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October 16, 2008
OnRelay: Mobiles Are Replacing Desk Phones in the Workplace
By Michelle Robart, TMCnet Editor
OnRelay (News - Alert) (News - Alert) today revealed the first call data from a successful Fixed Mobile Convergence (News - Alert) (FMC) deployment. The study accessed over 36,000 calls, and gives insight into the user penetration attained by cellular FMC technology and its affect on business telephony use. As a complete cellular FMC, or mobile PBX (News - Alert) solution, OnRelay MBX enables companies to replace their desk phones with mobile phones. Today’s study comes from a European manufacturing company, which has seen 68 percent of its staff adopt MBX. This high percentage is evidence that the technology is on the rise in offices, and this is no surprise, as it saves the company at least £33 per user per month on every desk phone replaced.
OnRelay’s study shows that almost one third of MBX users migrated to IP telephony without installing or needing desk phones. The remaining two thirds actively use MBX, but still occasionally use their desk phones.
In addition, the study revealed that 45 percent of all calls logged were outbound, with a call completion rate equivalent to that of GSM. This finding confirms that staff with MBX use their mobile phones to make business calls through their office phone system.
Deploying MBX is a win-win situation for everyone. While the company benefits from ensuring all business calls happen via the corporate dial plan, the staff also benefits from clear separation of personal and business telephony.
“The strongest business case in the world can’t defend a technology that no one will use,” stated OnRelay CFO, 
Marie Wold. “OnRelay has long proven the cost benefit of replacing desk phones with mobile phones. This study shows that when employees are offered a complete desk phone alternative like MBX, they like it and, quite simply, will use it. The upfront savings on hardware make a critical difference in today’s economy.”
Marie Wold. “OnRelay has long proven the cost benefit of replacing desk phones with mobile phones. This study shows that when employees are offered a complete desk phone alternative like MBX, they like it and, quite simply, will use it. The upfront savings on hardware make a critical difference in today’s economy.” OnRelay’s study also showed that 72 percent of all incoming business calls to MBX users were answered. The figure reveals a significant increase in responsiveness -- before MBX, staff answered only 30 percent of all incoming calls to their business line. Users with MBX answered 45 percent of these business calls on their mobile and just 27 percent on their desk phone or softphone.
“Enterprise use of FMC makes a good deal of sense as it enables a number of attractive services including unified messaging, IP PBX integration and a single communication account,” said Paul Merry, senior research analyst at Informa (News - Alert) Telecoms & Media. “These capabilities can then be effectively managed by corporate IT personnel.”
OnRelay MBX uses patented TINP protocol to link mobile phones into existing corporate voice systems (PBXs). TINP works over any mobile network, anywhere in the world. Employees carry their desk phone in their pocket, and companies gain appropriate control over mobile phones.
Moving beyond “fixed mobile integration,” MBX focuses on the mobile evolution of fixed line business telephony. Since MBX replaces desk phones for most users, companies are able to save significantly.
Founded in 2000 and headquartered in the United Kingdom, OnRelay has Tier 1 operators and Fortune 500 companies as customers and partners.
Michelle Robart is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Michelle's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Michelle Robart
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