What are the benefits of mobile workforce support
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Supercharging Digital Collaboration for the Mobile Workforce
We've got some great deals going on right now exclusively for our online customers... chat now to hear more! Adam Holtby | Principal Analyst,The world of work has experienced many social and economic disruptions over the past few years. These disruptions have been further compounded by numerous business technology changes including the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), the transition to digital-first communication and collaboration, and the enabling of hybrid working at great speed and scale. Mobile is at the core of these changes, and the need to enable more mobile-centric work has become an important mandate for businesses across all industries. Embracing a mobile-centric approach to work requires businesses to address not just technological aspects and practices that guide how work gets done. Business leaders must remember that it is not just the locations people work from that have changed; the fundamental nature of work has also been subject to disruption. As more employees engage in work away from the traditional office, businesses must establish a technology and support infrastructure that enables, secures, and empowers every worker, regardless of their location. With the growing importance of digital and mobile-first channels for collaboration and engagement, businesses must swiftly adapt to meet evolving employee expectations. Failure to do so can result in tangible operational, regulatory, and financial ramifications. This mobile transformation journey is not one that businesses should walk alone. Recruiting the support of experienced digital partners will be instrumental to success. These partners must deliver the technical capabilities and expertise that businesses need to be successful. Solutions spanning mobile connectivity, mobility management, security, productivity, and collaboration will all be important instruments of success. Given the complexity of business mobile-centric initiatives, organizations should also look for partners that can help them navigate the tactical challenges they may face. Technical support programs, consistent engagement, and professional services will be pivotal elements of these partnerships. The data and insights discussed in this report are derived from the 2023 Business Mobile Collaboration survey, a collaborative study between Omdia and Verizon. In addition to being a fundamental element of modern work, mobility has evolved to become a vital enabler of business communication and collaboration. With its growing significance in modern business and digital experiences, there is a heightened demand to empower and enable a more mobile workforce. The 2023 Business Mobile Collaboration survey explored the role of mobility in modern organizations. The survey was structured to unearth the important communication, collaboration, and productivity trends driving business mobile initiatives in organizations of various sizes and across numerous industries. Digital capabilities are becoming increasingly important in empowering employees across the entire business, from back-office knowledge workers through frontline workers who are often closest to those consuming the products or services delivered by the business. Though information workers are often those most strongly associated with conversations around digital transformation, the reality is that true success comes from enabling as many workers as possible with transformative digital technologies, including mobile capabilities. Mobile devices and apps have the potential to transform work for every employee, so a focus on the entire workforce is vital when a business embarks on a mobile initiative. This is especially important when we consider the significant number of employees that occupy frontline worker roles. As Figure 1 shows, more than half the population of the total workforce are frontline workers. The proportion of frontline workers relative to information workers is even more pronounced in industries such as healthcare (63%), manufacturing (60%), and retail (63%). Because frontline workers make up such a large segment of the overall workforce, businesses have an opportunity to enhance operational efficiencies and transform frontline work by providing these workers with new digital capabilities. Mobile devices and apps are of particular importance to frontline workers because many of these employees operate away from a traditional desk and perform their duties across diverse locations. Ensuring that frontline workers have access to mobile capabilities that foster collaboration and enhance productivity becomes paramount. Mobile should not be a digital business capability limited to a select few or corporate VIPs; rather it should be democratized and made accessible to all employees, enabling widespread benefits across the organization. Source: 2023 Business Mobile Collaboration survey,Employees who are often the closest link between a business and those consuming its products and services. Includes retail, construction, healthcare sales representatives, manufacturing operators, etc. Employees who often work in centralized back-office roles and do not have direct engagement with customers or those consuming services the business produces (IT, marketing, HR, finance/accounting, etc)Source: 2023 Business Mobile Collaboration surveyAccording to the survey, 60% of the