Communication is an essential component of any business. As the landscape that we live in continues to evolve, the standard communication stack is growing. To be fully prepared for communication today, you need a unified environment that considers everything from voice conversations, to video and instant messaging.
Unified Communications is the solution that provides today’s businesses with an easy-to-use all-in-one environment for communication management. However, now that mobility is also emerging as a table-stakes consideration for all companies, the need for unified communications is evolving. The standard UC environment is becoming “MUC”, or Mobile Unified Communications.
Mobile unified communications considers the mobile methods that we use to communicate alongside the more fixed, traditional tools. With the right MUC solution, IT departments will be able to offer the same convenience of UC to those in the mobile landscape.
What is Mobile Unified Communications?
Mobile UC is an extension of the unified communication landscape, which aims to pull various communication tools together into a cohesive environment. With Mobile Unified Communications, Mobile Network Operators provide an immersive all-in-one telephony service that enhances security, productivity, and efficiency for users.
Today, Mobile UC features are becoming a valuable part of any MNO (Mobile Network Operator) product portfolio. These unified environments increase customer satisfaction, by giving customers a simplified landscape where they can access everything from mobile messaging to analytics and reporting. Some of the components in an MUC system might include:
- Voice: Voice, often in the form of VoIP is a crucial component of any UC environment, and it’s essential for MUC too. Voice features must include one-on-one and conferencing components, as well as voicemail
- Email: Email is often integrated into the MUC environment for easy tracking of asynchronous conversations. However, many companies are now moving away from email as the primary source of team collaboration. Collaboration and messaging tools are much more popular
- Messaging: Messaging services in an MUC environment can include standard carrier-provisioned texting options like MMS and SMS. They might also include public services like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, as well as instant messaging apps
- File and content sharing: All documents required by productivity applications, images, and recordings of conferences need to be searchable and accessible. MUC providers regularly support transcripts of voice conversations, backups, archiving, encryption, and more
- Management tools: MUC solutions need a console with policy definitions, identity management, configuration, and onboarding solutions. Usage monitoring tools and integrity management options may be essential too
How Mobile UC Benefits Companies
Ultimately, Mobile Unified Communications supports businesses in staying connected in an increasingly mobile landscape. Often delivered through IMS and VoLTE networks, Mobile UC offerings extend the carrier-grade, cloud-native solutions for mobile communications. These offerings blend the native dialling experience of a smartphone with network-based services for voice, collaboration features, and group communications.
Mobile UC services are a powerful solution for smaller businesses, companies with mobile workers, and the growing number of businesses relying on remote employment solutions. Small and mid-sized companies can also benefit from mobile unified communications, particularly if they have field workers or individuals working outside of the office.
Every consumer in this space has a distinct set of issues and problems to overcome, which means that many providers are beginning to offer highly customisable options. These solutions might include a complete range of communication and collaboration tools, as well as video conferencing features, chat, presence, and more.
Taking the New Path to Mobile UC
With Mobile Unified Communications, companies can create state-of-the-art solutions for BYOD, enhance their remote working strategies, and even build a more cohesive business. Leveraging the native dialler system, mobile unified communication applications can also offer a simple management interface for IT teams. This means that companies can control and configure communication tools for employees from a much simpler space.
The best MUC offerings will come with a highly configurable single line that business leaders can control anyway they choose. You may be able to build your mobile UC stack with a dual persona system, so that you can have two or more numbers integrated with the same native dialler. Alternatively, your vendor might offer temporary numbers for companies that need to take on part-time or seasonal workers.
Policy and permissions opportunities often abound with mobile UC, with intuitive group collaboration features, screen sharing, video conferencing, instant messaging, and other applications to access, all from the same UI.
As the world becomes increasingly mobile, is your business thinking of switching to mobile UC?
