Mobilizing the Future

By Omar Javaid, Chief Product Officer

State of the American Workplace reveals that 43% of employees work remotely at least some of the time, up four percent from the same study in 2013.

To accommodate this growing trend, companies are relying on the flexibility and mobility provided by business cloud communications to keep their employees connected with each other and with customers - anywhere, anytime. With the Cloud, employees are empowered to collaborate with colleagues, engage with customers and access mission-critical business applications (such as CRM tools), without sacrificing productivity whether they are at their desk, working from home, traveling or simply connecting on-the-go.

Mobility = Productivity = Profitability

Today’s businesses see the benefit of offering their employees the tools they need to work from anywhere. With a few simple clicks, calls are forwarded to mobile devices or to a team’s mobile devices, with rules to fall over to a new number if the first isn’t answered to ensure no call - or customer - is left behind.

The added benefit of seamless integration with productivity tools and business applications mean these employees are also able to engage with customers and clients from any device (smartphone or tablet) without missing a beat - or billable hours. Keeping track of client calls while out of the office reduces the risk of missing or forgetting to log client interactions. And without the overhead cost of supplying a traditional workspace, businesses are also seeing a corresponding decrease in operating costs. A Gartner study on the importance of the mobile phone demonstrates that “mobile-only solutions can save up to 55%¹.”

Redefining Business Communications

When we launched our Vonage Business Cloud (VBC) service earlier this year, one of the key areas of focus for this proprietary cloud-native platform was its ability to transcend location and device. Designed for larger, mid-market businesses, VBC leverages a combination of unified communications and programmable communications via APIs, empowering users to be more productive than ever before. Integrating seamlessly with tools for rich messaging, increased mobility, network optimization, and video collaboration, VBC transforms the way employees communicate and businesses operate.

Mobility, in particular, is where we see some of the greatest demand for the benefits of a business cloud communications solution. To answer this call, the VBC Mobile App was completely redesigned with enhanced messaging capabilities, document sharing, video calling, Call Log Management, and Call Block, among other features, to deliver a powerful and intuitive experience - all within a simple, easy-to-use app.

These enhancements ensure users are able to have important conversations with customers from anywhere, resulting in increased productivity, collaboration and connections. With the mobile app, employees can make and receive business calls - even make video calls - while remaining integrated with their full business phone system. In fact, seamless transition from the VBC mobile app to the desktop app empowers employees to be more mobile and more flexible than ever before. Users can start working in the mobile app on their commute and flawlessly continue on the desktop app when they’re back in the office without missing a beat - even mid-call.

Seamless integration of social messaging into the app’s Business Inbox feature also allows customers to reply to messages sent in messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, responding to customers faster and organizing customer requests in one unified inbox for better customer interactions. And by leveraging APIs for rich messaging, increased mobility, network optimization and video collaboration, VBC mobile app users have access to workstream collaboration solutions, like VonageFlow. VonageFlow offers users voice, messaging, social chat, and SMS within a single interface enabling streamlined communications and greater productivity.

The mobile app also features tools such as Vee, the first virtual customer assistant integrated with a cloud-based UC solution that aids customers in managing their account services via simple natural-language text commands. As the first platform to combine a robust UC offering with innovative programmable communications tools on a next-generation cloud architecture, the VBC mobile is transforming the way employees communicate with each other - and with their own customers.

The Future is Mobile

As the trend for remote work continues to grow, Vonage is well-positioned - and determined - to meet this growing need for mobile solutions. We are arming businesses and their employees with the latest features, functionality and best user experience to help them create better business outcomes - no matter where or how they choose to work.

¹ Gartner, Cost Optimization: The Mobile Phone Is the Only Phone the Digital Workplace Employee Needs, June 2018