workforce currently use a mobile device for work purposes. This number is consistent across businesses in different industries and of all sizes. With such a substantial number of employees reliant on mobile devices, it is imperative for businesses to ensure that connectivity is seamless and that collaboration and productivity across these devices is optimal. A critical factor in achieving this goal is ensuring mobility is not an afterthought when it comes to businesses' application and workflow design. Mobile use cases must be at the core of the collaboration and productivity experiences that businesses are delivering to employees. Improving system access and usability across mobile is a crucial step in providing the best possible employee experiences. Our research also shows that employees across frontline and back-office operations are reliant on a diverse set of mobile devices and capabilities to get work done. This data shows that frontline and information workers have different preferences relating to the primary devices they would like to use for work purposes. 60% of the workforce currently use a mobile device for work purposes,The change in work styles and locations embraced by many employees over recent years has also brought about a more mobile and digital-first nature to the way people communicate and collaborate at work. As the data in Figure 3 shows, business leaders feel that making collaboration more seamless and compatible with hybrid work styles will deliver important benefits. It is evident that business and IT leaders see frontline and information workers benefiting differently from mobile collaboration capabilities. For frontline workers, improving task efficiency—which drives increased productivity—and customer service are the most important benefits identified. These benefits are aligned closely to the profile of frontline workers, specifically how these employees often work closely with customers in roles that often have clearly defined and often repeatable tasks. For information workers, the mobile collaboration benefits that leaders are looking to realize include improving access to business information and resources and advancing communication between internal employees. Again, these aspirations are closely aligned to the characteristics of information workers, who rely heavily on business information and resources and often work in centralized and sometimes siloed business functionssuch as IT, HR, finance, and marketing. It is important that businesses acknowledge there is no dominant universal benefit of improving collaboration; different employees will benefit in different ways. Communicating, and improving business understanding of, the diverse set of benefits associated with a mobile collaboration initiative is important to gain corporate buy-in and support but also to enhance adoption and utilization of the technologies that will ultimately support any initiative. What do you feel will be the most important benefit of improving mobile collaboration within your organization?,Note: n=300,Strategically, business leaders are looking for investment in collaboration tools to help improve operational efficiencies and employee productivity and to strengthen the relationships they have with customers (See Figure 4). Reducing costs was another important identified priority. Businesses often have investments in a diverse estate of different communication and collaboration capabilities that extend across fixed, mobile, and digital apps. Consolidation and rationalization here can help organizations reduce costs associated with communication and collaboration capabilities. What are the top strategic outcomes your organization is trying to accomplish through its communication and collaboration tools and services?,Improve operational efficiency,Improve customer interactions and relationships,Improve employee productivity,Omdia advises businesses to place mobile at the core of a communication and collaboration strategy going forward. Business use of mobile devices and collaboration capabilities via these devices is more secure than ever, and these technologies are also more readily accessible to different types of workers. This sentiment is shared by businesses, with the majority identifying that improving access to digital collaboration capabilities via mobile devices will be a priority over the next 18 months. In addition to improving collaboration, businesses are also prioritizing improvement of employee productivity across mobile. This underscores businesses' belief in the way mobile devices and apps are becoming key enablers of positive digital experiences. Generative AI is also poised to play an important role in this context, specifically in the way the technology will help improve how employees interact with productivity applications, including word processors and spreadsheet tools, many of which were not natively designed with mobile in mind (See Figure 5). Note: n=300,Advancing workplace mobility delivers productivity and employee experience benefits, but it also presents businesses with new challenges, notably around security. Our survey shows that, in addition to BYOD security, businesses also see connectivity as a significant challenge that will be important to overcome over the next 18 months.Improving understanding of employee productivity and ensuring effective communications across mobile are other notable challenges (See Figure 6). The focus on securing BYOD activity highlights the importance of businesses