By Mike Rosen

For many small businesses looking to gain a competitive advantage, mobility is now considered a necessity. Whether the goal is to make on-the-go staff more reachable or keep distributed workers more connected, organizations ranging from real estate agencies and medical sales companies to marketers, movers and fleet managers are looking for communications solutions that can cost-effectively make their organizations more mobile.

So, aligning with a manufacturer that can provide advanced, affordable systems is the first step in gaining the attention of small to medium businesses that require mobility. The next step is matching these prospective customers with the right applications for their specific needs. The good news is that with the abundance of sophisticated mobile solutions now available to dealers, the timing is ideal for building a niche in this continuously growing area.

A recently released worldwide forecast from research firm IDC estimated that in 2008 the United States had the highest percentage (72.2 percent) of mobile workers in its workforce. IDC predicted that number will grow to 75.5 percent, or 119.7 million mobile workers, in 2013, further expanding the possibilities for communications dealers.

To better target mobile organizations, it is important to first define mobile workers. iGR, another market strategy consultancy focused on the wireless and mobile communications industry, characterized a mobile worker as any employee who is out of the office more than 20 percent of the work week. Some other iGR characteristics of mobile workers include:

What are the factors that are driving this trend toward mobility? Many small businesses see mobility as an opportunity to extend their capabilities while also providing a better work-life balance for employees that no longer have to be tethered to their desks. And with the right communications infrastructure, collaboration and efficiency actually can be enhanced and operating costs lowered.

Mobile Workforce Solutions. One mobility application that is rapidly gaining in popularity is the mobile extension. Some industry analysts actually expect mobile extensions to soon become standard functionality. A popular application is simultaneous ringing of the users main desktop station plus other telephone numbers. Mobile staff can receive calls from anywhere on any of the defined devices while creating the appearance that they are in the office. This type of functionality is ideal for companies like real estate firms. It allows salespeople to spend more time in the field selling without the worry of missing an important call from an existing client or prospect inquiring about one of the firms listed properties.

For companies that have a distributed staff, remote IP phones allow workers to cost-effectively link via the Internet to a companys communications platform and access all in-office communication functionality directly from their outside location. Workers requiring even more flexibility can utilize Windows-based softphone applications that can turn laptops into full-featured IP phones.

While IP phones and softphone applications can provide added conveniences for remote workers, many businesses with multiple offices or distributed staff prefer the more centralized structure that can be achieved through networked solutions. For instance, communications dealer NTouchTel.com installed a networked Samsung OfficeServ 7100 system at each location of growing Virginia-based moving business Premier Transfer & Storage. This application allowed seamless networking within all three sites and helped PT&S cost-effectively unify and centralize processes such as customer service, billing and dispatch at one main office.

Another critical feature of mobile applications is the ability to easily facilitate collaboration. Solutions that seamlessly and cost-effectively bring together voice, video and IM capabilities, enhance both mobility and collaboration. Typical features of unified communications applications such as these are instant messaging that allows for real-time communication between colleagues at a distance and video calling that puts co-workers face to face with a click of a mouse even if there are many miles between them. Presence awareness functions not only let others know how to reach an individual, but also make connecting with others faster and more efficient.

Mobility-Centric Vendors. With demand for mobile solutions continuing to grow, so too will competition to meet the needs of small and medium businesses with mobile workforces. Continued advances related to the convergence of voice, data, video and other media also means an ever-broadening playing field. Telephony however remains at the core of these solutions. Aligning with a vendor that offers both expertise in telephony as well as technological vision is key especially when it comes to unified communications applications.

Consider the providers commitment to research and development and the depth of its resources. Is it historically known for being an innovator in telecommunications? Is the engineering of effective, advanced solutions for smaller companies a priority? Having a thriving pipeline into new and upcoming mobile technologies could mean the difference between being a one-hit wonder or a long-term player in the mobile solutions market.

Mike Rosen is the director of product marketing for Samsung Business Communication Systems (BCS), where he is responsible for setting strategic direction for BCS product development. Rosen is a 25-year telecommunications industry veteran with a track record of growing market share through strategic product development, channel management and targeted marketing programs.