There’s still plenty of life left in the desk phone

With the imminent arrival of Generation Z, who favour chat and text over face to face meetings, into the workforce, what effect will that have on how organisations communicate? Could we see the desk phone, or even voice itself, become redundant within a few years? Moreover, is it wise to shun legacy systems such as the desk phone just to accommodate the preferences of future generations?

These are the questions asked by a recent feature on Raconteur.

It turns out the tech firms are not abandoning voice, but offering businesses the opportunity to use whichever communications best suits their needs, making collaboration and unified communications the perfect choice for many.

Neil McManus of GHM Communications says: “Voice will always play a critical part of business communication. We know digital communication is proving more popular but verbal communication remains greater than ever. For businesses wanting to offer a more diverse choice of communication to their customers and teams, our unified communications offers amazing flexibility and scope.”

To reinforce this, an independent survey by tech marketplace Spiceworks shows most companies remain committed to their desk phones, with 93 per cent still using them. Further, most employees are using them as their primary communications device, much more so than their smartphones or Skype, or other collaboration services on laptops or desktop computers.