having a bimodal approach where both corporate and personally owned mobile devices can be effectively managed and secured. There is certainly a resurgence happening around BYOD. According to business leaders, BYOD is now the most popular provisioning and management model for smartphones, with just under half of organizations (44%) saying it will be the preferred approach going forward. This surpasses the 32% of businesses that would prefer a corporate-liable approach to smartphone provisioning and security. Despite the resurgence of BYOD activity, it is evident that organizations still have concerns over how to secure it. Help here, in the form of both new technologies and security expertise, will be important. What will be the most challenging aspect of mobile working for your organization over the next 18 months? (top four responses only),Securing an employee BYOD program,Ensuring employees have the mobile connectivity they need to work effectively,Ensuring employees can effectively communicate and collaborate across mobile,Understanding how productive employees are,Workstyle adaptations and a change in employee preferences to work in a more mobile fashion are also set to increase demand for mobile collaboration services. Just under half (43%) of business and IT leaders said they expect demand to increase over the next 18 months, and just 7% believe demand will decrease (See Figure 7). The increased investment many businesses have planned is indicative of the importance leaders are attaching to mobile capabilities and services in enhancing overall employee collaboration. Optimizing experiences across mobile has become of paramount concern for organizations. In addition to making collaboration more seamless and intuitive across mobile, businesses must also focus on optimizing processes and applications to align with mobile use cases. This is especially important for employee support processes, because being able to access and engage with technical and other support workflows is crucial. Additionally, and as more work takes place across mobile, it is important that mobility management and security tools become an important part of the new digital infrastructure being created by businesses. Having a unified way to manage and secure mobile devices and apps alongside a more traditional PC estate is one way in which infrastructures are evolving to become more mobile centric. Ensuring employees have seamless connectivity across different locations and devices is another important consideration. Businesses are recognizing the significance of establishing a cohesive mobile strategy that not only enhances collaboration but also optimizes processes, fosters security, and promotes seamless connectivity across the entire organization. How do you feel demand for mobile collaboration services will change in your business over the next 18 months?,Note: n=300,We also asked business and IT leaders what they felt the two top areas of impact would be should their organization decide not to invest in mobile collaboration capabilities. Respondents said that business operations and employee collaboration would suffer the most negative consequences. Just over half (51%) of respondents felt that business processes and working practices would be damaged, with 45% of respondents highlighting employee collaboration as an area of potential concern. The implications of overlooking and failing to act on the mobile collaboration opportunity extend beyond just strategic considerations; there are also financial and regulatory repercussions should businesses get things wrong. Almost two-thirds (63%) of respondents cautioned that their business would face financial or regulatory penalties if sensitive business information and communications were unsecured, via personal messaging applications, for example. In an era when employees can communicate via a diverse range of devices and apps, it is important thatbusinesses cater to employee collaboration preferences. Striking a balance between having robust security measures and delivering great employee experiences can be challenging, but it is crucial. If employees feel the collaboration experience delivered by their employer is suboptimal, they may resort to personal options that lack appropriate business governance and security. This poses a considerable challenge for organizations that need stringent oversight and governance controls over business communications for auditing purposes. This issue is particularly critical for businesses in heavily regulated industries, where failure to adequately govern employee communications has resulted in significant financial penalties being imposed. Which of the following would be most affected if your organization chose not to invest in mobile collaboration capabilities?,Note: n=300,Business processes & working practices,Employee collaboration,Customer interactions,Would your company face financial and/or regulatory penalties if sensitive business information and communications were shared on a mobile device in an unsecured way?,Note: n=300,The increased demand expected by businesses for mobile collaboration services over the next 18 months is also affecting strategic mobility investment plans. Our research shows that just 9% of businesses will look to decrease overall investment in workplace mobility, and 50% are looking to invest in new mobile collaboration capabilities. This is an encouraging finding, especially given the challenging global economic climate. Business mobile ecosystems