With everything going on in the industry, 2024 has firmly cemented itself as the year of mobility. From brand new technologies right the way through to how companies and their users feel about being mobile, a lot of the shifts that we are seeing are pointing in the same direction – the humble mobile phone and how it fits into the workplace.
But seeing as some industries are only just getting the ball rolling when it comes to moving away from standard working models, or are only reluctantly holding onto their existing (and sometimes outdated) hardware until something better comes along, the market is wide open when it comes to mobile opportunities. There are a lot of important questions that need asking when it comes to the way in which the world of business communications is turning, so that’s exactly what we have done. Here are some questions, and of course answers, to some things you should know and where we see things going.
When it comes to solutions driving demand for mobility in the channel, we are seeing Fixed Mobile Convergence at the centre of most people’s attention. FMC is being dubbed as ‘UCaaS mobility 3.0’, and businesses inside and outside of Europe are realising just how powerful it can be. With native solutions becoming more powerful, the channel is seeing how their devices are becoming a mobile subscription with an in-built business telephony platform attached to it.
The mobile capabilities that we are most excited about have been around for a while but are only just now being used in new and exciting ways. Dual SIM and eSIM technologies have made it so that users can be provisioned and activated digitally, all on a device which is already in their pocket. These capabilities are going to allow mobility to make its way through the channel much more effectively.
The impact of the 3G shutdown and transition to 5G can certainly not be overlooked. As the majority of mobile solutions that are out there are app-based, the speed in which end-users can consume data is a top priority and 5G is a good step forward. However, a lot of businesses are quickly going to realise that even with 5G they are going to face high speed data issues as well as unreliable quality of service when compared to something native.
Building a mobile portfolio that is in-line with the increased demand in UCaaS that we have been seeing, and will be seeing for the foreseeable future, should be a top priority for both MSPs and resellers. For MSPs specifically an FMC solution is one of the first things they should be looking at as it brings together two massive communication channels. To go about building a mobile offering they should start by reaching out to providers who can give them agnostic, native solutions that encapsulate as much of their target markets as possible.
One case study that immediately comes to mind when talking about mobility is how Dstny products helped Decathlon in Belgium to replace their DECT system. With Dstny they were able to replace costly DECT technology with FMC to lower ongoing costs and upkeep and remove the need for base station deployment entirely. With FMC mobility they were able to scale, increase reachability and efficiency and drastically reduce costs.