Empowering Frontline Workers with Seamless Unified Communications Connectivity

But as the frontline workforce continues to grow, maintaining efficient and reliable communication for these essential employees represents a real challenge. The rise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) offers a convenient way of keeping them connected when they’re away from the office, but it raises some valid concerns about data protection, corporate security and work-life balance.

Embracing the UCaaS Revolution Inside and Out

The skyrocketing popularity of unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solutions has complicated matters further. Microsoft Teams, for example, has around 320 million monthly active users² and is a leading collaboration tool in the hybrid workplace, significantly boosting productivity by integrating chat, video meetings, content sharing and voice calling.

However, while UCaaS certainly enhances communication in traditional office settings, its mobile applications often lack the reliability and quality of regular mobile voice calls, relying as they do on mobile data services. Furthermore, they don’t offer end users a native dialer experience for making calls

Reliable Mobile Connectivity for EVERY Employee

To address the limitations faced by deskless employees, fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) presents an effective solution. Upon the installation of a business SIM, FMC allows the mobile device's own dialer and user interface to function as an extension of the enterprise's Microsoft Teams platform, eliminating the dependency on mobile data coverage and ensuring complete separation of work and private calls on the same device. Additionally, because the calls are handled as regular Teams calls, they can be automatically recorded for compliance and training purposes.

Use Cases: FMC in Action

FMC solutions are designed cater to frontline workers in various industries, including:

• Geographically Dispersed Workforces: Teleworkers and remote employees can utilize their mobile devices as extensions of the company's phone system, ensuring seamless communication with native network performance.
  
  
• Finance: Strict compliance regulations in the financial services industry require the recording of employees' mobile calls and text messages. FMC ensures that even calls made by frontline workers on their mobile phones can be monitored for quality assurance and training purposes.
  
  
• Healthcare: Calls can be easily transferred to medical professionals throughout a facility, while personal mobile numbers remain concealed when contacting patients to maintain confidentiality and data privacy.
  
  
• Manufacturing, Retail and Logistics: Replacing costly DECT systems with FMC enhances operational efficiency and communication performance.
  
  
• Delivery Services: Delivery drivers can efficiently communicate with customers using their company's Microsoft Teams voice calling platform, while protecting their personal contact information.
  
  
• Mobile Agents: When a customer contacts a mobile agent from an IVR response group, FMC solutions ensure the call is seamlessly routed to the agent’s mobile device, even when they’re out of the office.

The AudioCodes Mobile Connect Solution

AudioCodes Mobile Connect, powered by Tango Networks, empowers frontline workers by enabling them to use their mobile devices for business calls via Microsoft Teams while ensuring separation between private and business conversations.

Following a simple eSIM installation on their mobile phones, employees can connect to the company's Microsoft Teams tenant and conduct business communications directly from their personal devices.

This innovative solution is available to customers via service providers as a subscription-based solution hosted on AudioCodes Live Platform, and works with all of Microsoft's PSTN connectivity options – Operator Connect, Direct Routing and Calling Plans.

And in the near future, we also plan to expand Mobile Connect’s coverage to other UCaaS environments, starting with the Cisco Webex Go add-on service for Webex Calling.

¹ https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2022/01/12/empowering-2-billion-global-frontline-workers/

² https://www.demandsage.com/microsoft-teams-statistics/