Mobility is no longer just a “nice-to-have” feature in the modern workplace. Many companies can’t afford to have their employees tied down to the desk, whether they’re supporting field-workers, frontline employees, or agile customer agents.
It’s not just remote workers that demand the freedom to access state-of-the-art communication quality on-the-move. In many fast-paced verticals, organisations rely on their mobile hardware to keep their teams connected and improve business efficiencies. One of the best ways for today’s enterprises to empower their team members is through Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephones (DECT) technology.
Snom, one of the market leaders in communication solutions, has been implementing exceptional DECT solutions into their portfolio for some time now. With DECT, Snom can provide today’s businesses with the freedom of movement they need, without forcing them to compromise on call quality or performance.
Bringing the Benefits of DECT to the Hospital Environment
Compared to communication devices connected via WiFi, DECT has a wide variety of unique benefits to offer. First and foremost, the standard was designed specifically for delivering voice communications. By operating on a separate frequency, it ensures that you never have to compete with other systems using your WiFi bandwidth to keep your voice connections running clearly. DECT is one of the most reliable sources of wireless communication available today, particularly when it comes from a market-leader like Snom.
Snom’s Workplace mobility family, for instance, taps into the DECT industry standard to provide team members with the freedom to move freely as they talk. The DECT handsets and multi-radio base stations offered by Snom ensure that even small and mid-sized businesses can access high-level technology with reduced cabling costs and expenses. The Snom base stations also make these devices exceptionally useful across multiple floors and throughout larger buildings.
The unique reliability and performance of Snom’s DECT devices make them excellent for fast-paced environments, like the healthcare industry, where doctors and care providers need to communicate quickly and efficiently.
In a recent collaboration with the Gottingen-Weende Evangelical Hospital (EKW) in Gottingen, Snom introduces the largest general hospital in the area to the power of DECT for managing more than 1,400 doctors, technicians, nurses and medical staff, caring for patients in 601 beds across the facility.
Overcoming Issues with Conventional Communication
The older ISDN telephony systems at the EKW were facing increasing pressure over time and struggling to provide the healthcare staff with the reliability and efficiency they needed to help them save lives. The hospital decided to use a site-expansion project as an opportunity to switch to a more advanced communication strategy, complete with state-of-the-art IP-based systems installed into all of their buildings.
The hospital knew that to invest in the right communication strategy for their needs, they needed an extensive solution capable of guaranteeing that all of the employees on all sites were available to reach at any time. The fact that DECT technology from Snom comes with a range of built-in security protocols like encryption, identification, and authentication made it a clear choice for EKW. The hospital decided to work alongside Snom and UCWare GmbH – a German telephone manufacturer, to put their new technology stack into place.
The unique requirements of the hospital environment meant that Snom and UCWare needed to work together carefully with the IT staff at the hospital, to create a powerful strategy for on-site communications that would fulfill all performance and compliance requirements. The fact that the staff at the hospital are constantly on the move meant that a fixed telephony system that kept users tethered to their desks wasn’t appropriate. Instead, Snom introduced their workplace mobility family of DECT solutions to install a comprehensive mobile system within all the hospital buildings.
Moving into the Future with Mobility
The introduction of DECT technology into a highly agile environment like a thriving hospital allows companies to quickly and easily phase out traditional systems that no longer offer value. In the case of the Evangelical hospital in Gottingen, communication via the GSM mobile network wasn’t possible, as the coverage would not have been sufficient, particularly for departments housed on lower levels of the building and underground. Additionally, part of the old gateways network using analogue phones needed to be maintained during the transitional phase, to keep staff connected while the transformation took place.
Snom rolled out their selection of D315 and D345 IP table-top phones for those who needed IP connectivity at the desk, while the team continued to concentrate on building the DECT environment simultaneously. The old equipment was quickly replaced with access to modern Snom desk phones, and M65 DECT handsets to cover an area of around 50,000 square metres.
The scalability of Snom’s DECT solutions also means that the hospital now has the power to upgrade and enhance their mobility strategy however and whenever they like. When combined with M300 and M700 base stations from Snom, the DECT M65 handsets also allow users to access advanced phone system features like automatic call forwarding, voicemail, caller identification, call lists, and the opportunity to search the full business directory.
Unlocking the Power of DECT
Gottingen-Weende Evangelical Hospital was able to achieve incredible results from their communication upgrade strategy, using Snom telephone and handsets, in combination with the UCWare solution – the IP telephony system enhanced by VMware virtualisation. Today, the hospital stands as an example of the kind of flexibility and freedom that modern hospitals can achieve when they access DECT technology for powerful and scalable telecommunications.
Snom now offers DECT mobility within virtually all aspects of their product portfolio, including:
- The Workplace mobility portfolio featuring the M325 DECT bundle, M85 industrial handset, M65 professional handset, M700 Multi-radio base station, M25 Office handset, and M5 Range Extending Repeater
- The Wireless DECT Headset range featuring the A170 multi-use wireless headset and the A150 lightweight wireless DECT headset
- The A230 DECT USB stick for easy all-round conferencing solutions
With Snom, companies from all verticals can discover what it means to be truly mobile and accessible in the modern world.
