A leading expert in the field of business futurology has predicted a significant increase in the future take-up of VoIP for businesses, based on what he sees as a growing trend away from working at the office.
According to Dr James Bellini, the trend for remote working is ‘already in place now’, and is perceived among many in the workforce as a more and more likely future scenario that will inevitably affect their day-to-day work patterns.
‘Increasing numbers of people, explains Dr Bellini, ‘expect work to be more remote and virtual in years to come’.
The corresponding take-up in business VoIP (voice over internet protocol) will arise, according to Dr Bellini, because of the advantages the technology confers both upon those businesses which regularly employ remote workers, and also on the workers themselves.
These advantages can be explained as follows:
Internet protocol (IP) telephony facilities – often accessed via a business VoIP provider, or a VoIP reseller – connect users to each other via internet channels. In doing this, they relinquish the need for the phone handler to use conventional telephone line connections.
This freedom of not needing to connect directly to a telephone line means that a user can make and receive calls using the same number anywhere where there is internet access, provided he or she has the right equipment to hand.
Furthermore, the call will be charged at the same (usually very low) VoIP tariff rate regardless of from where the call is made.
All in all, VoIP creates a virtual set-up for the user, to the effect that the remote staff member makes and receives calls exactly as if he or she were still in the office and sat at his or her desk.
Dr Bellini says his understanding is that up to four million adults in the UK are already working to this pattern.
