Almost since it began the Internet has been
a facilitator of flexible work. New collaboration tools
are emerging all the time. And now there is a huge buzz of
interest around the ability to make telephone calls over the
Internet.Primitive forms of Internet telephony - voice over
IP (VoIP) - have been around for some time. Your kids with
their headphones on talking with friends using MSN or Yahoo
Messenger are an example of this. Then systems more like a
"real" telephone came along, which were fine as long as the
person at the other end had the same software.
Now, though, fully fledged VoIP that can compete with
traditional telephony has arrived, and it has big potential for
supporting flexible work.
Cost and flexibility
One of the leading providers of VoIP in the UK is Inclarity,
who presented a guide to VoIP at the Flexibility Seminar Send Your
Employees Home and Improve Efficiency! in May this year.
Chris McAulay of Inclarity told the 70 delegates about the
benefits VoIP could bring. He provided an example of how
Internet phone calls are helping to cut costs and link up
home-working flexible workers. The Internet supplements
rather than replaces the existing telephone system, so it does
not mean cancelling or renegotiating contracts with telecoms
providers.
In this case a London local council is now using VoIP to link
its local libraries to each other and to the rest of the
organisation and avoid external call charges. Calls to
other people on the same network are free,
But one of the most important benefits is in better
integrating the flexible workers. Now when they are
working at home, their Internet phone can act as a fully
functional extension. So they can transfer calls to
colleagues, put their phones on divert (without incurring extra
costs), set up "follow-me" arrangements and be part of "hunt
groups".
Like a normal phone, but integrated with your PC.
The kind of Internet phone you use in this kind
of implementation is remarkably familiar. It looks and
feels like a normal phone, but with extra features.
A key feature is the "Phone Manager", which
allows the user to manager their phone settings and access
voicemail and faxes received from any computer. The Phone
Manager interface operates through a web browser and can be
integrated with Outlook. Using this web facility, remote
workers can check what messages they have, with voicemails being
downloaded as sound files, which can then be saved to the
computer or forwarded as attachments to anyone else who needs to
hear it.
While moving between locations, flexible workers
can go online and change their settings, so that for example
they can make the phone go straight onto voicemail, or
redirect calls to where they are at the time.
The key thing about VOIP, according to Chris, is
not its ability to provide cheaper calls. The point is
that it enables smarter working, and integrates with the kind of
flexible work implementations where very substantial cost
savings can be made - for example rationalising property and
reducing unnecessary travel.
And the quality? These days the quality
over a normal broadband connection is very good.
Technology improvements and ever-increasing bandwidth mean that
the uptake of VoIP is going to continue to increase. The
traditional telcos are also developing their own VoIP offerings
- in a few years time we can expect this to be a very
competitive market.
|
