Singapore telco M1 introduced a new business service yesterday that provides customers with streamlined telephony, instant messaging, web conferencing, business address book and e-mail.
The software-based service will also automatically help business executives set up and dial into multi-party meetings.
Called hosted unified communications (UC), the service combines telephony and collaboration tools, said Mr Willis Sim, M1's chief product development and corporate solutions officer.
"Many companies still have legacy equipment like office phones which aren't used very much. Our service is all software-based, so there's no hardware investment."
Users can make telephone calls but also undertake office activities like faxing, web conferencing and other collaboration activities without having to be tied to their desks, he added.
Costing $10.70 a month per user, it is aimed at all kinds of businesses, from start-ups that do not wish to wire up their offices for fixed line phones, businesses with legacy telephony-only solutions, and larger corporates that wish to consolidate their existing proprietary communications solutions.
UC can be used on computers as well as mobile devices including smartphones. Users access UC features on a special web page and an app on their computers and smartphones respectively.
"UC is in line with the trend today where employees use their mobile phones for business calls. When customers call the business line, the calls will be linked to the employee's devices be it the computer, tablet or smartphone."
Over the past few years, Singapore's smallest telco M1 has introduced various business services which has benefited its bottom line.
In the telco's last financial results report last week, M1 said that of the $86 million fixed services revenue for the year, 51 per cent came from corporate customers. Last year, M1 introduced several new business services.
One was a super-fast fibre broadband service for businesses that send and receive large files. Another was the machine-to-machine service, where corporate customers can access, track and manage all their connected devices like sensors conveniently, from their computers or mobile phones.
An early UC user is Lubritrade Trading. In M1's media statement yesterday, Lubritrade's finance and administration director, Mr Christopher Ong, said the UC lets his staff work anywhere and still remain contactable by customers and colleagues.
M1's UC supports iPhones, Android-based smartphones, and Windows computers. It will be available on tablets and computers running Apple's Mac operating system soon.
