5 Ways a Cloud Phone System Delivers a BYOD Advantage
More than ever, employees are expecting a BYOD (bring your own device) policy allowing them to utilize their own technology for business purposes. The good news is that employers are actively supporting the BYOD movement. A study published in ZDNet shows that 74 percent of organizations either using or planning to allow employees to bring their own devices to work. But the downside is that BYOD policies can be fraught with challenges – particularly if the business uses a traditional phone system that doesn’t integrate with mobile devices.
Big Difference: Cloud Phone Systems vs. Traditional Service
Fortunately, the route to a productive BYOD policy can be simplified when companies utilize a full-featured cloud phone system. Here’s why:
- With a cloud-based phone system, mobile employees can make and receive calls (and text messages) via an app on their mobile phone. Caller ID indicates that the call is from the business, and employees can access the same calling features they enjoy back at the office. This is referred to as mobile integration: the seamless convergence of the company’s business phone system with the employee’s mobile device. And it’s a huge advantage offered by cloud phone systems.
- Traditional landline providers, on the other hand, can offer employees a separate mobile account, but one that isn’t tied into the business phone system. So, employees either use their own mobile plans for business purposes, or their company purchases separate business mobile accounts for employees – which are not tied into the office phone system.
A BYOD Advantage: 5 Ways
Let’s explore why BYOD has caught on at companies of all sizes, as well as the specific ways a cloud phone system can help position your BYOD policy as a business advantage:
- A Professional Presence: Using a cloud-hosted mobile app, your employees’ calls on their mobile phones appear on caller ID as a call from the business, not from the employee’s personal account. This also applies to text messaging, an increasingly popular mode of business communication.
- Access to Robust Business Calling Features: When mobile solutions are integrated with the business phone system, on-the-go employees can access calling features as if they were in the office.
- Privacy Protection: There’s no reason mobile employees should have to reveal their personal phone number on caller ID when doing business. Communicating through a business mobile app reveals their business phone number only.
- Tracking Ability: With cloud-hosted phone service, integrated mobility enables the company to easily track the call activity of mobile employees, so you know they’re working even when they’re out of the office.
- Cost Savings: Businesses employing traditional phone systems may choose to purchase separate mobile accounts for mobile employees, or even separate devices. Within the cloud environment, however, separate accounts aren’t necessary – mobile apps integrate the employee’s device with the business phone system.
Building Better BYOD
When shaping a BYOD policy, integrated mobility from a cloud phone system can drive many benefits, including employee and customer satisfaction. With a mobile solution like Vonage® MobileConnect, a company can boost productivity and create a seamless, unified communications experience across devices: desk phone, desktop, laptop, mobile phone or tablet.
Most of all, a cloud phone system can turn BYOD from a challenging policy into a major advantage for any sized company. By empowering your mobile employees with a professional business appearance and feature-rich phone system functionality, they can effectively connect with customers, vendors and one another – wherever business takes them.
