`Cloud' phone network system takes off

As the economy continues to improve this year, an increasing number of companies seem likely to turn to mobile office technology as staff spend more time out of the office servicing customers.

Gen-i Otago manager Chris Dawson, of Dunedin, is expecting more of his Otago-Southland clients to start using the mobile office services Gen-i is offering.

Gen-i was using "cloud computing" technology to support the mobile office by hosting company PABX exchanges off-site, helping keeping business costs down while increasing the flexibility of the way customers used mobile technology.

Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the internet.

"The driver is mobile phones becoming a more invasive business tool.

"Most people I know don't sit at a desk all day and when they are out of the office, their landlines divert to their mobiles."

Telecom, the parent of Gen-i, had purchased a BroadSoft platform and fully integrated it into its network.

BroadSoft was the leading, worldwide innovator of residential and business Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications.

Mr Dawson said BroadSoft had been at the forefront of IP technology for more than 10 years.

BroadSoft was deployed in more than 450 telecommunications service providers' networks.

BroadSoft served nine of the top 10 and 14 of the top 25 largest telecommunications carriers in 71 countries and in 25 languages.

Gen-i mobile office was designed to suit companies that had an office phone system, he said.

By using a mobile phone, and having internet access, customers got the full functions of an office phone system while travelling anywhere in New Zealand.

In the office, a receptionist could control all calls from a computer.

Fixed-line and mobile phones could be called at the same time, ensuring the call was answered.

"If you received a call from the boss, there is screening for that call to always get through."

If someone was expecting an important call, a system was in place to ensure that phones of several team members would ring, ensuring that someone would take the call.

The technology was proving important for geographically diverse organisations in New Zealand.

Instead of having five PABX exchanges in five different branch offices, they could all be hosted by Gen-i and staff could all call each other using only extension dialling, Mr Dawson said.

"Everyone wants single-number reach and single numbers reduces the cost of telephony."

The benefits of using mobile office included increased use of mobile devices with staff able to do much more with their mobile phones.

That increased their efficiency and lowered telecommunication equipment costs.

The costs to a business of owning and managing office phone systems would be reduced, as would the time spent managing multiple devices, numbers and voice mail boxes.