OPINION
Why voice is still the most critical channel Understanding the voice challenge by David Collins, Vice President of Resilient Networks
There has been a lot of talk about the decline of the landline and the move to mobile devices - and digital channels - for business and personal use in recent times. Even the likes of Ofcom have
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David Collins explains the importance of dealing with voice failures...
captured this information, reporting that the numbers of mobile connections continues to rise, whilst the use of home fixed lines continues to decline. This made be the case for consumers, but what about businesses? Are business users moving away from fixed line voice and voice communications in general? With the proliferation of new
communication channels, such as social media, email and the Internet, one can almost believe that would be the case. But it is not. Recent research, commissioned by Resilient Networks and which captured opinions of 150 IT leaders and 500 employees, revealed that both mobile and fixed-line voice communications are the most critical channels of communication in business. In fact, researchers found that 78%
of UK employees and IT leaders identified voice communications as the most critical form of business communication, followed by face-to-face and then only email communications. But are businesses making the most
of this communications channel and tracking its functionality and use properly? The research would suggest they
are not. Firstly, the research revealed that
around a fifth of all inbound calls are missed by employees in the average week, of which over half would be considered of high or critical importance. The research also revealed that
despite the recognition of the criticality of voice in business that almost half of IT leaders (46%) admitted to not being aware of a mechanism within their own company for restoring voice call technology in the case of failure. Alarming as that may be, It is an
even more worrying figure when you consider that as much as a fifth of IT leaders believe that the loss of voice communications could be business destroying. The challenges and the frustrations
that current voice call infrastructure present, as outlined above, set against the backdrop of its criticality in business, imply that businesses need to invest more in voice solutions. To ensure that IT leaders and
businesses looking into investing in better, more intelligent, voice communications technology are going about it in the right way, there are six things to keep in mind:
1. Adopt a new way of thinking: IT leaders, and their telco managers, need to take a step back and think about the requirements of their voice communications infrastructure from the outside in and not from the inside out.
2. Rally the importance of voice: Companies need to raise awareness of the critical importance of voice call communication. The spectrum of duties voice calls serve is vast, from colleagues calling in late to work - through to discussing commercial contracts with a client.
3. Create a forum for debate to reduce possible tension: The research shows that IT leaders claim their business’s voice communication channel is up to date (upgraded in the last 4 years), however employees say voice failures still cause frustration.
4. Reduced missed call volumes is motivating: Voice call policies need to be more stringent and voice call management services improved (call divert/forwarding). Missing calls is one of the biggest office frustrations in the workplace.
5. Investment in voice may improve business ROI: Critical businesses operations are being compromised by poor voice call networks - customer service, sales and HR.
6. Realise the limitations of the network before it’s too late: IT leaders need to realise that the voice network has limited ability to help solve complex business issues, especially when they arise under unforeseen circumstances.
The implementation of the right
voice technology can and will help businesses to drive down costs, engage employees and improve resilience. By treating communications
Mobile phones: call failures can annoy 26 NETCOMMS europe Volume IV Issue 1 2013
strategically, thinking about requirements clearly and using technologies appropriately, businesses can deliver on the goal of ‘more and better for less.’
www.resilientplc.com
www.netcommseurope.com
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