Business phones are an integral part of many companies communications strategies, as they allow for centralized control at the same time as encouraging collaboration and correspondence. Because of this, many businesses get bulk business plans and supply their employees with business phones that allow for near-constantly communication. Yet a question remains when it comes to business phones that can not be easily answered: should businesses encourage all their employees to use a single phone type or should employees be allowed to choose a phone based on their needs? People have argued the benefits of conformity versus diversity in everything from social work to the arts, but it is still a scintillating discussion even in something as seemly mundane as business phones. So what are the benefits of each, and crucially—which is better for your company?

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The benefits on conformity: efficiency, collaboration and speed

Conformity is not an exciting concept: the word does not raise the pulse or thrill the imagination. It does however have concrete benefits, and for businesses conformity can be so beneficial as to be the difference between success and failure. When it comes to business phones, the benefits of conformity are obvious and can be largely captured by one word: efficiency.

If all employees of a business use the same phone, they can use the same apps and collaborate easily and quickly, without much hassle and with maximum efficiency. On a much baser level, it is also simpler for whoever is administrating your phone plan—it will likely be cheaper for you to buy a certain brand or model of phone in bulk and it is useful to be able to give the same advice and training to all your employees. Centralized systems also allow for greater security: for years, the main selling point of Blackberrys for businesses was the ability to remote control data. While we have moved on from this slightly, the security benefits of a centralized phone system still matter to many.

A vote for diversity: encouraging innovation whilst providing comfort

Considering all the aforementioned benefits that phone conformity can bring, it might seem crazy to even try mount a defence for business phone diversity. Yet the argument does exist, and frankly it is quite a strong one. By allowing employees to choose their own phone based on their own needs, they are less likely to maintain a separate personal phone—lessening confusion and ensuring you can always get hold of them in a time of need of crisis. There are also concrete if hard-to-measure benefits in allowing people to work with the technology with which they feel most comfortable: for example, if an employee already has all the shortcuts and benefits of using an iOS-based phone down, then moving them to a different platform will create some loss of productivity. This can potentially be a money saver for businesses too: if you only buy business calling plans without the phones themselves and encourage your employees to ‘bring your own device’, it can save on costs.

Is the answer different for different business models?

If your business requires a large amount of collaboration between employees (especially of the kind that involves sending documents back and forth), then conformity may well be the way to go. However, if your business is more about fostering individual creativity or maximizing efficiency on a personal level, then allow for more freedom and diversity could be the better choice. When it comes to conformity versus diversity in the realm of business phones, the answer sincerely (if quite annoyingly) is ‘it depends’. Recognize that different types of phone systems have different benefits and then choose the system whose benefits most align with your business practices or ethos. A phone is a phone: the rest is up to you and your employees.