Staying connected while on the go is becoming more important for many businesses. The growing trend of remote workers, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and virtual offices are making it harder for companies to stay on the same page. Unified communications are a growing industry and strong mobile applications are keeping employees under one virtual roof.
Business communications provider Avaya recently announced in an interview with NetworkWorld, that they plan to extend the video support for its Flare communications interface for the iPad, Windows PCs and Android devices over the next year and a half and will make the creation of applications a priority.
“We’re going to continue to invest because customers continue to ask for new features,” said Mark Monday, vice president of product management for Avaya.
The company also announced while competitors like Cisco are abandoning the creations of their own tablets, Avaya executives said they are not giving up on the company’s tablet, called the Avaya Desktop Video Device (ADVD). Executives were quick to point out that they do not plan to use the tablet to compete with the iPad. Instead the ADVD will be a desktop communications device, able to coordinate voice and video calls.
The Flare application already exists for the iPad but only supports audio, instant messaging and presence functions. Avaya expects to include support for videoconferencing before the end of the year.
Small business in Chicago looking to take advantage of this new technology would be wise to invest in a national IT service provider like CTI Technology to ensure any new applications are integrated seamlessly into any current system.
Unified communications are a growing industry and strong mobile applications are keeping employees under one virtual roof.
