Tag: cloud

Unlocking Efficiency: The Power of Business Mobile Applications

Written by Laura Swatton on 23 April 2025. Posted in Blog. No Comments on Unlocking Efficiency: The Power of Business Mobile Applications

Unlocking Efficiency: The Power of Business Mobile Applications

The Power of Business Mobile Applications

In the business world, the telecommunications industry is pivotal to customer service and support, offering everything from contact centres and AI-powered tools to cloud-based unified communication platforms. Here we dive into the realm of telecommunication mobile applications for smartphones.

Smartphones enable convenient, on-the-go use of company-specific software and third-party apps, along with access to emails, calls, messages, and more. These handy pocket computers also improve employee collaboration (1).

Organisations are constantly seeking to digitally reinvent themselves and advance their digital transformation journey. Amid current economic uncertainty and ongoing inflation, the focus is on achieving sustainable business growth while doing “more for less” all without increasing budgets. Companies aim to minimise trial and error in their strategies and expect clear ROI and business value from their investments. This brings us to the benefits of mobile work apps (2).

Mobile devices support several communication channels: Live website chat, email marketing, text messaging, voice calls, social media, and more. These forms of communication empower businesses to stay relevant and maintain open lines of communication with customers, clients, and colleagues, ultimately reducing inbound call volumes.

Market trends in the mobile business application space at Evoke Telecom 2025:

A mobile business app being part of our solutions emerged as a major trend for us throughout 2024 and continues into 2025, often being a prerequisite for customers
We’ve seen growing demand for solutions that enhance business efficiency, support remote work, and integrate AI into business strategies.
The need for seamless contact on the go, not just via voice but also through chat (including group conversations).
Visibility of colleagues’ statuses and availability in real-time

Our strategic partnerships with iPECS Cloud, Wildix, 8×8 Work, and Gamma Horizon include a mobile application offer, which not only ticks the boxes above but also offers:

Significant savings on international calls by using zero-cost Wi-Fi to connect back to your UK company’s phone system.
Centralised company information and updates simplify compliance efforts.
Integration with CRM and back-office systems eliminates countless hours of unnecessary admin.

Now let’s explore the different points of view from a business owner’s to an employee’s perspective.

A business owners perspective:

Cost Savings: Mobile apps enhance employee efficiency, flexibility, and overall job satisfaction. What is more because the work over data – eg Mobile and WiFi they can save a fortune in calling costs whilst overseas

Reduced Hardware Costs: Smartphone apps can reduce the need for additional hardware like desk phones and computers, saving money.

Scalability: Easily scale your business.

Easier Training and Onboarding: Mobile apps are often more intuitive, making training and onboarding faster and more efficient.

Secure Access: Many apps come with built-in security features like encryption and multi-factor authentication, ensuring secure access to sensitive data.

Remote Management: IT departments can manage and secure mobile devices remotely, ensuring compliance with company policies and data protection regulations.

An employees perspective:

Anytime, Anywhere Access: Employees can handle calls, emails, and chats from their smartphones, managing customer interactions even when away from their desks.

Quick Access to Information: Apps enable employees to quickly access customer information, history, and support resources, leading to faster issue resolution.

Increased Productivity with Multi-Tasking: Employees can switch between different tasks and apps on their smartphones, improving their ability to manage multiple customer interactions simultaneously.

Improved Customer Service: With customer data and conversation history at their fingertips, employees can provide a more personalised experience, enhancing overall customer satisfaction.

Fewer Distractions: Mobile apps are faster for users and can include useful features like push notifications (3).

Real-Time Collaboration: Mobile apps often include features for real-time communication and collaboration, such as instant messaging and video calls, fostering better teamwork.

Notifications and Alerts: Employees can receive instant notifications for important updates and customer interactions, ensuring they stay informed and responsive.
Improved User Experience: Mobile apps provide a more streamlined and user-friendly experience compared to mobile websites.

Efficiency Boost: Mobile technology enables contact centre employees to work remotely, reducing infrastructure costs and boosting morale. Integrating call centre apps with chatbots automates repetitive tasks, saving time and increasing overall efficiency.

The emergence of live video chat

As we explored the power of mobile applications in telecommunications, the emergence of live video chat stood out as one of the next big things. Many companies are increasingly enabling ‘live video chat’ options for customer service. Companies like Apple, Hertz, and Nordstrom have already adopted this approach, offering several advantages:

Enhanced Personalisation: Video chat allows for face-to-face interaction, making customer service more personal and engaging.

Improved Issue Resolution: Visual communication can help resolve issues more quickly and accurately, as agents can see exactly what the customer is experiencing.
Increased Customer Satisfaction: Customers often appreciate the immediacy and clarity that video chat provides, leading to higher satisfaction levels.

Competitive Advantage: Offering advanced customer service options like live video chat can set a company apart from competitors.