comprise myriad technologies that collectively empower organizations to effectively manage, secure, and facilitate mobile work. As a more mobilecentric approach to work becomes more prevalent, businesses are focusing on investing in mobile capabilities that strengthen the overall digital infrastructure. Our research indicates that businesses are planning to invest in a combination of different mobile collaboration capabilities over the next two years. Capabilities including AI-based support agents on mobile, native mobile dialer and collaboration app integration, rich text communication services, and secure communications on BYOD are all investment priorities for businesses. Will external economic factors and/or internal financial factors influence your investments in workplace mobility?,Note: n=300,Plan new investment,Investment will stay the same,Decrease,The growing business interest in enhancing how mobile calling and messaging are more richly converged into collaboration apps is representative of a broader trend that is gathering momentum. Use of collaboration apps across PCs has accelerated at great speed and scale over recent years. Platforms such as Microsoft Teams, RingCentral, Zoom, and Webex have become important tools for employees that not only help them communicate better but also enhance how they interact with important work resources. However, integration between these in-app collaboration capabilities and native mobile features could be improved, specifically around calling and messaging. A lack of convergence here can damage employee experiences and expose businesses to security risks. Improving integration between these over the-top collaboration apps and native mobile calling and messaging capabilities will help make communication more seamless and accessible. Key benefits of this more converged communication and collaboration approach include:,Enable mobile AI-based customer/employee support agents,Seamless call transfer between native mobile dialer and collaboration apps,Rich text communication services (RCS, iMessage),Enable corporate communications on personal employee devices (BYOD),What is the primary metric/indicator you will use to track how mobile is affecting overall business collaboration? Showing top four of eight total response options,Note: n=300,Though it is crucial to have strategic aspirations and the necessary technology in place, it is equally important for businesses to establish appropriate measures of success to assess the effectiveness of their mobile collaboration initiatives. Surprisingly, 17% of businesses are not currently tracking the impact of mobile on overall business collaboration. Across the manufacturing and retail industries, the proportion failing to track progress is even greater: around a quarter of businesses currently have no measures in place. Among those organizations that do have some form of measure or indicator in place, employee productivity improvements and better communication between employees, customers, and partners are the most common indicators relied on. In order to comprehensively assess the progress of any mobile collaboration initiative, businesses will need to rely on a combination of quantitative and sentimentbased indicators. Employee experience and satisfaction, collaboration solution adoption and utilization, and collaboration across mobile are examples of indicators businesses are using to gauge success and potential improvement opportunities. Which type of partner/supplier do you feel is best suited to support your workplace mobility goals?,Note: n=300,(e.g. AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon),(e.g. Microsoft, Google, VMware),(e.g. Presidio, Avanade),(e.g. CDW, TD Synnex, etc.),In addition to the opportunities, business mobile initiatives also present many new challenges. Adopting the support and expertise of experienced digital partners will be important to success. It is mobile operators that most businesses feel are best suited to supporting their workplace mobility goals. Mobile operators occupy a unique position in delivering the diverse range of mobile capabilities businesses need to become truly mobile centric. These capabilities span cellular connectivity options, mobility management, and security solutions; mobile productivity; and collaboration. The strong pull businesses have to mobile operators is also largely in part attributable to the priority attached to mobile network coverage. This is evidenced when we analyze the capabilities and criteria organizations prioritize when selecting a business mobility partner. Here, it is pricing, network coverage and quality that businesses view as the most important mobile partner capabilities. A partner's security and privacy competencies and capabilities, in addition to the strength of features and functionality of any solution, are other important criteria. It will be important for mobile operators to further strengthen business awareness around the mobile capabilities they deliver beyond just connectivity. In addition to mobile and security solutions, supporting businesses in converging collaboration capabilities around mobile will be important for mobile operators. What are your top two criteria for selecting a business mobility partner/provider?,Note: n=300,Work-style evolutions and changing employee demands have put mobile at the top of the digital agenda. Many employees now rely on mobile technologies, but business workflows and processes must evolve around mobile use