Business mentor: Push-to-talk easy way to keep in touch

Q: This "push-to-talk" phone concept seems to be the latest craze, but can someone explain to me what it is and how it is going to benefit a business like mine? I often have eight sales reps out on the road, so it might be a good option.

A: Push-to-talk enables users to conduct a walkie-talkie style conversation on their mobile either to an individual or to a group of people simultaneously through the push of a single button.

To use the service, both sender and receiver must have a push-to-talk-capable phone and be subscribed to either the Vodafone or Telecom service (there is no interconnect agreement between both operators).

Communicating with push-to-talk is easy. All the user needs to do is select an individual within his or her push-to-talk contact list or select an entire group and press on the dedicated push-to-talk button on the handset.

Using push-to-talk services, a single user can have a number of groups with up to, say, 20 people in each. The groups normally consist of different communities of people ranging from work colleagues to a sports team.

Using push-to-talk a small business of up to 20 people can communicate to all the other team members in the business at once rather than making individual voice calls to each.

This has clear benefits for businesses of any size as it makes for more efficient communications. It also has financial benefits as it is more economical to push-to-talk to the entire work team at once rather than pay for individual voice calls to each team member.

The service will create more convenience not only for communicating internally but also externally, as over time (as more people subscribe) it will be possible to set up groups with external people such as suppliers, customers and partners.

Findings from the United States (which has more than 17 million users) and trials conducted here by Vodafone suggest the service is mainly used where an instant response is required.

The sorts of uses range from an urgent request: "Has anyone got the 2004 sales figures? I need them right now,"; co-ordinating people: "Can you please come back to the workshop?" to transactional-type communication: "Can someone help me assemble the new printer?"

This would be an ideal solution for your mobile workforce where team members are out on the road as sales representatives, spread across a large work site or even if some of your staff work from home.

Vodafone has launched push-to-talk with the Motorola V303p, which retails for $699. The phone has all the normal functionality of a mobile device as it is able to make conventional voice calls and send text and PXT messages.

By the end of the year a significant number of new handsets are expected to be introduced to the New Zealand market that will be push-to-talk capable.

Push-to-talk can be used anywhere there is GPRS coverage, including overseas. Vodafone says Team New Zealand trialled the service in Spain and was able to send a PXT back to Auckland and push-to-talk for an urgent diagnosis on an issue.