Does Your Current Communications System Support Today’s Mobile Enterprise?
5 Key Requirements for Success

Over the past decade or so, mobile phones have become an indispensible business tool. Yet many employees find themselves juggling communications between their desk phone and mobile phone, and struggling to keep track of voicemails and call backs. To achieve true mobility, these employees need to be in control so important callers can easily reach them when they are available, and there is complete transparency between on the road and in the office.

“True mobility means that you can communicate easily using whatever device you have in your hand at that moment,” says Chuck Neumann, mobility product manager at ShoreTel. “True mobility means having a mobile phone or smart phone that can cover all of the bases, rather than having a belt-clip full of devices. It means having a mobile phone that serves as a full-function extension to your IP desktop phone.”

Mobility is a non-negotiable requirement for any unified communications (UC) solution today, but not all UC systems make it easy to be mobile. A best-in-class UC system should support five key mobile capabilities to meet the demands of today’s always-on business. These features are:

• Mobility integrated into the UC architecture. Mobile capabilities should be designed into the UC architecture from conception, which results in a UC mobile system that’s easier to use and administer and helps achieve a low cost of ownership. With many TDM PBXs and IP PBXs, mobility is a bolt-on feature which requires the purchase and installation of additional products. But a UC system with fully integrated mobility features results in fewer additional components to build in and maintain. In addition to reducing costs, this also helps to improve reliability and to lower risk.

• No-hassle use. Salespeople, field service professionals and other road warriors aren’t the only ones who need to be productive while on the go. Mobility can help many knowledge workers become more productive when they are away from their desks. “If 80 percent of a company’s workers are away from their desks 20 percent of the time in meetings or traveling the corridors, productivity will improve tremendously if these folk can continue to communicate seamlessly as if from their desks,” Neumann says.

  A UC solution with optimum mobile support should provide workers with a uniform experience and full capabilities, whether they use a desktop client, desk IP phone or mobile phone. Workers must be able to conduct the same tasks, such as accessing the corporate directory and listening to corporate voicemail messages, and have the same controls over their accessibility based on their presence status. Recent improvements in speech recognition technology have made it easier for the average person to reduce the hassle of a small phone interface when mobile. This technology is critical as hands-free phone usage while driving becomes the law and not just a sensible practice.

• Broad support for mobile devices. Users should be able to choose the mobile devices and smartphones that best fit their work style and corporate culture, rather than having the UC system dictate which mobile phone they should use.

• Enhanced call routing. The ability to reach someone instantly is at the core of unified communications. Users should have control over when and how they are reached with call-handling modes, so important calls reach the right party while users maintain high levels of productivity.

• Support for presence, IM and other UC capabilities. An ideal UC system supports the full range of UC capabilities, including instant messaging (IM), e-mail and voicemail, video communications and presence status. Presence status makes it easy to determine workers’ availability, and offers individuals control over how their own availability is presented.

ShoreTel’s Support for Mobile Workers

When considering a UC system that meets the needs of people whose jobs are outside of the office, as well as individuals inside the building who are frequently away from their desks, organizations must ensure they start with the right foundation. The ShoreTel UC system is designed on a distributed IP PBX architecture that delivers unmatched reliability and scalability. This architecture, combined with an intuitive and feature-rich user interface is leading the industry for ease-of-use and system manageability.

The ShoreWare® Mobile Call Manager is an integral part of ShoreTel’s solution and consists of client and server software components presented in an easy-to-use interface. ShoreWare Mobile Call Manager provides fast access to voicemail, with a visual display and audio preview of messages. The Mobile QuickDialer function provides direct connection to the corporate directory and calling history, so that users can quickly find the right contact from the enterprise and personal directories—and connect instantly.

Users can control their personal options from their mobile phones, including call-handling modes and Office Anywhere settings, which allows them to forward calls from their office phone to another number. With the “Find-Me, Follow-Me” capabilities of Office Anywhere, users can dial from any home or cell phone but still pass along the caller ID of their companies, which protects the privacy of the staff and presents a professional brand.

These user-friendly features—and more—help organizations maximize the productivity of mobile workers, while presenting a customer-centric approach to communications. The ShoreTel UC system was built on a platform designed to support the evolution of UC capabilities and the integration of business processes. Today, it supports the full range of UC capabilities, including instant messaging (IM), e-mail and voicemail, and video communications.

Learn more about ShoreTel’s support for the mobile enterprise.