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Hosted Telephony
26
Going mobile
For business
managers,
mobile-first
tendencies
can be both
expensive and
risky, freeing
employees from
the supervision
that modern
PBXs provide
Easy mobile integration and enterprise-class mobile device management
make Samsung Hosted an ideal solution for today’s flexible working culture
their job properly, with 26% complaining
that it caused extreme levels of stress and
frustration.
For business managers, mobile-first
tendencies can be both expensive and risky,
freeing employees from the supervision that
modern PBXs provide and creating gaps in
communications records and reports.
Compared to mobile-only
communications, fixed line IP telephony –
hosted or on premise – provides reliable
voice quality, greater management control
and, for those who like desk phones with
large buttons and handsets that don’t
run hot, a familiar and ergonomic user
experience.
Mobile integration
As a leader in mobile devices and business
communication systems, Samsung has
made it a priority to integrate mobile
communications and office telephony,
so that its customers can experience the
benefits of mobility, without sacrificing
management, visibility and control.
For a number of years, users of
Samsung Communication Manager (SCM)
phone systems have enjoyed seamless
integration of smartphones running the
Samsung WE VoIP unified communications
app.
This connects WiFi-enabled mobile
devices to the office phone system and
turns a smartphone, tablet or laptop into
another extension, with access to the
same resources (e.g. unified contacts
lists) and the same management tools,
including call logs, audit trails and call
recording.
Because Samsung Hosted is effectively
a cloud-based SCM system, users of the
new hosted VoIP service also benefit from
smartphone integration, including:
n
simultaneous ringing of a desk phone
and mobile, and the ability to answer the
incoming call on either device;
n
call transfer between a desk phone
and mobile – and vice versa – in mid
conversation, with no break in the speech
path;
n
automatic hand-over of voice calls from
WiFi to GSM when a mobile is out of WiFi
range;
n
automatic routing over the mobile
network or VoIP depending on the user’s
location – the user just has to dial the
number; and
n
the option of using SIM-less, WiFi-
enabled Samsung smartphones/tablets as
an alternative to DECT phones.
Wilfred Wood, senior product manager
at Samsung Electronics UK, said:
“Samsung Hosted is all about flexibility.
This starts with the hosted model, which
can quickly and easily be scaled up or
down to meet a customer’s needs and
easily accommodates home workers and
other remote offices. This versatility also
extends to the types of handset people
use. A business could standardise on
smartphones or desk phones, or use a
combination of both. Samsung Hosted
supports all deployment models.”
Mobile management
Easy mobile integration is important due
to the ‘mobile first’ mentality of many of
today’s office workers, which can be costly
and hard to control. However, if a mobile is
integrated with Samsung Hosted, it doesn’t
matter if someone uses it to make a call
when in the office: the call will automatically
go out over VoIP and the business will retain
a record of it in their call log.
Samsung Hosted gives customers
even more control over smartphone users
through a Mobile Device Management
System (MDMS) that enables them to
track, monitor and control corporate mobile
devices and, should they wish to do so,
record calls made to and from them.
Call recording between mobile devices
and between mobiles and landlines, as
The UK workforce is changing rapidly.
Driven by the expectations of employees
and customers, by the desire to
cut costs and by the need to raise
productivity, public and private sector
organisations of all sizes have adopted
flexible and mobile working practices.
In its report,
Working Anywhere:
A Winning Formula for Good Work
,
The Work Foundation at Lancaster
University suggests that the proportion of
organisation in which mobile working is
normal practice will rise from more than
one third in 2014 to over half this year and
more than 70% in 2020.
Clearly, for these workers, a
smartphone is an essential business
tool. It is where people tend to store their
contact details and it is how many prefer
to reach someone with flexible, mobile
working habits.
However, mobile telephony cannot
be relied on completely for business
communications.
In a recent survey of 1,000 office
workers by Arqiva, 49% said that they
had experienced poor mobile coverage in
their office, including dropped calls and
weak or no signal. Almost three quarters
(72%) said that these problems occurred
weekly, with 25% complaining that they
happened daily: 43% said poor mobile
coverage was impacting their ability to do
Stefan Sommer
