Fonality: IT Professionals Lag on Modern Communication Solutions

Enterprise IT workers continue to be divided when it comes to their preferred method of communication, according to a series of surveys from Fonality.

After polling two groups totaling more than 1,000 respondents in May, Fonality found that 51.6 percent of respondents continue to utilize the traditional desk phone as their top choice for taking and making work calls. Roughly 37 percent of respondents prefer their cellphone as their main method of communication, while 11 percent utilize software on their computers for communication.

The continued reliance on desk phones is particularly surprising given the number of workers who prefer to accomplish their daily tasks outside of the traditional workplace. About 34 percent of surveyed business users work mostly outside of the office, as employees become more inclined to be productive wherever they are located. Fonality said this trend is not only a result of BYOD, but also an indication that easy, mobile access to work correlates to the overall satisfaction of a company’s employees.

“As the workplace and business needs change, companies and IT managers have their work cut out for them ensuring their policies and office technology keep up with the times,” said Jeff Valentine, chief marketing officer for Fonality, in a statement. “Today’s workers want to be empowered to use their preferred devices, work where life takes them, and use modern office technology like cloud VoIP business phones with unified communications.”

Fonality also found respondents in IT management roles were more likely to work for a business without modern communication solutions. Nearly half of respondents who still use traditional PBX systems reported working in IT, which provides an opportunity for these workers to help their organizations upgrade their telecom solutions.

While the results of these surveys are important in highlighting the lack of unification among enterprises when it comes to communication, it’s important to note that Fonality has a vested interest in convincing users to migrate away from PBX systems in favor of modern unified communications solutions. However, one of the largest takeaways from these surveys is that businesses still need to undergo a massive shift toward a mobile-first mentality if they hope to keep remote workers happy and increase overall productivity.