Why Remote Work Requires Mobile Unified Communications

When IT departments consider work-from-home strategies for all or part of their workforce, unified communications is at the forefront of the discussion. The need for continuous and efficient communications, regardless of where the end user is located, has never been more important. The technology of choice today to achieve this is mobile unified communications.

Mobile UC is an extension of traditional UC tools and capabilities, adding the benefit of portability, allowing users to communicate anytime, anywhere. The technology also enables users to manage parts of their UC experience themselves through a self-service portal. Ultimately, mobile UC is built to enable users to move seamlessly from one UC application or device to the next.

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Medium and large enterprises with traditional UC platforms may have already dabbled in mobile UC. In many cases, end users can use chat-based software and softphone applications while working remotely using a PC or mobile device. However, accessing these UC services outside the office typically requires connecting to the corporate network using remote access VPN software. Once connected, users can use software-based unified communications tools to access services managed within a private data center.

To further simplify access to UC services, there is a growing trend to first eliminate the need for users to remotely connect to the corporate network, allowing employees to access directly at the corporate Internet edge or through public cloud UC services. In either case, it supports seamless access for all users, no matter where they connect from.

Market Status of Mobile Unified Communications

Unified communications tools have traditionally had a longer lifespan than other infrastructure technologies, so many enterprises still retain fully on-premises unified communications architectures that are not mobile-friendly. However, from a market perspective, mobile unified communications platforms for hybrid and fully SaaS-based architectures have been around for many years. This means that most enterprise-grade mobile unified communications services have matured to the point where they are not only secure, reliable, and scalable, but also as feature-rich as on-premises services.

Many UC vendors have hybrid products that integrate with existing deployments, allowing enterprises that have invested heavily in their current platforms to support mobility at a fraction of the cost of a retrofit project. However, if your current UC platform is old and ready for a complete refresh, now would be the perfect time to consider UC-as-a-Service alternatives.

Hybrid systems typically require users to connect back to the corporate network without VPN software. But the problem with this setup is that geographically dispersed employees (far from corporate data centers) may experience a poor UC experience due to network latency incurred when sending data over long distances. On the other hand, most enterprise-level SaaS products tend to be deployed across globally distributed cloud data centers to alleviate latency issues.

Remote work requires easy access and unified communications

Whether IT plans to have employees return to the office, work fully remotely, or a combination of both, it's more important than ever to provide a consistent unified communications experience, regardless of the operating environment. The days of simply assuming that all employees will be able to interact face-to-face are no longer valid for the foreseeable future. As a result, they now need tools that can operate without being tethered to the corporate network and provide the highest data security. The good news: Regardless of the current state of an organization's enterprise unified communications architecture, there are plenty of easy-to-integrate mobile unified communications options to choose from.