ShoreTel's Pej Roshan weighs in
Following our last article on mobility trends in the SMB report written by the Webtorials Analyst Division, we spoke with Pej Roshan at ShoreTel about the subject. Roshan joined ShoreTel as part of the Agito team, and he echoed many of the report’s findings — adding some of his own insights and experiences.
Starting with the topic of how tablets are changing business mobility, Roshan noted that tablets are a significant piece if what ShoreTel supports in both SMB and enterprise markets, especially the iPad. According to Roshan, “Tablets are a compelling platform. For example, our own internal IT team and sales team use a tablet when on the road. It gives them a laptop, UC platform and a phone in a tidy package.”
SURVEY: Tablets used widely for business
As for smartphones and tablet use of Wi-Fi, Roshan’s experience suggests Wi-Fi networks are becoming more prevalent in businesses of all sizes with more dense footprints and more access points, driven not just by using Wi-Fi networks to save minutes on the carrier [mobile] network, but also because unified communications applications are now more widely supported using Wi-Fi to connect mobile devices. Wi-Fi support is especially important to enable mobile video conferencing since mobile data plan thresholds are consumed quickly when using the carrier’s mobile network.
Commenting further on the demand for mobile video conferencing in the SMB, Roshan believes that usage will grow for a business that needs a “see what I see” application — like mobile medical applications or a retail clerk visually sharing available inventory with another store. However, when it comes to an SMB employee using mobile video conferencing just to join a staff meeting, the demand “may be a little softer.” Mobile video demand that takes advantage of a tablet is likely to be much stronger than mobile video using a smartphone, according to Roshan.
Finally, Roshan summed up the need for business mobility nicely by commenting on our mobile lifestyle, suggesting that “work is what you do, not where you go.” Today’s workers not only need mobile email, but secure and well managed access to other productivity enhancing applications and the businesses that “deploy these tools [will] become more competitive on the top line and the bottom line.”
