Those of you who’ve read my previous posts in the AudioCodes blog will know that I’m very keen on getting out on the road and spending time with customers. Apart from the fact that I like to conduct business face-to-face as much as possible, this is also the best way to really understand everything that’s going on in today’s fast-moving communications market.

Unfortunately, though, the unexpected emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of 2020 has put the kibosh on my international excursions for the foreseeable future. Even though there has been some limited resumption of air travel, the prospect of lengthy quarantines in either direction currently makes any business trip an uneconomical proposition.

Now, like everybody else on our interconnected planet, I’ve had to quickly adjust to what is known everywhere as the “new normal”. International business is now conducted primarily on the phone, or via platforms like Microsoft Teams or Zoom, often from the comfort of one’s own home.

But in many ways, the dramatic changes wrought by the coronavirus are simply the rapid acceleration of trends that were already gaining significant traction prior to the pandemic. After all, the concept of working from home has long been an increasingly utilized model in practically every business vertical.

However, this new approach to work is not without serious challenges on the technological level. Making matters worse, the presently difficult economic climate has forced IT departments to stretch their budgets as far as possible by cutting costs wherever they can, which is often easier said than done. Although the cloud has emerged as a great way to offer simple (and cost-effective) deployment and management of subscription-based services and applications, such flexibility has generally not yet filtered down to the purchase of hardware.

This is frequently brought home to me when my customers express their fears about the perceived expense of adopting IP phones and other devices – fears that I’m sure you’ll also be familiar with. But the truth is that everyone in today’s complex digital economy needs quality devices they can trust, regardless of whether they are executives, middle managers or regular staff. This is equally true if these employees are working from home, where the easy familiarity of a desk IP phone can make a world of difference to productivity, or whether they are based in an office environment.

So, how can we help businesses overcome their adoption fears? What if there was a straightforward way to squarely address the combined challenges of high upfront costs and the potential risk of investing in new hardware?

Well, now there is.

Meet AudioCodes Flex, a HaaS/DaaS-style subscription service aimed at giving every enterprise the opportunity to enjoy the many benefits of AudioCodes’ IP phones and meeting room solutions. By providing flexible options that fit the way today’s companies do business, Flex enables the early adoption of the latest technologies while eliminating the risk of ownership. If an enterprise’s needs change, they can simply upgrade or return the devices at intervals of 12 months.

As a hardcore caffeine fanatic, I prefer to look at it like this. For the price of providing a worker with a cup of espresso in the office each week, an IT department can use the HaaS/DaaS model to deliver all the benefits of familiar and comfortable communication, wherever the employee might be.

And that truly is a case of waking up and smelling the coffee.

Want all the benefits of AudioCodes IP phones and devices with none of the risk?