Unified Communications Featured Article

Fonality's Heads Up Display's Presence Management System Nets Patent

By Steve Anderson
Contributing TMCnet Writer

Getting a patent these days can be a very valuable thing; just ask any of the companies currently embroiled in legal warfare over the contents of a variety of patents, and what's at stake with a  patent will become very clear, very quickly. For Fonality (News - Alert), meanwhile, its own value just increased a bit following the issuance of a new patent in the United States tied to its Heads Up Display (HUD) application, specifically around the presence management technology used in said app.

With Fonality's HUD, the remote workforce gets more credibility thanks to its ability to provide business managers with a greater means to tell not only what the workforce was doing at any given time, but in what channel. With HUD—and its newly-patented presence management technology—business managers could tell at a glance if an employee was currently at a computer, on a desk or mobile phone, in the midst of a conference call, working in a call center queue, or doing any of several different tasks regardless of that employee's physical location.

Better yet, the presence management system can be modified according to needs with the use of custom permission sets. This allows the overall feed of information to be narrowed down, such that the rest of the company doesn't know that, say, the CEO is taking calls at his or her desk. Additionally, HUD also allows for a complete dashboard system, including access to all the major communications tools that might be used in a standard day including things like phone and voicemail, as well as more interactive tools like SMS and email, all from one place. Since HUD can be put to use from a Web browser, that opens up the floodgates in terms of tools that can use the system.

HUD recently won a ranking as 2014 Product of the Year by Internet Telephony (News - Alert) Magazine, and Fonality's CEO, David Scult, offered up some comment on the kind of capability that HUD, backed up by that presence management system, could offer, saying “With workers demanding more flexibility than ever before, many companies are starting to realize that work no longer needs to be restricted to a single geographic location. Fonality’s presence management helps businesses adapt to today’s post-cubicle world and empowers the distributed workforce with a seamless experience – no matter their location.”

Perhaps one of the biggest barriers to the remote workforce concept, as far as some businesses are concerned, is the lack of accountability that can crop up. While there are some methods to consider in terms of making those measurements—measuring the amount or quality of work produced, for example—having a tool like Fonality's on hand can help ensure that the mobile workforce is doing the work that needs to be done, not simply sitting at home watching television and getting paid to do so. We have video on this and a variety of other subjects available at this link.

While there will likely continue to be resistance to the remote workforce in some sectors, tools like Fonality's will just as likely go a long way in terms of keeping workers up and running regardless of physical location, yet still accountable for a day's work. That's got plenty of benefits throughout the spectrum, so the new patent on Fonality's presence management system should have companies looking to HUD to provide that valuable accountability measure those considering a remote workforce—or just augmenting the current remote workforce—crave.