There are numerous Push-to-talk (PTT) applications available in the market that claim to mimic the modern functionality of legacy Push-to-talk devices such as Land Mobile Radios (LMRs) when integrated into smart mobile phone devices.
But are there any metrics that can assist businesses to determine that the PTT applications they choose can support the predetermined standards of their organization’s operational and safety requirements?
Various modern ‘Push-to-talk’ applications integrated into smartphones tend to fail in delivering most required features such as instant communication, location monitoring, or emergency calls in a business setting, whether in the public or private sector.
In addition to supporting rich features for businesses settings, a robust PTT application should also offer a minimal latency period between PTT message exchange, worldwide network coverage ability, media collaboration, group communication, location tracking, and monitoring, along with the flexibility to adapt itself to emerging list of trends and features for business and mission-critical communication.
In order for you to make an informed decision for your business, we have drafted five factors that can enlighten you with the must-have ability for your next PTT application:
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Is mission-critical data and information secured?
The first factor that you should consider in the decision-making process when looking to adopt any new PTT technology for your organization is to evaluate how it will keep your organization’s data safe and secure.
A must-have security capability of the PTT application you choose is without bargain – end-to-end encryption of your organization’s information and data. This enhances the security as well as safeguarding the mission-critical data contained on the devices, network layers, recurring data generated and stored, whilst empowering your business with the ability to communicate and collaborate with your workforces across the organization with confidence while maintaining compliance.
Here are the few security parameters that you can consider with the next PTT vendor you associate with:
- Secure media exchange session keys with RSA 024 bit authentication, storage, and interoperability.
- PTT client and server communications encryption with TLS protocol.
- A secure HTTP/S connection is used for API communication; the channel API is also offered over WebSockets under a secured server.
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Has it been designed to support emergency features?
A majority of professional PTT or walkie-talkies apps are equipped with a lone worker/man-down alert function that has the ability to signal the flag to other team members present on-spot and/or an alarm monitoring system. In the event that your on-field employees encounter dangerous situations, it is imperative for you to deploy a reliable PTT application that empowers them to call for immediate assistance, no matter if that is for health purposes or administrative work using a special emergency button embedded on the user interface of the application or emergency dialler option.
Using this advanced functionality over and above the prime functionality of instantaneous communication via Push-to-talk applications, one can initiate an emergency call without any hassle, whilst ensuring that the emergency request will automatically be directed to the right place; if the first recipient does not respond or the area monitoring station does not answer, the request will be routed to the next predefined recipient.
Ideally, also, if any of your on-field workforce movement remains stationary for a long period of time during working hours, the application can automatically raise and send an alarm to a predefined list of contacts you choose for check-in, for instance.
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Can it offer more than just Push-to-talk functionality?
While considering the functionality aspect of a Push-to-talk application for your business, instead of investing in a simple push-to-talk app that just offers instant Push-to-talk communication, pick an advanced push-to-talk application that offers the maximum flexibility and advanced mission-critical features!
Several organizations invest in a bundle of other applications such as Kudos, BetterCloud, Slack, etc., apart from Push-to-talk applications to compensate for the mission-critical features such as administrative, communication, and collaboration for all the dispersed on-field employees across the globe.
Additional investment in productivity and engagement applications empowers the organizations to measure, monitor, and communicate with their dispersed workforces. Whereas, administrative applications encompass location tracking, shift scheduling with a clock in/out features, workflow management, and unified directory management, and so on.
Considering a 360-degree advanced feature bundle over and above the Push-to-talk communication will not only save the capital costs of the organization but also add productivity, engagement, and administrative suite in the mix.
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Does it offer remote workforce monitoring?
Through a comprehensive administrative dashboard, a business-ready PTT software application should have the ability to provide the administrative members of an organization to monitor all the workforces distributed across geographies and act as a central control room.
A centralized dashboard in which all detailed information plus live location tracking of the organization’s remote users fleet can be viewed by administrative members has proven instrumental in the event of an emergency as well as ensuring the dispersed workforce is at the designated place where they should be.
Moreover, having an application that enables control center management to be established and maintained online using your browser, escaping the necessity of maintenance and manual updates will significantly lower the total cost of ownership.
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Does it have any reportability features?
A modern and effective PTT solution should facilitate an organization with an advanced reporting template that will aid the administrator’s efforts in effective resource management and coordination of on-field workforces.
A cloud-based PTT solution should provide the administrative members complete traceability for every activity performed by the on-field representative of an organization. For instance, if you are an administrator representing a last-mile delivery company, each delivery that the last-mile delivery partner executes should have the live-location tracking feature, time-stamp, and proof-of-delivery defined by the user; date, day, and time to support the execution embedded in the PTT application.
It can assist an organization in identifying several problems that they may have otherwise overlooked and allow them to make proactive suggestions on how to enhance and support their on-field workforce KPIs.
Closing lines…
Businesses have increasingly relied on walkie-talkies in various fields and verticals to streamline mission-critical communication of on-field workforces with on-site members. There are several key assessments for business owners to consider while evaluating emerging integrating technologies into smartphones, such as PTT applications, that can assist them to retain collaboration across the on-site team and eliminate communication barriers for remote and field-based workers that we have attempted to shed light on above.
If your goal is to enhance productivity or simply achieve a seamless communication channel across your entire workforce, then an enterprise-grade solution like NuovoTeam Push-to-Talk (PTT) can provide the perfect solution.