Building Trust: Seeing a real person can help build trust and rapport with customers, fostering stronger relationships.

In conclusion

While larger companies are adopting this technology, we predict it will soon become a standard feature across the industry and one that we will be looking out for!

In the ever-evolving business landscape, telecommunications and mobile applications have become indispensable tools for enhancing efficiency, flexibility, and customer satisfaction. Smartphones and mobile apps enable companies to streamline operations, reduce costs, and provide robust, multi-channel customer service. At Evoke Telecom, we’ve seen firsthand the transformative power of these technologies through our partnerships with iPECS Cloud, Wildix, 8×8 Work, and Gamma Horizon.

For business owners, mobile apps offer significant cost savings, reduced hardware expenses, and easier training and onboarding. They also ensure secure access to sensitive data and facilitate remote management. For employees, these apps provide anytime, anywhere access to crucial information, boosting productivity and improving customer service through real-time collaboration and fewer distractions.

In conclusion, embracing mobile applications in telecommunications is not just about keeping up with trends—it’s about staying ahead in a competitive market, driving sustainable growth, and delivering exceptional value to customers.

Over the coming weeks, watch out for a mini-blog series that will explore the mobile application offerings from our partnership portfolio.

Want to know more? We’d be happy to answer any questions.

Get in touch

David Wardell as an AI generated action figure

What is the link between an AI Action Figure and your Business Performance?

Written by Laura Swatton on 22 April 2025. Posted in Blog, Uncategorised. No Comments on What is the link between an AI Action Figure and your Business Performance?

What is the link between an AI Action Figure and your Business Performance?

AI action figure and your business

Creating an AI-generated action figure—whether of yourself, a celebrity, or even a pet—has quickly become a global phenomenon. But what sparked the viral craze? OpenAI’s launch of its ChatGPT image creator, powered by GPT-40, led to a surge of users eager to try the feature and share their results on social media (1).

So, naturally, we decided to test it ourselves— so one of our Directors, David Wardell, promptly stepped up to the challenge.

How it works…

Log in to ChatGPT
Upload a photo
Add a text prompt describing your ideal action figure
Wait for the AI magic to generate a toy image, boxed up and ready for display

In going through this process, we noticed quite a few things, very pertinent to telecommunications and AI that we thought we might share.

So what did we notice?

Although the task was Action Figures, anyone could use it, tall or small, yellow or green. It was a simple model that was configurable.
It was generative. The first model took the information we gave it. Then we had to refine or add to that information to get step by step closer to the result we were looking for.
The AI tool saved the information we had already shared and simply added the new information to generatively improve on its previous output.
The end result was impressive, but with more learning and inputs would continuously get much better.

The link

So, what is the relevance of this story on a Telecommunications company website, we hear you ask?

Well, this very same generative AI model is doing the same in the telecommunications space, and is available NOW.

We have our own ‘Action Figure’ AI, delivering power business intelligence, powerful insight, powerful management information – simply using our customers existing telephony – right now. And like the ChatGPT model, it is not restricted to certain sectors, it uses a generic model that enables it to be tailored to any sector, any scenario.

“Sorry, am I lost here? How have we jumped from ‘Action Man & Barbie’ to AI for my business? “ We hear you ask.

Well, in simple terms, today we could:-

Take your call recordings in a stereo format
Move them across to an AI tool that we have
Analyse those calls for a variety of information sources. e.g.
Sales Effectiveness
Customer Satisfaction
Retention Effectiveness
Compliance Support
NPS Score
Word and phrase searching
Even ‘Sentiment Analysis’

This is available now. It is not quite yet ‘Agentic AI’ in that in the early days, human intervention refines the parameters and enables your modelling to quickly build to meet your requirements. But as the model learns and as the data and intelligence build, the benefits exponentially increase.

Here is one of our products, for example, CX/EX.

But is UK 2025 ready for this technology?

Like the ‘Action Figure’, are we producing these but do not really know what to do with them?

The real challenge lies in using your new AI insights from your calls to improve your business.

To run compliance checks on all of your calls, not just a handful of them
To check your calls for keywords, key phrases, ‘no-no’s’, profanity, etc
To enable your sales leaders to identify winners & losers – and improve your team’s results accordingly
To identify trends to make your business more cost efficient and more successful in terms of results.

What this viral ‘Action Figure’ craze has done is show us the power of AI and just how easy it is to use.

Action Figures today – Massive increase in business performance tomorrow – AI is here, it is powerful, and in the right hands it can drive not only your top line, but also your bottom line.

So the choice is yours. Go make an ‘Action Figure’, go and increase your business’s performance, or just carry on as things are whilst others steal the march?

If you would like to know more about our AI solutions, we’re here to answer any questions.

Get in touch

Free Hotel Management Software with your Wildix telephone system.

Written by Laura Swatton on 19 May 2022. Posted in Blog.

PMS or Property Management System software is key in the day to day running of todays Hotels and Guest Houses.

