It is often said that communication is key and that is no more true than in today's dynamic and agile business environment. For organisations in sectors from manufacturing to healthcare, real-time, site-wide communication is imperative to both the functioning of the business and also to safeguard staff, customers or patients.
The benefits of site wide mobile communication such as on-the-spot problem solving are widely recognised. However, some mobility solutions also have many underrated or unrecognised functions, which when utilised correctly can increase efficiency, save costs and critically provide protection for employees and lone workers even when working in potentially hazardous environments.
Emergency functionality:
Mobility solutions can provide effective, real-time communication during emergency evaluations and when first aid is required. For example, in the event of fire alarm activation a building management system integrated with mobility devices can notify the correct person required to confirm the alarm's authenticity. The situation can then be assessed prior to a full scale alarm and evacuation being raised, preventing unnecessary and often time consuming mass evacuations. And if an emergency evacuation is necessary a good mobility solution can ensure communication during this critical time. It is much more effective for the key people to coordinate an evacuation and ensure the building is clear over an open channel or a conferencing facility. When first aid assistance is required it's important the injured person is treated quickly. The first aid team need to be alerted and the tasked assigned to the most suitable person. It all sounds rather simple and straight-forward. However, ensuring critical information is received by a team and acted upon efficiently can sometimes be anything but simple and end up being time consuming for those managing the process. A good mobility solution with a conferencing or messaging facility that informs the first aid team collectively of the incident and the result thereof all in one step can really streamline the process and speed up response times.
Security functionality:
Security for most businesses is very important, keeping those not welcome out but also ensuring accessibility for those that are. Manning gates is a simple and easy method to ensure this is achieved effectively, however it can be fairly costly especially if there are few deliveries or visitors each day to warrant the expense. Gate intercom systems are a fairly common alternative and with a good mobility solution it is also fairly simple to integrate the two systems and route gate calls to a mobile device or group. The first available person simply answers the call and opens the gate without moving from the spot.
Operational efficiency:
Mobility solutions do not only safeguard they can also improve operational efficiency by providing task management functionality or integrated alarm messaging. Many businesses now have fully mobile workforces and keeping track and managing those staff can be difficult. Using a messaging application integrated to the mobility solution to distribute and record tasks can help and avoids duplication of tasks or them being missed completely.
With automated and integrated communications becoming increasingly critical to business processes and efficiencies, it is time to take advantage of the full array of additional functions available in mobility solutions today.