cases. Businesses must become more mobile centric in delivering better employee experiences and improving operations. A cohesive strategy and putting mobile at the core of the new digital-first infrastructures businesses are building are vital. If the mobile solutions and programs offered by a business are suboptimal, employees will gravitate to personal and less secure options. The implications for organizations can be costly, especially when sensitive business communications are shared via unsanctioned communication channels. Businesses need to work with the appropriate solutions and leverage the expertise of partners that can help them navigate these risks. Employees are increasingly collaborating across a range of different communication options, including mobile devices, collaboration apps, and tethered phones. Improving integration across these different channels, especially native mobile and in-app capabilities, is important in improving employee experiences and strengthening a security posture. Omdia, on behalf of Verizon, developed, programmed, and fielded a custom online survey to explore the role of mobility in modern businesses, highlighting the important communication, collaboration, and productivity trends that are driving workplace mobility. If you are already a Verizon customer, we have several options to help you get the support you need. Choose your country to view contact details. Existing customers, to your business account or . These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. 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Learn moreOne Talk Business Coordination Wireless Business
Manufacturer makes concrete communication gains,Verizon One Talk gave this manufacturer better phone communications and new mobile features. Unistress's phone system was badly outdated and hurting both productivity and customer experience. Read the case study to find out how One Talk not only saved the company from a poor phone system, but also provided it with exciting new mobile capabilities. Case study Learn how One Talk from Verizon helped a large construction company improve workforce productivity. Unistress structural products are a part of bridges, buildings, manufacturing plants, stadiums and more throughout the Northeast, but the company's aging phone system made it a challenge to coordinate sales and delivery of all these products. Unistress needed a modern phone system that could help it collaborate internally and externally to deliver a superior customer experience. With One Talk℠ from Verizon, it not only got a high-quality phone system, it also got features to boost team productivity whether employees were at their desks or on the road. Dated phones damaged productivity,When Unistress first purchased it, the company's legacy phone system was a state-of-the-art Voice over IP (VoIP) solution. As the years passed, though, it became outdated and contributed to issues such as frequent dropped calls. According to IT Manager David Serafini, "We'd be on a call and the other party would be quiet for a second and you would ask, 'Are you still there?' because you would be expecting the call to drop all the time. For two years, we experienced dropped calls twice a day for nearly everyone in the company.",If that wasn't bad enough, the IT team also struggled to manage the legacy phone system's directory. The directory had grown more complex and disorganized over time, to more than 125 lines. It was difficult to sort out extensions, create new lines and remove old lines when employees changed departments or joined the company. This made it hard for customers and employees to reach the right people. Clearly, it was time for a better phone system. Customer: Unistress Corporation,Location: Massachusetts,Business: Manufacture of precast and prestressed concrete structures,Year founded: 1968,Number of phone lines: 125,A solution for old challenges and new capabilities,A conversation with a Verizon Wireless business specialist introduced Unistress to an enticing possibility: a VoIP phone solution that not only solved the company's current challenges, but also offered new mobile capabilities. One Talk from Verizon is a business-grade, mobile-first phone system loaded with features to help today's businesses connect with customers and improve team collaboration. The One Talk solution provides each user with a single phone number, line ID and voicemail that work seamlessly with their desk phone and smart devices. Having one business number makes it easier for employees to take calls in the office or on the road. Having a single phone number also resulted in more outbound calls being answered, since customers were more likely to recognize the business numbers. And having the same voicemail accessible from both desk phones and smart devices made it easier to always get messages. One Talk also gives employees features such as Hunt Group, 6-way Conference Calling, Auto Receptionist and more. — David Serafini, IT Manager,Simple-to-manage features to boost productivity,From the start, both Serafini and the phone system administrator were impressed by how easy One Talk was to set up and use. The intuitive design of the administrative console particularly pleased them when compared to their previous system. It allowed them to easily set up new devices— even employee-owned devices running various operating systems or using various carriers. Because the console was so much more user friendly, they were able to create a well-organized phone system