Phone Tech Evolves
Technology significantly impacts business, especially since collaboration and communication solutions such as a virtual phone hold the potential to bridge gaps and connect disparate parties. However, as technological advances continue at startling rates, telephony continues to have a transformative effect on regular business operations. In a recent Forbes article, contributor Greg Satell outlined numerous ways in which business is changing because of technology, sharing insight from Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen. Satell noted four principles that should be considered as phone tech evolves:
- While people think in linear terms, technological advances emerge exponentially
- Large scale advantages are no longer that great
- Business models need to evolve too
- Business managers must help the team to perform competently
Writing on the same topic in a recent MeetingsNet article, contributor Dave Kovaleski recently shared insight from meetings technology expert Corbin Ball. He is the founder of Corbin Ball Associates, and he recently spoke to attendees of the Religious Conference Management Association Emerge conference about the tech trends that are changing business. Ball indicated that within the business meetings sector, the demand for Wi-Fi connectivity at facilities has grown considerably, and is expected to continue to grow rapidly as facilities increasingly provide Wi-Fi access as a basic utility.
How mobile Technology Significantly Impacts Business Processes
Ball pointed to the continued adoption of smartphones and tablets by average consumers as a trend making it more difficult to provide sufficient bandwidth. For certain business meetings, more bandwidth may be necessary in order to facilitate video conferencing or downloading larger files.
Ball also noted that this trend is being driven largely by the rapid adoption of cloud computing in the enterprise as more businesses become increasingly web-based. While cloud technology can be implemented for a wide variety of purposes, one area that can especially benefit from the cloud is business communications. Small and medium-sized businesses can harness the power of the cloud with a virtual business phone system from AccessDirect. A hosted PBX solution allows all servers and equipment to be hosted in the cloud and stored off-premise in a remote site. Smaller businesses in particular will find this to be an attractive option for cost effectively leveraging the resources used by larger corporate competitors.
A final trend that Ball noted at the conference was how more businesses are utilizing virtual and hybrid meeting technology.
“Virtual meetings technology has come along way in a short period of time and will continue to transform the industry,” Kovaleski wrote. He cited Ball, who said, “Virtual meetings technology won’t ever replace the networking, brainstorming and relationship building that happens at fact-to-face meetings, but they are going to play an important role.”
The technology that enables virtual meetings is improving at such a rapid rate that conferencing solutions could provide values that are comparable to face-to-face meetings. With solutions like AccessDirect’s virtual PBX system, phone lines can be set up to already existing smartphones, which can then be used to participate in conferences where voice and visual data is delivered over internet protocol as well.
As phone tech evolves AccessDirect can help you stay current with the latest phone system technology available.
