FMC: If you install it, they will use it

A new study conducted by OnRelay indicates employees will embrace fixed mobile convergence (FMC) technology if it's available.

Collecting data from a "European manufacturing company" with over 36,000 calls made through OnRelay's MBX mobile PBX product, 68 percent of staffers took up use of FMC. Almost one-third of users migrated to IP telephony - defined as mobile calls routed through the company's MBX as IP -- without installing or even needing a desktop phone. The other two-thirds of users actively use the FMC service and keep the desk phone for occasional use.

Most importantly for both employees and corporations, 45 percent of all calls logged were outbound. Staff with the FMC capability therefore were placing business phone calls using their cell phones through the office phone system. The corporation got the benefit of getting all business communications happening via the corporate dial plan with corporate phone numbers and caller ID, while staff got a clear separation of personal and business phone calls (and bills).

Another interesting factoid: 72 percent of all incoming business calls delivered through FMC (i.e. directly to the cell phone) were answered; before, staff only answered 30 percent of all incoming calls to their business line. FMC users answered 45 percent of the business calls on their mobile phone and 27 percent on their desk phone or soft phone.

For more:
- OnRelay discusses its FMC statistical study in a release [1]