and set up the appropriate access and controls—and keep that system up to date. "If you need to make personnel changes, you can go behind the scenes [into the portal] and easily swap out the extension," Serafini said. Fast deployment so you can focus on your business,The process of deploying One Talk at Unistress took just two days. The rapid setup amazed the Unistress team. The planning, system configuration, installation of new desk phones and deployment of the One Talk app to smart devices were all done in that two-day window. Best of all, the IT team didn't need to do any complicated network reconfiguration to get One Talk up and running. Easier communication with one phone number and calls that move from desk to mobile,The One Talk mobile app gave each Unistress employee a single phone number for both his or her desk phone and smartphone. The sales force and other mobile employees could now easily move calls from their desks to their mobile phones. Employees could access their business phone system and voicemail on either their desk phones or smart devices, saving time and increasing productivity. "A lot of times our sales people are out on the road," said Serafini. "After talking with our sales team on the road for 20 minutes, they'll just walk into the office and seamlessly transfer the call to their desk phones and start working on their computer. It's really nice.",Sales-team members weren't the only employees that benefited. The IT team frequently needs to leave their desks to troubleshoot issues in remote parts of the office. With the mobile app, the Unistress IT department could quickly respond to tech-support needs. "I can start a tech call on my phone at my desk and need to check on the server." Serafini said. "I transfer the call from my desk to my [smart device], then check on the server and then shift back to my desk.",An auto receptionist for improved customer service,Unistress is also making good use of the Auto Receptionist feature and how easy it is to modify. "The Auto Receptionist is really nimble and easy to understand," Serafini said. During normal operation, the feature routes calls directly to the correct department. It helps ensure that customers can always reach the right people at Unistress, even with a changing workforce. When the company experienced a regional storm, though, Unistress saw an additional benefit. The company found it easy to access the portal and change the Auto Receptionist message to communicate with customers. Customer benefits:,Connecting Unistress to better results,Unistress was in search of high-quality voice calling to keep the business running smoothly. With One Talk, the company got that and much more. The intuitive admin console and easy to understand experience provided a quick boost to productivity. The whole system was up and running in just two days, and it has introduced Unistress to seamless one-number calling for desk and smart devices, providing new benefits that help the company focus on its customers and drive its business forward. Why Verizon,A better business-phone solution combined with a better network will make your mobile and customer experiences work better together. Verizon 4G LTE is available in 500+ markets and covers 98 percent of the U.S. population. With one bill, one service provider and one customer support organization, One Talk customers get a truly unified solution that runs over the nation's largest and most reliable 4G LTE network. Learn moreyour Verizon Wireless business specialist to learn more about how One Talk can help you grow your business. For more information about One Talk, or visit a Verizon Wireless near you. One Talk–capable desk phone must be purchased from Verizon to support some of these features. Activation of the One Talk feature and broadband connection is required. Smart devices must run on iOS 9.0 or higher, or Android® 5.0 or higher. Network details & coverage maps at vzw.com. © 2018 Verizon. CS1760918,The above content is provided for information purposes only. All information included herein is subject to change without notice. Verizon is not responsible for any direct or indirect damages, arising from or related to use or reliance of the above content. These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. We use both third party and first party cookies for this purpose. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly. These cookies may be set through our site by Verizon and third parties. They are used to present Verizon advertising on third party sites that you may visit. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising from Verizon. BackClear Filters,All Consent Allowed
Learn moreMobile Workforce Management Solutions
