Enterprise communications is changing drastically, following a unified communication route that is focusing more on mobility and the mobile workforce, says Michael Bayer, president of field operations at Avaya EMEA.
“The next step in enterprise communications is concentrated on establishing and managing a mobile workforce. The trend we are seeing is that companies are realising the employee itself is a consumer and that business or enterprise communication is merging and becoming the same thing.
“We believe businesses should look at how their employees communicate outside of work and incorporate that into the enterprise's communication business model,” he adds.
The move is to start incorporating the softer issues of communication and take note of the company and employee culture to devise a unified communication strategy that is unique to that specific organisation, Bayer says. “It is not about the technology anymore. It is now about how technology is the enabler to ensure productive and efficient communications through a consolidated or converged voice and data platform - which is also aligned with a more mobile environment.”
The key, yet most problematic hurdle is changing management, and specifically first-line management's way of thinking - away from the traditional clock-watching, head-counting micro-management style towards an outcomes-based measurement style. People should interact and communicate like they do in their personal lives and be free to be mobile, he says. Hence the notion that enterprise and consumer communications are becoming, or rather should become, one and the same.
“Consumer behaviour is already influencing the enterprise and how business should be conducted, and consumers are forcing the enterprise's behaviour to change,” Bayer adds.
Avaya's one-X Mobile thin client solution for mobile phones is doing exactly that, he says. It is a family of client software that transforms a user's mobile phone into their office desk phone. It also allows mobile employees to easily access features allowing for multi-party conference calling, call transfer, call coverage, abbreviated dialling and more.
This ability to integrate mobile devices into business operations provides opportunities to greatly improve employee productivity while controlling communications costs. “It transforms an employee's mobile phone into an extension of the enterprise through converging communication methods linked to the company's back-end, and in line with the company's communication model, as well as being a normal GSM phone.
“It is time companies listen to their employees, like they do with their customers, to ensure a unified communications solution is found that will be productive and effective. The enterprise can't dictate anymore.”
Share