Your employees are mobile. Why aren’t you?

What don’t we use our mobile phone for? It’s ever-present in nearly every aspect of our lives - at home, in the office, and everywhere in between. Is it not time for business and technology leaders to embrace this reality through optimized mobile collaboration?

Unsurprisingly, smartphone penetration within the U.S. population is estimated at 86%. And within business, over half of employees have a company sponsored mobile device.[1]

What is surprising, however, is the slow adoption of an optimized mobile-centric working model - despite the fact 32.6m of us are expected to work remotely by 2025.?[2]

We would do well to remember the powerful lessons we learned over the last few years about how employees want to work and communicate. There’s a clear opportunity to do more with less.

Why traditional collaboration doesn’t make sense?

Let’s rewind. The disruption of 2020 forced the majority of companies to rethink their remote worker strategies overnight.

The cloud was the saviour of business, workers were able to remotely access their data and get up and running in hours, customer impact minimized, and business could continue to operate.

However, things weren’t perfect.

Many remote workers juggled between corporate tools and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). Experiences were siloed and often clunky to manage. Voice calling options were ?limited and unclear. And with traditional UCaaS applications providing voice over the internet quality was often compromised.

Yet these problems persist. According to a PwC report, only 26% of workers said their employer is automating and enhancing work through technology.[3] And in an earlier 2021 study just 22% of companies are providing mobile experiences for work applications and data.?[4]

Given the mobile-centricity of today's workforce, there’s a huge opportunity ?for improvement. And those who pivot their collaboration strategy can now move towards the holy grail of reduced costs, improved performance and increased security.

Mobile collaboration: Let your people work their way

As announced in June, AT&T and Cisco are collaborating to deliver an optimum ?mobile-centric experience to empower today's hybrid workforce.??

Such advances have the potential to revolutionize how and where employees work with just their mobile phone.

This integration of collaboration tools with powerful calling features from a native dialer that doesn’t need a separate ?app will help spell the end for siloed and fragmented mobile experiences. And with a single telephone number for all of a user’s devices, gone are the days needing ?multiple devices and contact numbers.

Embracing and optimizing this shift to mobile, businesses can benefit from a number of operational, financial, and performance gains, including:

• Reduced cost: redundant PSTN numbers, calling plans and duplicate devices may be removed
• Improved quality & security: native dialing over the AT&T mobile network ?improves call quality & security compared to OTT internet calling
• Enhanced customer experience: customer calls are consistently treated ?regardless of location
• Strengthened hybrid working: ?employees are empowered to work inside and outside of their ?business network, while controlling costs
• Streamlined management: administration tools and systems for wireline and wireless telephone numbers are consolidated.

Passing fad or here to stay?

Research suggests it’s the latter. The mobile collaboration market is growing at 11.29% CAGR and estimated to be worth around $93.5bn in the next five years.[5]

This supports the decline in fixed-line services in enterprise in favor of mobility services as reported by the Cavell Group.

In the US, the current total of available fixed-line UCaaS users stands at 85.8 million, but it’s anticipated this will decrease to 76.5 million users by Q4 2027. [6]

With remote and hybrid working showing no signs of relenting, mobile ?collaboration appears to be a logical step in the evolution of corporate communication strategies. The question that we(?) should all be asking is how do we optimize mobile collaboration and what other business tools can mobile be integrated into?

[FOOTNOTES]

1. Why mobility is vital in the collaboration era, Cavell group, 2023 https://www.business.att.com/content/dam/attbusiness/whitepapers/why-mobility-is-vital-in-the-collaboration-era-whitepaper.pdf

2. https://www.upwork.com/en-gb/press/releases/upwork-study-finds-22-of-american-workforce-will-be-remote-by-2025#:~:text=Upwork%20Study%20Finds%2022%25%20of,Be%20Remote%20by%202025%20%7C%20Upwork

3. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/workforce/hopes-and-fears-2022.html

4. https://https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/business-transformation/library/covid-19-us-remote-work-survey.html

5. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/mobile-collaboration-productivity-and-innovation-from-workplace-industry

6. Why mobility is vital in the collaboration era, Cavell group, 2023 https://www.business.att.com/content/dam/attbusiness/whitepapers/why-mobility-is-vital-in-the-collaboration-era-whitepaper.pdf

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