Future proofing business communications with digital two-way radio solutions

The digital two-way radio market has been shifting heavily towards digital for some years now thanks to their improved audio quality, geographic reach, simple add-ons and general ability to improve productivity and health and safety.

Coupled with this, regulations around communications are becoming much more digitally focussed and are almost leaving those aimed at analogue communications out of date and redundant.

With that in mind, the need for businesses to upgrade their communications from analogue to digital is now not just a ‘nice to have’ but is now a necessity.

But this move towards digital is also helping businesses future proof their communications network for years by promoting unified communication strategies which enables employees to not only communicate point-to-point but to anyone and anywhere within the supply chain.

Connecting employees anywhere, anytime

Being able to reach a co-worker on the first attempt saves an average 32 minutes per day according to research published by coxblue, while the use of unified communications has also seen significant growth over the last five years.

One of the biggest deficiencies with mobile phone networks is their reliance on being in proximity to a signal mast for a strong signal. Not to mention that the further away you move from this signal, or the more crowded it gets with users, the less reliable it is.

For a business this lack of certainty as to whether employees will be able to communicate when they need to, is a constant cause of concern – especially when thinking about emergency situations.

Scalability

When looking to invest in new technology one of the questions you need to be asking is whether the systems you are installing are going to be able to grow as your business does, and will they be able to grow in a way that doesn’t cause disruption.

Analogue radios and mobile phones are not suitable to a scalable communications solution because they are best used when looking to communicate point-to-point, which is becoming less in demand within businesses as supply chains become more complex and the need to communicate point-to-group becomes more important.

Digital two-way radios carry the benefit of being scalable because they rely on digital networks and frequencies to carry communications, with new devices easily added to the network as is grows.

Digital devices are also adaptable to future developments because they can easily be upgraded with new app-based features, unlike analogue devices, so that they constantly meet the daily demands of a business.

Adaptable

This ability to adapt your communication network to meet the current demands of a business is one of the biggest reasons why digital two-way radios offer the kind of future proofing which businesses require.

Mobile phones and analogue radios both come of the deficiencies that upgrading these systems once they are installed can require more and significant capital investment. Digital two-way radios however can be quickly adapted and upgraded with new features – which can be upgraded in real-time – and offer a far more cost effective and robust communication network for any business.

Even if looking at digital two-way radios your business does not need some of the functions in the immediate future, you should always be looking 3-5 years ahead and thinking what you might need as the business grows.

Building in the potential to grow in the early days will set your business up much better than limiting yourself and having to pay more in the long term.