Welcome! We are ready to support your communication and collaboration needs. Chat now for assistance. Energize the mobile workforce with Teams,Author: Zeus Kerravala, Founder and Principal Analyst, ZK Research,For years, mobile employees have constituted a significant portion of the workforce. Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, the move to hybrid (or flexible) work has increased the number of mobile workers significantly. Despite some grumblings to the contrary (and many supporters of the return-to-office movement grabbing the spotlight), hybrid work is here to stay. In fact, the ZK Research 2023 Hybrid Work Study showed that 75% of employees will work remotely at least one day a week for the foreseeable future (Exhibit 1). Ten percent of workers will be remote one day a week, 41% will be remote two to four days a week, and 24% will be remote all the time. Only 25% of workers will be in the office permanently. Employees work at various locations scattered around the globe, and they all rely on a disparate set of tools to keep in touch throughout the day. Consequently, the unified communications (UC) vendor community has responded with unprecedented development. Innovation has been happening at breakneck speed, all with the goal of making hybrid work more effective. Source: ZK Research, 2023,The rise of Zoom during the pandemic (and the endless press coverage that it generated for the company) obscures the work that other providers have done alongside that upstart. Buried in the news clippings of the past few years is a startling fact: Microsoft Teams is now the leading UC platform, with more than 320 million active daily users—a massive expansion from just 8 million five years ago (Exhibit 2). That probably has something to do with Microsoft's broad reach into most enterprise IT departments in the largest companies in the world. In fact, quite a few have standardized on Teams and don't sanction the use of other platforms. Despite Teams' high adoption rate as a collaboration tool, it has not reached the same level of acceptance as a phone system. Even though it's such a broadly accepted tool, Teams has a number of limitations that hinder its usability, especially for remote and mobile workers. Teams can be great for workers who are tied to a desk, but it doesn't deliver such a great experience for mobile workers who are on the go constantly. For example, to use Teams, mobile workers typically need to have the app open on their phone or they miss calls. They also need to manage multiple phone numbers or even multiple devices, which can be a burden if they're on the go. Perhaps the most significant issue is that just making a simple call from Teams on a mobile phone can be a challenge. Out of the box, Teams users can't make external calls. Although Teams is the leading UC solution globally, and it can be the right option for many companies and users, it needs additional functionality to become the complete UC package that many companies are seeking. Most approaches to address these limitations have been Band- Aids that still require multiple apps and really only add another layer of unnecessary complex- ity. ZK Research has talked to enterprises that have been crying for a truly unified solution that simplifies the user experience and blends the native calling abilities of every phone with Teams' calling functionality. Verizon partnered with Microsoft to look at the issues, listened to customers, and engineered a way to improve and simplify the Teams experience. Verizon is the first operator in the United States that offers Teams Phone Mobile—delivered as Verizon Mobile for Microsoft Teams (VMMT)— which facilitates the user experience and brings native mobile calling to Teams. In this report, we'll look at VMMT and how it can benefit enterprises. Plus, we'll share some case studies that show how VMMT is helping companies with very mobile workforces. Finally, we'll make some recommendations for enterprises that are looking for a solution to help improve the overall experience for Teams mobile users. DemandSage and ZK Research, 2023,Verizon is uniquely positioned to mobilize Teams. As of November 2023, the company is currently the only U.S. mobile operator offering a mobile calling solution for Teams and the only provider offering a complete Teams calling suite. With that connection in place, Verizon was able to engineer VMMT, which provides Microsoft Teams calling directly from the Verizon network. As a result, a user's mobile phone can work as a Teams endpoint—in other words, the experience is seamless. With VMMT, a mobile device can use a phone's native dialer to place and receive Teams calls even when the Teams app is not running. Workers just use the familiar native dialer to make and receive calls. The cellular network treats Teams calls as voice calls. As a result, the network prioritizes them over calls that run on data channels, which ensures the highest possible call quality. Because the network sees them as voice calls, even when data coverage is limited, users can make Teams calls. The licensing can be more straightforward, too. VMMT works with all Microsoft 365 and Teams Phone Standard licenses, including E5, E3, F1, and F3. As a result, there's no additional cost from Microsoft to the organization. VMMT is not a walled garden; it works well with other Verizon services that operate with Teams, including Verizon VoIP for Operator Connect and Verizon Calling with Microsoft Teams:,combines the Microsoft Teams Phone System with Verizon's IP trunking solution, known as Verizon VoIP, which makes placing Teams voice calls (both to and from numbers outside of a company network) quicker and easier. expands unified communication capabilities beyond the enterprise network—all on a single platform. Enterprises using Microsoft Teams for collaboration can more simply add enterprise-class calling. VMMT is well suited for companies with front-line workers who are always on the go but require a single company phone number. In addition, companies in industries with strict compliance mandates, such as financial services and healthcare, will also benefit. A global manufacturer headquartered in Europe—with factories in Asia, a call center in India, mobile/field workers in the United States, and a newly acquired subsidiary