From mom and pop shops, to online retailers and billion-dollar conglomerates, communications technology continues to transform how we do business. A revolutionary new VoIP service will allow business people to use their cell phones to make international calls with greater convenience and lower costs.
(ARA) - Cash may be king, but communications can make or break a business. From mom and pop shops, to online retailers and billion-dollar conglomerates, communications technology continues to transform how we do business.
"Fall behind the latest advances in communications technology and you risk your competitive edge," says Jenny Fielding, chief operating officer of Switch-Mobile, which provides low-cost international calling access to cell phone users. "If you need convincing that communications technology is vital to your business, just look at how past innovations impacted how businesses operate."
Just four years after the invention of the telephone in 1876, there were nearly 48,000 phones in use in the United States. Telefax, which predates the phone by nearly 20 years, didn't catch on until the 1970s, but today many businesses seal deals with faxed documents. Businesses around the world send billions of e-mails daily, and a Web page is virtually a requirement of doing business these days.
"The unifying qualities of great communications technology are cost-savings and convenience," Fielding notes. "Often, new technology doesn't gain widespread use until it meets those criteria. Cell phones are an example of this trend."
From their earliest days - when mobile phones were the size of tissue boxes and calling rates were outrageously expensive - the cell phone's value as a business tool has been apparent to companies around the world. In the 21st century, many companies provide their employees with cell phones for business purposes. But while domestic calling plans have come down in price, international calling from a mobile phone remains a costly or inconvenient process.
"Research by Harris Interactive shows that one in four Americans who call internationally are using their cell phones to make the call," Fielding says. "If rates were better, certainly cell phone use to make international calls would increase. In fact, many business people don't have the luxury of foregoing international calls from their cell phones - it's part of their daily business routine."
Business callers who must use their cell phones for international calls face a choice of paying extremely high per-minute charges, or using a calling card - with its lengthy and time-consuming access numbers, PINs and codes - to get a better rate. "Time is money and every minute a business person spends dialing an access code or trying to figure out how many minutes they have left on their calling card is time wasted," says Fielding, a New York based attorney who regularly conducts international business.
In April 2006, Fielding and her partners launched Globe Dialer, an innovative software application that allows cell phone users to direct dial international numbers at rates far below typical land line international rates. In the last four months the company has seen their revenue almost double every month.
Cell phone users log on to www.globedialer.com, create a free account and download the software directly to their cell phones. The software acts as both a phone book and direct dialer for international contacts. With the touch of a few buttons, the mobile user can place a call directly to an overseas number using Globe Dialer's proprietary VoIP network. The domestic portion of the call uses the caller's existing cell phone plan. The international component is billed at Globe Dialer's low rates - typically far lower than a land line rate and comparable to calling card rates.
"The technology combines the convenience of mobile phones with the cost-savings of international calling cards, and eliminates the need to dial a long series of numbers, including PINs," Fielding says.
To learn more about Globe Dialer, visit www.globedialer.com.
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