Allworx Verge IP PBX Phones Arrive
January 24, 2017
By Steve Anderson
Contributing Writer
These days, more businesses than ever are turning to mobile workforce principles, allowing employees to actually do work instead of go to work to do it. Making such a concept happen, though, requires the best in communications tools, and Internet protocol private branch exchange (IP PBX (News - Alert)) has long been a part of such efforts. Allworx recently took a step in that direction with Allworx Verge, a new line of IP phones that would help provide the best in IP PBX service to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
The Allworx (News - Alert) Verge line, keeping this development in mind, is mobile-first, offering up two separate versions as well as an expander model. The Verge 9312 offers a 4.3 inch color screen, along with Bluetooth support, Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and 12 separate self-labeling function buttons that can be programmed as needed. The Verge 9308, meanwhile, offers much the same things but somewhat less overall; it packs a 3.5 inch color screen, eight function buttons and Gigabit Ethernet. The expander, the Verge 9318Ex, offers 18 function buttons and a 4.3 inch color screen. It works with the Verge 9312 only, but users can add up to three of these at any one time.
Certain common features are universal, including real-time contact syncing, instant call handoff from the Verge phones to mobile device, and remote control of IP phones with mobile devices, all depending from the Reach system. It's part of a system upgrade, the new version 3.0 of Allworx Reach, which was recently introduced along with the new hardware. Additionally, the company also brought out version 8.2 of its System Software, as well as version 3.0 of its Allworx Interact Professional for mobility integration.
This new release comes at a great time for Allworx; a survey released recently found that office workers are becoming increasingly displeased with desk phones and instead prefer to turn to smartphones. Only 50 percent, on average, routinely made calls from a desk phone, while one in three preferred the smartphone directly to a desk phone. That same proportion even noted that it would cheerfully throw out the desk phone altogether in favor of the smartphone.
Mobility has a lot of value in today's workforce. Being able to carry on a normal day regardless of location opens up new options for both employee and employer; that flexibility can be a real advantage if it's taken up properly, serving as a disaster planning option, a means to work around time zone issues, and improving employee morale among other points. It may not work for everyone, and it may not be enough to really set up mobile operations for everyone, but Allworx's line should deliver plenty of value for its users.
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