Lockdown restrictions have eased in England with ‘Freedom Day’ meaning that, amongst other things, the working from home guidance has lifted, and workers are free to return to offices once more.
In a recent briefing, government guidance called for a "gradual return to work", which may be welcome news for some. Although, with findings showing that 92% of people would want to continue working from home at least once a week post-pandemic, we may be about to enter a new, hybrid age of working – one where the traditional office concept is no longer fit for purpose. With this in mind, what other long-established concepts could be in line for a change?
These days, businesses face an array of decisions to just maintain daily operations – especially considering the pandemic. And, when government guidance required us to pack up our desks and work from home in March 2020, we took our laptops, spare screens, and keyboards – but, one item left behind by many of us was the phone.
For many of us, staying connected with our colleagues was done via software such as Teams, Zoom and Slack, and quickly became second nature. It’s fair to say connectivity went through a period of rapid growth during the pandemic, sparking what has been called the ‘Zoom Boom’. But, for those who still do business by picking up a landline every day, a challenge arose as to how they could continue operating.
One stop-gap solution some organisations deployed was detailed in this piece by Business News Wales, as ‘many businesses diverted calls from their traditional landline-based phone systems to employees’ mobile phones. Few businesses had time to order and buy work mobiles for their staff when the lockdown was ordered, so in some cases, these calls were diverting to the staff member’s personal mobile’.
Whilst this may have worked in the very short term, it’s not sustainable – or cost-efficient – to do so permanently. Least of all as ISDN lines – the method in which traditional phone systems operate - are being phased out by 2025. So, what is the solution?
In a recent blog post, we outlined how the pandemic has ‘accelerated companies' digital communications strategy by an average of six years, whilst 97% of enterprise decision-makers believe that the pandemic sped up their company's digital transformation’.
For many, this has been in the form of Cloud migrations, data backups and collaboration tools aimed at enabling remote working. Now, one solution that has grown in popularity has been Cloud-based calling or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
As a solution, VoIP is on the rise and is estimated to have a market valuation of over $93.2bn by 2024, but above that, findings from Statista show that less than 40% of American households now have a traditional landline phone.
Making the jump from a traditional phone system to a cloud-based solution offers several benefits to a business that a landline cannot match. This, coupled with the fact that we’ve always been a long-term believer in the Cloud, means that we’re well placed to help with your move.
Below we’ve listed out some of the most prominent benefits of a Cloud-based calling system:
We’ve been a vocal believer in the power of collaboration and maximising your infrastructure to enable staff productivity, which is why we’ve partnered with Microsoft and 3CX to offer two different solutions.
If you’re interested, contact us, or get in touch with your account manager if you’re an existing partner, and get a free evaluation with a no obligation demonstration to see how you could benefit.
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