Remote working is growing and taking the world of work by storm so much so that experts predict that by 2020, more than 70% of UK organisations will have adopted flexible working.

However, having a PBX phone system can cause problems for companies that want to adopt remote and flexible working as their historic phone system simply doesn’t allow for mobility with their employees.

Instead, they have to fork out mobile phone contract costs as well as the cost of their on-site phone system, which can mean bills quickly rack up.

Traditional communications saw a divide between phone and IT system, but today, the world of phone and IT have converged. Employees are mobile, teams can be virtual, and IT has moved to the cloud.

By 2025, 75% of the workforce will be made up by the millennial generation – a generation who’ve grown up using advanced technology and mobile phones. Surely, making them use a legacy phone system could hold them back within the business?

Switching things up

Switching to a hosted voice system can have plenty of benefits for a business. Not only does a hosted system bring together landlines and mobiles on a single, cohesive phone network but, as it’s an all-encompassing product, the contract is reflective of that.

Flexibility is vital as a business, and a hosted voice solution allows for a degree of flexibility, ideal for companies that are looking to grow or relocate, and perhaps even downsize. Everything is housed under one virtual telecommunications roof meaning should a business ever need to scale up or down, it can be done easily and effortlessly.

Legacy phone systems presume that every employee has the same requirements but, with a hosted voice system, there is far more scope for customisation depending on each user’s requirements and roles within the business.

Mobility is made simple as phones can easily be switched between an office location’s wifi network to the mobile phone network, effectively turning one handset into both a desk phone and a smartphone.

Hosted voice also breaks the rules when it comes to geographical location and area codes. Traditionally, your location was revealed via the area code you’d use to dial.

However, using a hosted voice system comes equipped with the ability to infer that your staff are in an area, even if they’re not. Therefore, employees can work from home while also using their office line, which makes adverse weather conditions easy to tackle and enables businesses to offer a flexible working arrangement which appeals more and more to the masses.

Modern phone systems are no longer just about ‘voice’. They’ve evolved to offer several unified communications capabilities such as instant messaging, video calling, presence, mobility solutions and collaboration tools.

The working day is no longer just a 9-5 and employees are craving more flexibility and more opportunities to work remotely. A hosted voice system is designed with maximum business productivity as its sole purpose, so why are you waiting to switch?