ROAR: The future of business communication
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 Anthony McCourt, ROAR
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OVER the past ten years, advances in technology have resulted in business communication becoming substantially more fast-paced. How did we come to be in the position we’re in now? And what developments can we expect in the near future? Businesses today depend on high speed internet connections and flexible phone systems, but as late as a decade ago working life was still very different. For many of us, the days of dial-up internet seem like a distant memory, but it’s only this side of the millennium that we have begun to see a real advance, and the pace is quickening. The first important development of the decade came with the introduction of wireless internet. First becoming popular with consumers in 2001, Wi-Fi went on to become the ‘must-have’ new technology in 2006 and has revolutionised the way we do business today. Leading to ‘business-on the-move’, we think nothing of logging on from outside the office, and can now even access our emails and those all-important documents on the tube. Not only was this new technology made available on laptops and netbooks, the provision of the service on mobile phones quickly followed. Constantly looking to out-do the competition with the latest technologies and gadgets, smartphone providers are even more keen than computer suppliers to ‘up their game’ and attract customers. Dominating the market for many years, Blackberry satisfied consumer needs with new ‘push-notifications’; allowing us to access and act upon information immediately. Other major players over recent years have included Android and Apple, both integrating online search engines, maps, calendars and downloading facilities into not only what we want, but what we expect from our mobile phone. Which brings us to the present day and the newest communication improvement to hit the market; VOIP. Although Voice over Internet Protocol, also known as Voice over IP or VOIP, was in the early stages of development in 2004, we’ve only really seen the technology become popular during the past 5 years. Working in a similar way to Skype, VOIP technology essentially offers a phone service which operates through internet connections, rather than standard land-lines. The flexibility of this service has proven to be extremely popular with business owners in particular; specifically those who spend time at more than one location as the system allows you to dial and receive calls from the same number, wherever you are. Although we can predict advancements in certain areas, business communication has moved at such a rapid pace over the past decade that it is almost impossible to predict the improvements that are still to come. The one thing that’s certain is that developments are happening every day, and they aren’t slowing down. Keeping up to speed with communication is a vital part of making sure your business is future-proofed, and offering a competitive edge. At ROAR we work with businesses of all sizes to make sure they taking advantage of the opportunities open to them, to stay in front of the competition, not behind. More articles in
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