Ford Replacing Office Phones With Mobile Phones
from the that-was-fast dept
It was just last week that we noted many employees preferred to use mobile phones to their office phones. Apparently, the folks at Ford took that message to heart and have done a deal with Sprint to replace the office phones of many employees with mobile phones. The article doesn’t indicate what kind of role these employees have within the company, though, they do note that the phones will feature push-to-talk functionality — something soon-to-be-part-of-Sprint Nextel has a lot of experience with, but where Sprint is still a new comer.
Comments on “Ford Replacing Office Phones With Mobile Phones”
Not exactly new
I remember talks about doing this exact same thing 4 years ago. What complicated the whole thing, the complicating being union state employees, what was supposed to happen if the phone rang and we were off the clock? My answer was let it go to voice mail. The union thought we should be on call (a little added cost there…) and answer the phone. Management thought that we should answer the phone regardless without being on call.
In the end, our group keep our existing beeper system. The other group did end up with phones, but they were required to keep them off and in their desk after work.
More on the Ford switch
Network World has more information on Ford’s decision to switch over some 8,000 employees to mobile:
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/012405ford.html