Jonathan Anguleov
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Evolution of the Smartphone From tin cans and strings, to always on: The evolution of the business phone by Jonathan Anguelov, COO and co-founder, Aircall It’s not hard to understand how the phone became so integral to business transactions. However, the business phones of yesteryear are a far cry from the integrated cloud-based phone systems we see today. Nowadays, you can use highly intelligent software on your laptop or mobile to instantly message or speak to anyone you want, while pulling up their profile to glean useful information - a very handy tool, especially for sales and customer support teams. This was the mentality behind building Aircall - to empower companies of any size with an online phone system specifically tailored to the needs of modern businesses. Jonathan is the Co-founder & COO at Aircall, one of the fastest growing cloud phone systems. As a COO, Jonathan focuses on Aircall’s growth and is directly in charge of the EMEA offices. Jonathan began his career into the financial industry as a stockbroker and equity research analyst into different banks and investment funds, in Paris and in London. He is passionate about real estate, and has graduated from ESCP Europe with a Master degree. Alexander Graham Bell’s first phone call Communication on the go of communication on the go. Due to the in 1876 was a revolutionary breakthrough prohibitive cost of mobiles, they were used in the way we communicate with each It’s not hard to understand how the phone primarily by businessmen, who needed to other. Rather than send a letter, or arrange a became so integral to business transactions. be in constant contact with the office. The meeting, humans could now have meaning- However, the business phones of yesteryear mobile phone of the 80s may be forever ful, real-time conversations from a are a far cry from the integrated seared into our imagination as the clunky distance. cloud-based phone systems we see today. tool of self-important stockbrokers or Nowadays, you can use highly intelligent journalists, but the truth is that it saved a Since that fateful day, we are well aware of software on your laptop or mobile to huge amount of time. At the same time, how the humble telephone has come on in instantly message or speak to anyone you businesses were tackling the issue with the leaps and bounds. Fast forward to 2018, want, while pulling up their profile to glean pager, or the ‘beeper’, which took off in the and the way we communicate has evolved useful information - a very handy tool, 80s and 90s to reach over 61 million in drastically. Think through how many especially for sales and customer support 1994. different ways we are “reachable” at work: teams. This was the mentality behind direct dial, mobile, work phone, video call, building Aircall - to empower companies of The advent of the internet and further Facebook Messenger, Slack, email… the any size with an online phone system developments in telecoms in the early list goes on. specifically tailored to the needs of modern 2000s brought telephone technology businesses. literally into the twentieth century. VoIP The miracle in all of this? Whereas all these (Voice over Internet Protocol) software was different means of communication were But in the 1950s, the business phone was a a serious breakthrough, helping businesses only accessible through individual devices, multi-line telephone system that used an speak to their clients over the internet and now they are all packed into one immense- operated switch. Reaching the right person heralding the rise of multi-service online ly powerful machine that we can carry in a business was a laboured process that communication platforms. And with the round in our pocket: the smartphone. involved put-upon operators frantically inexorable march of the cloud, analogue trying to dial the right number using a devices are beginning to die out, replaced With the advent of the cloud, the ways in rotary dial method. And if your desired by a single device: the smartphone. which we are reachable will become more recipient wasn’t at their desk? You were diverse and yet compact at the same time. simply stuck. The rise of the smartphone But how did we get here, and what can your business phone do for you today? Thankfully, the development of the mobile Since the release of the first “smartphone”, phone in 1972 started to solve the problem the Ericsson R380 in 2000, we’ve seen the rise of the BlackBerry as the go-to Europe I | 2019 . 08 Evolution of the Smartphone work-phone, which is still used at a number In most countries, it’s the norm for us to be of banks and law firms, Apple’s iPhone, constantly plugged in at all times. We can which propelled smartphones into the now effortlessly be able to switch between mainstream, and the Android operating the private and the professional, from text system, first launched in 2008. message to email, whenever we’re called upon. And we can now do this with much We’ve come a long way since then; in 2017, more ease, as platforms such as Facebook there were 2.4bn people using a smart- open up their APIs and allow different types phone, according to eMarketer. By the end of apps to integrate without a hitch. This of 2018, more than a third of the global flexibility in terms of customising the population will be using one. And this gives functionalities of the business phone is both businesses and customers a wide range particularly vital when dealing with of options to communicate, whenever they customers or prospects who want to want to, via cloud-based telephony. In sales, communicate in their preferred way. for example, the phone still plays an important role and has the potential to There’s no denying that challenges come increase the conversion rate by nearly 50%, with this kind of instant connectivity. Some according to Aircall research. claim that this may result in a communica- tion breakdown in terms of meaningful A consequence of this is that the desk conversations. But the truth is, people enjoy phone, still a fixture in many European speaking to each other via a whole new host offices, is beginning to die out. This trend is of ways, and these all need to be integrated following in the footsteps of consumers, to provide a seamless and effective experi- who have given up using the landline as ence across all business interactions. their primary method of communication. In fact, in 2018, 75% of respondents claimed Although we’ve come along way, technol- that mobile was their main method of ogy is still evolving and taking us to placing and receiving telephone calls, unprecedented levels of connectivity and whereas 22 per cent claimed it was the human interaction. Contemporary cloud-te- landline phone at home. Even when at lephony systems provide us with more home though, respondents preferred using opportunities to connect with our mobile phones - and this way of thinking colleagues and customers. Powerful has migrated into the workplace too. Why communication hubs and integrated use a phone that is stuck in one place and channels are a crucial tool for any business; can only do one thing, when you have they enable collaboration and flexibility access to a ‘magic supercomputer’ in your across a company and allow staff to never pocket that can do a thousand, from miss a call, chat or an email. We just need to anywhere in the world? move away from old, archaic models and perceptions and embrace what technology Beyond mobile has to offer. But it’s not just the phone that’s revolution- ised the way we communicate at work. In the past ten years, technology has opened endless doors to new ways of working. In particular, more and more people are choos- ing to work remotely: the TUC estimates that the number of UK employees working from home increased by a fifth in the ten years up until 2016, and now stands at around 1.5 million. This has been driven by increasing develop- ments in business communication such as Slack, Zoom and others. The ever-connect- ed nature of our environment means that we are expected to be switched on 24/7 through all communication channels: and it’s now possible for this to be the case. Most recent- ly, Aircall launched a native Intercom integration to imbed phone calls into chat messaging, which transformed the way experience-oriented brands interact with customers and prospects, inline with evolv- ing customer expectations. Europe I | 2019 . 10.