Businesses with mobile workers should look for solutions that offer a seamless communications experience across all channels, locations and devices. Key features to look for include:

• Seamless movement of calls between different devices (e.g. desk phones, desktop computers, laptops and mobile phones).
• A single interface to manage all communications and collaboration – e.g. voice, video, messaging, content, tasks.
• Automatic synchronisation of contacts and information across devices.

Effective collaboration tools close the gap between mobile and office-based colleagues, reducing delays and improving outputs. Key features to look for include:

• Flexible workspaces that make it easy to communicate, share and assign tasks across a team.
• Easy sharing and updating of files between colleagues.

The productivity and motivation of mobile workers can be significantly enhanced by providing intuitive, easy-to-use, context-aware apps designed around their specific needs – significantly reducing the time they spend searching for information across different applications. Key features to look for include:

Embedded contextual intelligence, which enables employees to be automatically presented with relevant information based on what they’re doing at the time – filtered by contact, topic or information type.

• Integration of data from multiple cloud applications (business productivity applications, customer relationship management, social networks, content) within their mobile app – so the information they need is easily accessible.
• Easy access to conference calls and collaboration sessions functionality, eliminating the need for employees to use bridge numbers and passcodes.

Implementing a solution that offers full integration across fixed and mobile networks will help to deliver a seamless user experience and lower your costs. Key features to look for include:

• A single number for each employee that automatically routes calls to the right device.
• Business functionality from mobile employees’ smartphones or tablets.
• A single dial plan covering all locations and employees.
• Free on-net calls between your employees, even when they’re calling from their mobile devices.

To cater for the needs of different types of employees, you need to ensure you have access to a flexible set of tools, which can support a diverse range of working patterns and device preferences. Key features to look for include:

• A choice of apps to reflect the different needs of office-based and mobile workers.
• Support for a range of smartphone, tablet and desktop devices.

To ensure your clients are always treated professionally while also protecting your employees’ right to privacy and a work/life balance, you should implement solutions that are able to support separate business and personal identities. Key features to look for include:

• Support for multiple personas for each employee, enabling different rules and call handling features to be applied, depending on the type of call.
• The ability to present a business identity to a called contact even when calling from a personal device.
• The ability to place business calls from a personal device without the employee bearing the cost.

To limit your risks you’ll want to ensure you have full management visibility and control over how employees are sharing and storing company information. Key features to look for include:

• The ability to centrally control an employee’s business identity and track their business activity.
• Mobile VPN support to protect access to your company network and valuable business information.
• Centralised storage of contact data and other business information, minimising the risk of valuable information being lost when an employee leaves.