There have been many discussions about the future of telephony over the past 140 years (139 to be more specific) ever since Alexander Graham Bell got his invention to work for the first time. As he later said “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Is that why discussions about the need for a phone system in the office have been nominal and it is not the if they should have a phone system but what type of phone system that has garnered all of the attention. More and more ink has been used on Bring Your Own Device (“BYOD “) recently however most of that discussion has been as to how to merge those devices in not should they be the end all, be all, for office telephony?
As a company that manufactures telephone gateways this should be a concern. However, we see this as an opportunity. We are, after all, the VoIP Migration Company and have to move with the times. Rather than forcing companies to fit the IP phone system to what employees want companies now have the opportunity to concentrate on what the employees really need. In this way the decision is not solely based on what is best for the IT group and the network. There is very little precedent for this but more and more people are looking for a way to satisfy their telephony needs without the need for a fixed-line phone system. The question is can the cord be broken right now. Not everyone is ready to do without their phone and much of this determination is generational. For those of the baby boomer generation, the thought of an office without a phone is inimicable but for millennials who have grown up without anything but a mobile phone, they can certainly move forward with the BYOD concept.
Citel comes into play where companies need to meet the needs of both the baby boomers and millennials. They don’t need to do the full rip and replace where the millennials will not avail themselves of the desk phone functionality but will utilize the Unified Communication (“UC”) on their own devices. For the baby boomers and others not willing or utilize their own devices they can piggy back the legacy handsets on the UC platform reducing the upfront costs for those not yet ready to move away from a telephone system. Food for thought!