VoIP for Enterprise TMC

Avoiding Tower of Babel' Mobile Communication Challenges

September 28, 2006
Avoiding Tower of Babel' Mobile Communication Challenges. Check it out:
 
In my previous column, I noted that mobile workers would increasingly make their mobile devices the focus for all enterprise communications. And I predicted that when mobile devices with more robust voice communications features (such as speed dialing, contact lists, conference calling and other features typical of an IP PBX (News - Alert)) become pervasive, those devices will become the command and control point for all — voice and data — communications.


 
There are a number of advantages to making mobile devices rather than desktop phones and PCs the focus of all enterprise communications. Among them is the ability to employ one communications device with consistent features and a single user interface at anytime, regardless of location.
 
But benefits begin to dissipate when you consider a typical organization in which mobile workers carry separate RIM, Nokia (News - Alert), HP, or other devices, each with its own proprietary mobile communications software. That’s a recipe for trouble. Because while individual users may still benefit from consistent features and a single user interface, the enterprise would now risk a Tower of Babel nightmare in which scores of mobile devices look, operate, and communicate differently. What IT person is going to be responsible for learning five or six different mobile software systems so users can be trained and productive? What happens when there’s a problem with multiple mobile communications systems and calls come into the support center?
 
Unfortunately, we have today the potential for that very problem. In our small organization, for example, many employees are mobile and each of them carries a PDA or smartphone device that they swear by. Trying to get our people to standardize on a single mobile device is like dictating that they all choose the same religion: It isn’t going to happen.
 
That’s why for this mobile revolution to continue, mobile communications software is going to have to support the same features and functions on multiple devices and operating systems and work with various PBXs.
 
Consider a mobile workforce in which individual users maximize their productivity by using a device that best suits their needs and tastes. Meanwhile, because their mobile communications software looks, feels, and works the same way on each device, peers and IT staff can easily train new workers to use the features and functions and provide support when a problem surfaces.
 
Add in the fact that IT managers can let users choose from among a full range of mobile devices and PBXs to best meet individual and enterprise needs and you get a solution that’s worthy of pursuing.
 
It’s a difficult enough challenge for enterprises to deploy advanced fixed communications capabilities today. If we are to get to the promised land of enterprise communications everywhere, we must give users the choices they demand and make the administration and support of mobile devices clear-cut and doable.
 
David Hattey is president and CEO of FirstHand Technologies, an innovator in mobile VoIP software for enterprise use. He can be reached at [email protected].
 



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