Business Mobile VoIP: A Modern Solution in Mobility
Business mobile VoIP (also known as VoIP mobility) is a common solution that allows employees to make and receive calls on their personal smart devices while using their company phone number and network—which is a huge perk for companies with mobile employees—but how exactly does it work?
More and more businesses are adopting hosted business mobile VoIP technology to communicate more effectively and to boost overall business. One of the major benefits of these solutions, of course, is the mobility hosted VoIP provides. Whether you’re a prospective buyer or a curious George, we’ll quickly walk you through what VoIP for mobile workforces can look like and how it can be leveraged to get big results.
The Basics
A hosted VoIP solution works through the cloud in the same way regular Internet connections are made. Packets of voice, video, and other data from your VoIP applications are transmitted from one device and received on another via the Internet or through a data network connection.
These packets and other pieces of information are hosted on a network of geographically dispersed data centers owned and operated by the VoIP company, which is key to the business continuity benefits mobile VoIP affords the end-user. Since access to the VoIP network doesn’t rely on physical connections in the office, users can still make calls and use other features in the event of a power outage, Internet outage, and so on. The redundant deployment of the data centers ensures an industry standard 99.999% uptime for mobile workers.
So, what does this mean? In short, it means the company’s VoIP network is available virtually any time and anywhere a user has Internet access or a data signal, which is especially useful for employees working in remote locations or foreign countries.
Download VoIP App
Users will be able to access their company’s network by downloading a provider-specific mobile VoIP app found in the Apple or Android app store. Once the app is downloaded to an employee’s phone or tablet, he or she will log into the app using the credentials provided to them by their employer.
After logging in, employees will be able to access an array of features in the dashboard, such as the VoIP dialer, instant messaging and presence capabilities, and a multi-user collaboration environment to name a few.
Also inside the app will be contact lists and file directories that can be company wide or private to the individual employee. Changes to these directories will be updated across all devices and platforms, so there’s no need to update specific directories for each device.
Employees will also have access to a web-based user portal to make more detailed adjustments to their VoIP user account.
Using the Mobile App
Users have the opportunity to stay logged into the mobile app as long as they need to or are comfortable with. While logged in, incoming calls directed to the user’s business number can be answered through the VoIP app, and any messages left will be left on the user’s professional voicemail. Incoming calls directed to user’s personal number, however, cannot be answered through the app, and messages left will go to the user’s personal voicemail. This keeps communications organized since there’s no possibility of wrongfully picking up voice and video calls, or having voicemail messages go to the wrong place.
Outgoing calls will be treated the same; calls made through the business mobile VoIP app will reflect as being made with the user’s work number, and calls made outside the app will reflect the user’s personal cell phone number.
The mobile app will also have text message and presence features that will allow users to chat with other contacts, attach and share files, and announce their presence (“available,” “busy,” and “away,” for example) to give contacts a more detailed view of each user’s status.
BYOD Policies
Some companies choose to have a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy in place that takes care of security and usage details if they’re allowing employees to use their personal devices for work. This is especially useful for companies that want to save costs on phones/tablets, data plans, and maintenance.
If a BYOD policy is not in place, companies can still distribute work-only phones or tablets to their employees as normal.
Looking into business mobile VoIP solutions for your workers? DOTVOX has all the information you’ll need here.
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