The improvements in networking have opened up the possibility of using a wireless network in the office as a way to make and receive VoIP phone calls to mobile devices.
For a long time this required a significant investment in technical expertise and equipment, and there were few handsets on the market that could hand easily and reliably over calls from wifi to the cellular network.
That has changed with recent smartphone releases, and integration between vendors have opened up some interesting unified communications models that take advantage of an in-office wireless network.
Vodafone Business One, launched in March this year, is an alliance with Cisco which delivers an on-premises, unified communications service. Businesses pay a monthly lease for equipment to run a voice and data wireless network plus block rates for mobile and landline calls, and bandwidth.
Business One is proving popular with small-to-medium-sized businesses, with the average VBO customer deploying between 20-30 connections. The largest customer to date is using more than 70 connections through the full VBO "Wi-Fi package", according to Vodafone, which did not release the number of customers.
Business One's customers are primarily service-orientated and include real estate agents and mortgage brokers.
"Since we announced the full portfolio of pricing earlier this year, interest in Vodafone Business One has been particularly strong," says Phil Parker, head of small business and mobile data, Vodafone.
"The 'managed service' element of Business One is proving particularly desirable to the majority of customers as it removes the stress of managing their own telecommunications fleet and gives them the confidence to deploy the latest technologies across the whole of their business for a simple, single monthly fee at the end of the month", says Parker.
-1.jpg&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.png&w=100&c=1&s=0)
