mobile workforce

As technology continues to develop in the business world, more companies are turning to their IT departments for ways to make operations more efficient by using technology wisely. There are multiple aspects that IT departments can assist with to help a business run more smoothly.

Effective Management of Mobile Users

A majority of businesses in the U.S. today allow for bring your own device (BYOD), giving employees the ability to access corporate data and tools on their personal smartphones and tablets. However, BYOD can put companies at risk if security is inadvertently or intentionally compromised, which is why it’s important to effectively manage all mobile users in the company. Strict policies should be developed that prevent the compromise of sensitive data. Some software actually allows employers to alter security levels when employees are on the corporate network.

Make the Transition to Cloud Technology

Although some business owners have preconceived notions that cloud technology isn’t secure, cloud service providers have proven that they can keep data more secure than companies relying on in-house data storage. Add to this the lowered operating costs associated with storing data off-site, and it becomes clear that moving applications to the cloud is ideal to help maximize efficiency.

Implement Certification for IT Processes

One of the best ways to make sure an IT department is in compliance with company guidelines is to add certification that helps IT processes remain efficient, allowing the company to save time and reduce internal costs. Certification will allow business owners to see more clearly how well their IT departments are performing, and determine if there’s anything else that they can do to improve.

Consider Remote IT Teams

Another way to save money and improve efficiency in IT operations is to hire an IT company that can perform on-site functions from a remote location, specifically a central data center. Using this strategy can save both time and money for those remaining on-site. Cloud technology makes this easy to do, and as cloud technology continues to develop, it will only become easier.

With these ideas in mind, a business can benefit from increased overall efficiency and reduced costs and redirect focus and expenses to core aspects of the company. Working with IT teams can ultimately improve business drastically, which is something more and more businesses are beginning to realize.

Millenials are now the single largest group in the American workforce – that’s more than 55 million working people who have never known a world without the Internet. As a group, they are ready and willing to work long, and even irregular, hours – but in exchange for that they expect a certain amount of freedom and mobility.

Employees want to be mobile, and companies can benefit from providing that ability. A robust and workable mobile workplace solution can be extremely complicated to set up and run, and there is great potential for less than stellar results. Unified communications (UC) is an integral piece of the mobile puzzle and can make all the difference in successful implementation.

Device Independence

One of the biggest weaknesses of non-UC mobile solutions is that they depend on devices that are often out of the control of IT. UC, by comparison, allows an employee on the go to securely access the communications system from almost any connected device.

Availability Indicators

One of the often under-appreciated features of a UC system is “presence” functionality. Ranging in complexity from simple, self-selected availability statuses to signals automatically calculated by the communications system itself, this function allows workers to determine the availability of anyone on the network and avoid interrupting them unnecessarily.

Seeing Is Believing

One of the major drawbacks of traditional telecommuting is that, no matter how much employees attempt to stay connected to the office, they tend to be left out of the loop from time to time. UC‘s robust video conferencing capabilities allow mobile employees to virtually present from any location.

Transparent Medium

With the ability to seamlessly switch between numerous communications channels at will, the medium no longer gets in the way of the message. Employees can jump from text, to voice, to video as the demands of the conversation dictate.

Find and Follow

Mobile employees tend not to follow the strict work/break schedules of their office-bound brethren. This can make it difficult to synchronize between mobile and non-mobile employees.

Find me/follow me functionality makes it possible for calls to a particular employee to be automatically routed to the device that employee is using, to bounce from device to device until a connection is made, or to be routed to another employee if the original recipient is unavailable.

The Internet made mobile work possible. UC is the missing puzzle piece that makes a mobile workforce workable.

Unified Communications: Making the Mobile Workforce Workable

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