to the cost saving benefits, perhaps it’ll be smaller businesses just setting up that will be the early adopters. But one thing is for sure, as time goes by and the technology matures, you’ll soon be taking calls through your laptop too.

For more information about Perfect Image, Unified Communications and mobile work-style, visit: http://www.perfect-image.co.uk/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Perfect Image .