Our mobile phones have become an integrated part of how we live. Just take a passing glance at any group of teenagers to confirm this. Heads bowed with faces lit up by the small screen, eyes fixed downwards, thumbs tapping out messages to friends. Even if they are standing a few yards away.
But it's not just teenagers who are mobile phone-obsessed. Most of us have at least one phone, some have more. The work phone. The home phone. The old one which you hang on to because it works in places where your new one doesn't.
We rely on them for internet on the go, or for our personal and business communications. We text, call and use messaging apps. Play games, check the weather forecast, even pick potential dates.
Business owners will often use a mobile almost continually. It provides flexible and portable communications, allowing people to be constantly in contact, no matter where they are or what they are doing.
Those working in remote areas, those in offices without a fixed phone line, or those who work without an office at all can all benefit from that handy device in their pocket.
Obligations for Employers
If you have employees who need to communicate to work, and they fall into any of these categories, then your company has an obligation. The onus is on you to provide employees with the correct resources to do their jobs effectively.
You also have an obligation to ensure employee safety. Are your employees using their own mobile phone for work purposes? If so, can you ensure their safety and privacy? After all, they have now given some of their own personal data away to someone they know only in a work context.
Anyone in business can not possibly have missed the changes to the GDPR legislation. This can have a double impact. Firstly, are any personal details being released about the employee which shouldn't be? Secondly, are any customer details now insecure due to their being stored on an employee mobile? You must check if the legislation applies to your company. If it does, you must put in place a response plan for potential breaches. You must also put together a robust business case for having the data in the first place, and why it was used in the way it was. Contact details of a customer, released accidentally due to the information being on an employee's personal mobile, would almost certainly constitute a breach of legislation. The onus is on you to ensure what risks your data handling procedures potentially pose, and what risks you could pass on to customers and employees.
There are other issues around mobile phone use - how do you manage usage, functionality, costs and contracts on an ongoing basis? If an employee were to leave with a company mobile, how would you react? Do you have the resources in place to manage the situation effectively?
Unified Communications
Many organisations, particularly the larger ones, are looking at an overall approach to their IT and telecoms requirements. In jargon terms, this is often referred to as "Unified Communications". If your company is looking at this, then you will be faced with the task of evaluating and then implementing a company-wide integrated approach.
With the advent of cloud-based VoIP telecoms, and browser-based management systems, a unified approach to communications is now possible for smaller companies. However, no matter what size your company, specifying and implementing a Unified Communications approach can be a daunting task.
Any company-wide change will always prove challenging, and rolling out an integrated approach to IT and telecoms is no different.
Using a VoIP Provider, as opposed to on-site systems, means less capital expense, and should prove less of a drain on staff time. Handing this side of your requirements to a specialist means you have access to expertise and resources you don't have yourself. On-site telecoms systems are a bit of a specialist area, and require a deal of expertise and experience to install and manage effectively. You should consider not just the cost of equipment and installation, but also the potential cost of setting the system up incorrectly. How much money would your company lose if you stopped receiving customer phone calls, even for one day? What would the impact be, not just for direct sales, but also loss of reputation? How many customers would be driven to contact your competitors?
A cloud-based VoIP service, supplied by a business-grade Provider, is an ideal alternative. You receive a telecoms service which fits your needs, without the capital expense or headache of management.
Moving to look at integrating your staff mobile phone requirements, how do you manage users? How do you allocate the correct amount of data, or the correct split of national and international calling? Is part of your overseas staff provision an allowance to call family at home, or is this considered a personal expense?
Once the decisions have been made, another question arises. How do you actually implement the results of your analysis?
Project Implementation
A lot of this can be cleared up by simply choosing a Provider which supplies a complete solution. You need a Provider which can give you a Mobile phone solution, a company telecoms solution, and a solution for internet connectivity.
As you know, SureVoIP can supply internet and telecoms. Our VoIP services cover a suite of functions as required by our varied customer base. After all, we provide services for all sizes of company in a variety of sectors. We provide our award-winning, business-grade VoIP service to a wide variety of companies, from national charities to multi-national oil majors. From individual tradesmen working on the road, to artisan boutiques.
Our broad range of experience and expertise puts us in an excellent position to assist, and our Technical Team can offer expert, impartial advice.
We offer a range of connectivity solutions, from FTTC to Leased Lines. If you are a single worker in a home office, we can help. If you are a national corporation, seeking to link different sites together over your own dedicated connection network, we can help.
And now, thanks to our new Mobile SIM offering, we can help with the mobile phone aspect of your telecoms as well.
Our SIM plans are built with the needs of business and industry in mind. We offer a scalable and easy-to-implement solution addressing the problem of using mobile phones within a suitable company framework. You can handout employee SIM cards tailored to company requirements. If you wish employees to have limited data per month, or to have national-only calls, we can deliver this for you. Rather than having to monitor employee usage, just leave it to your preconfigured SIM card. Anything you want disallowed is disallowed, anything you want allowed is allowed. It's as simple as that.