It used to be the idea of a busy office was where operators were standing by to connect telephone calls. Those days and those phones are history.

If you’re building a team in today’s workforce, today’s talent expects to be working with tomorrow’s communications tools. Workforces are flexible and mobile. This generation expects to be empowered to make decisions to move your company forward.

More Than Just a Call

Phones are out. In is Unified Communication & Collaboration. Called UC&C, it’s what connects your workforce to customers, partners, functional teams and ideas — essentially, all the resources and information they need to perform their jobs.

With UC&C, employees are given one number that travels from desk to home, from landline to mobile; so company calls can be taken in headquarters or on the road. This is critical for smaller businesses needing to save office space and keep employees on the go. UC&C can seamlessly redirect calls from the desk to a mobile device, or have mobile calls appear from the office number.

UC&C also connects customers and employees in the ways they want to be reached. If your employee is on another call, you can see that status and direct the call elsewhere. If your customer needs a quick instant message, UC&C initiates it painlessly. And conference calls no longer need to be the whole team huddled around one speakerphone: UC&C enables you to conference everyone in, from whatever location, on laptops, tablets and mobile phones.

Security with Mobility

When approaching UC&C, you need to keep security in mind. Here are some factors to consider:

• Empower employees with sensible policies that work for a mobile workforce. Encourage strong passwords and authentication by building that into the system.
• Use the wisdom of your workforce to classify the data they store. Have a policy in place so informed decisions are made as to what data must be copied to mobile devices and what can never leave those systems.
• Track the mobile assets that have access to your system. Know who has a device and where it is likely to be used. You don’t want your hardware falling into the wrong hands – or worse, devices go missing and later reappear on your network, long after they’ve been written off as lost by the company.
• Encrypt your files. Encryption helps your employees be safe — no one can use their devices without their logon. If the device goes missing and someone unauthorized tries to get into the system, you can remotely wipe out the data on that phone or laptop once it connects again to the internet. You can use the device again if it is returned — but your data will not be in the wrong hands.
• On the road or just working from home, your UC&C-empowered workforce will need to backup data. If your policies dictate everything being backed up once a day, you’ll save hours replacing what was lost should a breach occur.

By setting parameters for your new system, you can safely start building your network for the future. A partner of Fortinet, neteffect can help you take full advantage of the digital transformation with the secure, telecom solution that’s right for you.