And, there are some truly fabulous PMS solutions available to the Hospitality Industry, including Guestline, Fidelio, TigerTMS and many more.

Invariably when Evoke Telecom install or upgrade telephone systems at hotels, we get asked the same question, “does it integrate with our PMS?”.

Well now, following progressive thinking from the amazing team at Wildix, the need to have or to even integrate your telephony into PMS has become less important.

This is because Wildix have included many of the features offered by todays Hotel Management Software into their webRTC telephony solution FREE OF CHARGE.

Wildix HMS boasts many really useful features including:-

Check In / Check Out
Setting Wake Up calls

Service Make Up Room – clean or dirty status

Call Billing per room
Block outgoing calls from rooms
Reception announcement of emergency call made from rooms (meaning Reception can meet the attending emergency services and take them immediately to the incident location).

This will be an absolute winner for Hotels, Guesthouses and smaller Boutiques many of whom can neither afford a PMS solution or do not wish to currently fully integrate PMS into their telephony platform. Many of the standard features that the Hospitality Sector needs and love, come free of charge, out of the box (or in this case ‘out of the cloud’).

But hey, don’t worry if you actually DO WANT to integrate your PMS software, because invariably Wildix WebRTC telephony offers that option as well.

If you would like to know more, then please contact our helpful team by email at hello@evoketelecom.com or smile while you freedial 0800 8403688.

Evoke Telecom Services – delivering value.

Hosted vs Premise Telephony? It’s like buying vs renting a house.

Written by matt on 1 May 2015. Posted in Blog.

Much is being written currently about the impending demise of the PBX as market perception becomes one of a shift towards hosted or cloud telephony services. So, has the PBX really had its day or is it all just ‘smoke and mirrors’?

Some see the commercial comparison as a bit like buying versus renting your house. The upfront costs, furnished or unfurnished, fixtures and fittings, getting the landlord to make repairs and of course the value of your investment when you decide to move.

When it comes to the topic of hosted (or cloud) telephony, recently we have seen much press about ‘Skype for Business’, the new buzz phrase quickly replacing MS Lync conversations. Of course we have all been asked those typical questions around Lync: should I include Lync voice, what about RCC, how do I ensure QoS, what are the implications on my current connectivity, what servers do I need? Indeed some of these questions are pertinent be the conversation Lync based or wider around hosted voice solutions in general.

So, why would a customer wish to consider hosted / cloud telephony? There are of course already a wide variety of options available to choose from, with more entrants coming into the market it seems almost weekly. Taking a more generic view some of the more obvious attractions might include: perceived very small capex required to setup, feature rich functionality, location independence and flexibility, various connectivity options, attractive inclusive calling bundles, built in call reporting. In essence a pretty elegant offering at a cost predictive ‘per user per month’ pricing model.

Something not always anticipated by a customer when exploring the hosted solution are the upfront costs required to deploy. These can often be as much as a 4 or 5 figure investment and might include: handsets (although there are some FOC opportunities available for ‘extended / connected terms’), new connectivity, new routers, wiring and PoE, installation engineering, training and support.

Finally, hosted feature sets, albeit fulsome, sometimes fall short in some areas when compared to some premise based alternatives. Examples might include: conference calling, call recording (PCI/DSS/FSA compliance), managing mobile calls through the server, management information and application integration.

When comparing the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of a hosted solution versus a premise based the breakeven point still seems to typically calculate at between 30/36 months, beyond which the hosted solution will begin to have a negative impact on the operating costs line on the company balance sheet. However, at relatively low set up cost and extremely competitive monthly plans for many hosted is the way forward.

It’s a bit like buying vs renting property really.

Sounds almost too good to be true. And the fact of the matter is that hosted offers for many an attractive and rich proposition that exactly fits and best suits their business needs. However, as with all things in life, one solution does not necessarily work for every possible scenario. Or maybe it does!

We are starting to see conversation around and the emergence of solutions where customers will be able to integrate premise based solutions into cloud options, in a hybrid type of deployment. An interesting article on this can be found in CommsDealer following an insightful interview with Will Morey, Co Founder and Director of the UK exclusive Ericsson-LG distributor Pragma Unified Distribution – http://commsbusiness.co.uk/features/clouds-hammers-nails-and-the-vitality-of-the-pbx-market/

Indeed in a recent blog on our won website, Mark Deakin, Partner Technology Strategist at Microsoft explores the merits of hybrid thinking when making that cloud versus premise consideration – https://evoketelecom.com/blog/have-you-still-got-your-head-in-the-clouds/

So, will it be that in the coming weeks and months we see yet another marketing metashift from hosted to hybrid? Time will tell.

If you would like to know more about premise, hosted or connectivity solutions feel free to contact the Evoke Telecom sales team for free on 0800 840 3688 or mail us on sales@evoketelecom.local where we will be more than pleased to offer our help and support.