in Latin America—was looking to connect its global locations and enable external calling around the world using one UC platform. The company also wanted to interconnect factory and call center workers. The results:,A beverage distributor turned to VMMT to improve productivity by extending Teams to its drivers and sales reps. The results:,VMMT offers several benefits that enterprises should consider. First, VMMT takes the term "unified communications" literally. It's a centralized platform that enables all users—including remote and mobile workers, those on the front line, and people in the office—to access Teams. With the integration of Verizon calling within Teams, VMMT provides a unified business communications experience that is significantly simpler for the worker. VMMT also includes several other features, including the following:,The transition between a simple voice call and Teams is impossible with some systems. VMMT makes it easy to switch between a mobile voice call and a Teams meeting. How often are you in transit for the start of a Teams call and then in the office for the end? This seamless transition eases the disruption. VMMT also simplifies the process of moving from a voice call to a Teams video call. Managing multiple phone numbers can be a challenge. And keeping track of the device where a specific call or voicemail came in can be confusing. Having a single number, unified call history, and voicemail simplifies that. Workers can make and receive calls from the smartphone's native dialer or Teams endpoints using one business-owned mobile number while enjoying the simplicity of a single number across devices. The plethora of devices needed to support all the communication tools mobile workers use can be a liability for companies. VMMT can integrate with a company's compliance recording solution for mobile calls without requiring the purchase of additional apps. VMMT can be managed with corporate mobile device management (MDM) solutions such as Microsoft Intune, which enables SecOps teams to apply security policies directly to the device. Consequently, organizations can extend enterprise-grade business policies across mobile devices. Enterprises can configure devices to make calls appear to come from the organization rather than a user's mobile phone so that their direct numbers are not exposed externally. VMMT can lower costs and eliminate redundancies by consolidating mobile, hybrid, and front-line workers onto one mobile number. This removes redundancies and reduces the costs associated with multiple phone numbers and devices as well as duplicate systems. The ZK Research 2023 Hybrid Work Study shows that workers spend up to 40% of their time simply managing their work. Having one phone number for both mobile and Teams can eliminate a chunk of that inefficiency. With VMMT, when a call comes in on Teams, it rings on the smartphone's native dialer—as well as across laptops, tablets, and desk phones. This enables employees to answer and make Teams calls on the device of their choice and to move a call to another device with no delay. With VMMT, there's no need to have the Teams app open. As a result, workers will miss fewer calls and be more productive. Understanding the availability and location of individual employees is a great advantage when planning meetings or trying to get in touch with perennially mobile workers. VMMT turns a mobile phone into a Teams endpoint, so Teams can update presence based on mobile device status. The pandemic underscored the need for UC solutions, but it also revealed their shortcomings. Even as one of the most successful solutions, Teams has opportunities for improvement. Seamlessly blend- ing the mobile, office, and remote experience has proven challenging. That's where Verizon Mobile for Microsoft Teams comes in as a solution that eliminates some of the most troublesome limitations. There are other solutions that enterprises might consider. So, as a guide, ZK Research has several recommendations on what to look for:,Ensure the solution switches between a mobile voice call and a Teams meeting without skipping a beat. In addition, see if the solution can facilitate moving from a voice call to a video call without interruption. Does the solution offer a single number, unified call history, and voice- mail—all from the smartphone's native dialer? This is critical to reduce complexity and expenses. Does the solution utilize popular MDM solutions that help SecOps teams apply security policies directly to the device? This approach enables both the application of enterprise-grade business policies across mobile devices and compliance recording for mobile calls without additional apps. Make sure the solution you choose has this capability. The business world is hybrid and is never going back to the way it was pre-pandemic. Remote and mobile workers will continue to grow in numbers, so building solutions that can make the life of a road warrior as seamless as possible will be critical. ZK Research has evaluated the VMMT solution and thinks it ticks the right boxes. A wealth management firm chose VMMT to provide a single phone number, shared across all their devices, that employees can use to connect with customers wherever they are. The results:,Zeus Kerravala is the founder and principal analyst with ZK Research. Kerravala provides tactical advice and strategic guidance to help his clients in both the current business climate and the long term. 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