For many of us, modern day communication devices and systems have become so ingrained in our lives that it is difficult to remember a time before they existed. Take smartphones for example - according to research carried out by BuddeComm, Australian market penetration for the devices was nearing 85 per cent in mid-2015. That's an impressive figure, considering the introduction of Apple's first iPhone, a watershed moment for the technology, happened less than a decade ago.
Being such a vibrant, young industry, it's natural that mobile technology is still somewhat fragmented. While two major operating systems dominate - Apple's iOS and Google's Android - there are dozens, if not hundreds, of device choices out there, most of which could potentially be implemented into your business phone system.
The proliferation of smart devices has fragmented the communications industry.It's unlikely there will ever be a winner in the smartphone OS wars, so dealing with fragmentation will be an ongoing issue. To effectively address this challenge, modern organisations are increasingly searching for unified communications (UC) solutions.
Keeping track of so many different smart devices, computers, apps and social networks can be incredibly unproductive and inefficient, which is where the beauty of UC lies - bringing a number of services under the umbrella of one platform.
Modern organisations are increasingly searching for unified communications solutions.
Unlocking the potential of UC
That's not to say that UC is here to strip away all of those various methods we use to communicate with people. Figures published by Statista show that Australians use on average 3.1 separate internet-connected devices, while the Global Web Index found that each person has an average of 5.54 social media accounts.
Numbers like these suggest that rather than yearning to go back to a simpler time where all communication was carried out through a single technology - the telephone - modern users feel the need to spread their methods. What's more, the next generation of the workforce have been brought up in this fragmented climate, and can easily switch between email, phone and IM, for example, depending on which platform is most appropriate.
The secret is finding the most efficient way of offering all of those options under a single phone system for small business, a solution which is replicable no matter what device you are accessing it on. It's this asset that leads McKinsey & Company to forecast that UC adoption is set to grow by 20 per cent each year, making small business communications simpler while still offering a suite of options.
If your organisation is finding the juggling act of modern communications too much to bear, reach out to a UC provider today.
