Given how many millions of workers have been operating from home in recent months, it would be easy to forget the role of mobile in communications. However, as countries emerge from lockdown, and as companies re-evaluate their longer-term communications technologies based on their recent experiences, the scene is well and truly set for ‘work from anywhere’, and mobile has an important part to play in enabling collaboration across teams.
Adopting ‘mobile first’ strategies gives those organisations the perfect launch-pad to support ‘work from anywhere’ team-working, particularly with the rich set of functions that are now possible from a mobile. Using a mobile to connect to a wide variety of apps is no longer a compromise. In fact, it is quite the opposite, because users can have the freedom and flexibility to work how they want, where they want, and change that depending on the time and what they are doing, not dictated by devices and networks. In other words, mobile technology means that collaboration can be revolved around each user, rather than being dictated by a set of technologies.
When it comes to collaboration, that can mean full Zoom integration on a mobile, together with integration into related apps, such as calendars and chat streams. In practice, this could mean that someone can see that their colleague is not available right now, so send a message saying ‘call me back when you are free’. Video meetings could be activated — even on the fly — from a chat stream, calendars, or the last email exchanged. Furthermore, meetings can seamlessly transition from one network to another, such as via cellular when hands-free in the car, to WiFi as the employee walks into the building.
Putting mobile at the centre of collaboration (and indeed, UC in general) is also a logical extension of user behaviour. As we have seen with our own customers, connecting to UC platforms from mobiles happens when people are in the office, not just when they are at home or on the move. As a side-note, we’ve seen traffic through our mobile app to access our UC platform grow by 30 per cent in the past three months, indicating that people have been using their mobiles even more when working from home.
However, it is important to think beyond just mobile handsets. A good UCaaS solution should be to integrate all kinds of devices that can be considered ‘mobile’: smartphones in VOIP or GSM mode, DECT, ultra-portable laptops, and tablets (especially with the launch of the iPad Pro). In a truly integrated, federated environment, a phone (fixed or mobile) and the smartphone become the target and connector to link into a variety of different apps and acts as a trigger. Ultimately, people will use a native green button creating a seamless, linked up experience— versus app dialling — this delivers the true fixed mobile convergence (FMC) many users are looking for: we need simplicity for adoption.
As collaboration continues to be one of the fastest-changing, most vibrant parts of the industry, putting the emphasis on mobile — rather than treating it as an add-on — could be the catalyst towards a more modern way of working. Whether people are at their employer’s offices, from a shared workspace, from home, or in a public place, they can have a consistent ‘work from anywhere’ collaboration experience, one that fits around their circumstances and preferences. ‘Mobile first’ means ‘user first’.
Guest Blog by Justin Hamilton-Martin, Centile Telecom Applications
