The Critical Communication Market
The Critical Communication Market size was valued at USD 16.3 Billion in 2021 and is estimated to reach USD 33 Billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 8.25% from 2022 to 2030 (Verified Market Research).
Growing expenditure to advance communication infrastructure, rise in demand for effective communication solutions, and growing application of critical communication for frontline teams in public safety, security, emergency healthcare services, and other critical areas are some of the factors attributable to the growth of critical communication market (Data Bridge Market Research).
However, the rate of adoption remains slow for many in various industries due to the shortage of critical communication solutions and the high costs and complexity of the available systems.
The Critical Need for Real-Time Communication and Collaboration
Organizations that lack instant communication, locations, control, and safety of their frontline workers risk their business, profitability, and reputation.
Findings from a recent survey report a loss of $62.4 million per year for an average company due to inadequate communication (SHRM).
Employees say miscommunication and communication barriers lead to delays or failures in project completion (44%), missed goals (31%), and lost sales (25%) (The Economist Intelligent Unit).
When communication fails, so do companies.
While communication is essential in any business, it is even more so in high-risk industries like Emergency Healthcare, Security, Supply Chain Management and Logistics, Construction, Manufacturing, Hospitality, and more.
For frontline workers in these industries, communication is a significant challenge as the workers often operate in harsh environments, emergency situations, noisy construction sites, etc. Instituting an effective and instant communication strategy is often overlooked by organizations. Mobile phones can come in handy; however, the fact cannot be ignored that public cellular networks are not as reliable in many high-risk settings as private cellular networks. The effects of poor communication can have dire consequences beyond decreased profits. It can be a matter of life and death.
Organizations need their frontline workers to have seamless communication to improve productivity, cost-effectiveness, and safety. Voice and data communications keep workers connected, informed, and safe. It is their most powerful collaboration tool. In both routine and extreme situations, frontline responders need reliable communications to do their jobs to keep people and organizations safe and secure.
The Challenges with Traditional Communication Solutions
For decades, Land Mobile Radio (LMR) has been the benchmark for frontline workers in high-risk industries, meeting their interoperability needs. However, with an increased demand for bandwidth-intensive applications, such as video, advanced mapping, chat communications, and analytics for frontline workers to achieve critical mission success, LMR technology presents significant challenges:
- Reduced to small usage/reception areas, making it difficult for decentralized and distributed frontline workers who are constantly on the move and need to maintain real-time voice communication with dispatch and operation centers.
- Limited communication and inability to notify dispatchers of locations of drivers or assets , which vehicles are in motion, or know who is online and listening.
- Requires manual processing of events and responses for incidents and emergency situations like incapacitations, location breaches, panic alarms, etc.
- Cannot provide automatic safety check-ins, monitoring for incapacitation, and automated emergency workflows, including all-call notifications, notifying headquarters, and enabling operations to begin running safety procedures.
- Limited to voice communications. Frontline workers must often send texts, photos, and videos to communicate, report, and ensure compliance.
The Evolution of Push-To-Talk (PTT)
In our mobile-first world, where connectivity is the key to operational efficiency, there are countless ways to stay connected from anywhere using cellular and Wi-Fi networks. Although the present-day modes of communication, including phone calls, emails, and text messages, do a great job of keeping workers connected, the age-old PTT technology outpaces these present-day modes of communication in terms of speed and ease of use. So, it’s no surprise that Push-to-Talk over Cellular and Wi-Fi networks is gaining rapid popularity amongst industries whose frontline workers operate in a time-critical manner and prioritize instant responses. Although traditional PTT devices such as radio have become outdated, Push-To-Talk Over Cellular (POC) presents a critical enhancement to modern-day frontline communications.
POC merges the basic PTT model and smartphone technology into a single device, leveraging connectivity over cellular or Wi-Fi networks to overcome the limited coverage issues presented by traditional PTT.
