Check These Features Before Handing Out Phones!
Every organisation should by now be handing out smartphones to their staff. Smartphones have a number of great advantages that are hugely beneficial to workflow and productivity, and can hugely extend your staff’s ability to work on the move and stay connected.
But saying your staff should have smartphones isn’t particularly helpful when there’s such a huge selection of different phones out there – all with wildly differing specs and feature sets. There’s such a huge wealth of devices to choose from that you could be forgiven for avoiding the topic altogether and letting your team stick with their current models a little longer…
Fortunately though, you don’t need to be a technology expert in order to choose the best devices for your workforce: you just need to know what to look out for and what to avoid.
Different organisations of course will have different requirements, but almost all companies will have a few basic criteria that they need their devices to meet, and as long as you identify these and ensure you find the right gadgets this should work fine for you.
Here then we will look at a few of the things you need to ensure as minimum for your phones.
Minimum Requirements for Your Company Phones
Compatibility: Chances are that your company will use a range of other technology on top of your smartphones. Almost every office will have computers, and you may also use tablets, security equipment and custom software. Either way, different models of phone are likely to support your existing technology to varying degrees.
Ideally, if your staff work using Macs, then you would provide them with iPhones which will allow them to access iCloud for instance. Likewise if your company use Chrome for a browser, then you might prefer to find smartphones that have a Chrome app so that your staff can sync their bookmarks and tabs. If you rely a lot on Microsoft’s suite of office programs, then a Windows phone will make it easier for you to sync the calendar and outlook etc.
Plans and Cost: Of course it’s all well and good ensuring that your phones can do everything you want them to and that they are powerful and multifunctional, but if they cost the Earth or only come with useless data plans, then they’re not going to be particularly useful for your company. Make sure then that you can find a good deal for the phones that you want, even if that means perhaps going back a generation.
Practicality: For some companies, a Galaxy Note 3 would be the ideal phone for using on the go with its stylus for signing off documents and its large screen for checking e-mail. But then again, if your company works on a building site then it probably won’t be quite so useful: requiring two handed use and taking up a lot of space in the pocket. In such a scenario an iPhone might be more useful, or even a Blackberry which will be more durable and easier to store inside a thick protective case.
Author Bio-
Nancy Baker, the author of this article, is a freelance blogger who is currently writing for, VoIP Superstore, reputable providers of configuration and support services for small business phone systems. She enjoys keeping herself update with the latest market trends when not indulging in a John Grisham novel. You can also follow her on Twitter @Nancy Baker
