In a new survey by Timico, the business internet, hosting and communications service provider, 84 per cent of those surveyed anticipated that the rise of smart and soft phones would eventually leave desktop units surplus to requirements.
One of the main reasons behind the forecast was the steady stream of businesses turning to free platforms such as Skype and Viber to conduct business calls, with one in eight already using such services and around a third planning to do so within the next two years. In fact, a resounding 72% of IT managers believed all business calls would eventually become free within the next ten years.
Charlie Whelpton, Director of Unified Communications at Timico, said: “It’s interesting to see that businesses are increasingly turning towards free services to carry out business calls, although it is strongly recommended that any business of considerable size fully analyses the security risk of using such platforms. Of course a good VoIP solution will satisfy this growing demand for free phone calls without any of the associated security concerns, so more savvy businesses will already be approaching their suppliers for the best softphone, SIP and VoIP offerings.
“The research seems to compound the fact that devices which were primarily meant for social activity are now revolutionising the way we conduct business. In an age where streamlining and efficiency is key, businesses now expect their applications to be multi-purpose, so simply making and receiving calls just isn’t enough.”
More and more businesses are now steadily moving over from traditional IDSN lines to internet-based models, such as SIP and VoIP. As well as offering greater resilience, flexibility and cost savings – these models are already incorporating the use of business smartphones, by rerouting personal extension numbers directly to mobile devices, for example.
Charlie concluded: “With Gartner revealing that smartphone sales accounted for 55% of overall mobile phone sales in the third quarter of 2013, it would be foolish for businesses not to prepare for a time when desktop phones will seem archaic.”