Push-To-Talk Over Cellular solution mimics the functionality of two-way radios through an app on the workers’ smartphones, eliminating the need for frontline workers to carry multiple devices on-site.
The Benefits of PTT/POC
Push-To-Talk Over Cellular is paving the way to better on-field communication and collaboration. The benefits are many, but to list a few:
Efficient & Reliable
Push-To-Talk Over Cellular provides efficient frontline communication across geographies. Instant and reliable communication and prolonged connectivity between devices allows information and instructions to be relayed competently, ensuring that team members stay connected and work together seamlessly, regardless of location.
Recent findings have proven that a construction supervisor can save up to 49 minutes in their workday simply by using the push-to-talk function (Bell).
Contacts can also be stored in groups so workers can quickly contact all necessary people at once. Workers can see a user’s presence, so they know immediately if the person is unavailable, which allows them to avoid wasting valuable time trying to connect.
Cost-Effective 
Conventional radio requires considerable investment in infrastructure, such as cabling and repeaters, which increases implementation costs. PoC, however, offers better cost-efficiency with no additional infrastructure. Once set up, users only need to press the Push-to-Talk button.
Safe & Convenient
Because POC devices and apps operate via broadband networks like 3G, 4G, 5G, and Wi-Fi, and are compatible across Android and iOS, etc., frontline workers can push vast amounts of data through a POC solution when compared with a “narrowband” Private Mobile Radio (PMR) system. In practical terms, this provides benefits such as a near-limitless number of channels for radio users, more significant quantities of data such as GPS flowing through the system, and more advanced functionality, such as seeing the number of radio users on a channel at a given time.
Workers also benefit from the playback option which ensures a group PTT is never missed. In addition, hands-free functionality helps simplify calls while operating heavy machinery or wearing protective gear, for example.
The Collaborative Enterprise Platform Solution for Frontline Critical Communication
SynchTM PTT’s unified communications suite provides secure Push-To-Talk, Push-To-Video, Chat, Safe Worker, incidents management, and Task-based collaboration for groups and users, helping organizations and frontline workers execute their operations and missions more effectively and with high performance using private 4G and 5G networks as well on public networks when available.
The Synch solution caters to multiple teams, including Security, Safety, Maintenance, and ad hoc use cases. It supports many devices, from explosion-proof standards to personal mobile smartphones. 
(Call out from Security Case Study &link to Case Study): “Using Synch, we have direct communication to everyone in every situation. This helps us to keep our people safe and our facility secured.”
From voice-only communications to the multi-purpose smart platform for any collaboration, integrated with a state-of-the-art command and control platform, Synch’s partnership with Microsoft Azure private MEC enables innovative PTT/POC solutions. The solution permits immediate communication via Voice (PTT), text, video, and location with any user, group, device apps, and data over cellular and Wi-Fi networks.
By embedding Synch’s solution, field workers in various industries can always stay in control, and organizations can experience a dramatic upswing in their team’s efficiency, productivity, and safety.
(Call out from Security Case Study &link to Case Study): “Synch has become the heart of our operation, enhancing efficiency, improving volunteer safety, and enabling us to save more lives.”
Synch’s PTT and collaboration app and SaaS service are now available on the Azure Marketplace, making it easy for enterprises to deploy and manage their communications and collaboration solutions. With the Azure Marketplace, industrial customers can quickly and easily access Synch’s solutions and integrate them with their existing Microsoft infrastructure.
Synch’s integration with Azure private MEC brings secure, mission-critical communication and advanced management to frontline workers in multiple industry verticals, enabling organizations to enhance workforce collaboration and drive better business outcomes.
Azure Private 5G Core offers a wide range of partner technology, including RAN and SIM services, to deliver connectivity that meets enterprise needs. Leveraging solutions from a rich ecosystem enables operators and system integrators to provide and manage private networks and applications for enterprises based on their unique environment and global-scale needs.
To learn more, enter: Microsoft-Synch Webinar
Source: Microsoft and Synch
___________________________________________
