Chicomm Blog

Every year, it seems that the communications needs of companies and organizations evolve. Sure, the general needs are fairly consistent - reliable and secure communication, ensuring the safety of students/guests/patients, etc. - but goals evolve, and so do challenges.

This post is a quick look at four of the most common communications challenges that organizations across the country encounter on a daily basis. These aren’t industry-specific, as they relate on some level to multiple industries. For more information on how your organization can overcome these challenges, you can download our free eBook, the Wireless Communication Survival Guide.

Here are four of the most common communication challenges:

It goes without saying that safety is a top-tier concern for businesses and organizations. With new federal and state mandates to have robust and secure commercial safety plans in place, safety has become a renewed priority. Hospitals, schools, industry, and manufacturing are all looking for products and technological solutions to support and service their safety plans.

Two-way digital radios provide instant, secure, and high-performing communication that helps increase productivity, improve resolution time, enhance safety, and protect workers. In addition, devices' long life and durability reduce costly repairs and downtime, but they still need servicing and maintenance. 

You’re an IT or system administrator in, say, healthcare, business, hospitality, or education. You have a good two-way radio system, and everything seems to be going okay, but you want to do your due diligence. You want to check how well your system is operating before anything goes wrong. To understand how it’s being used and where the choke points might be. You want data—and the ability to analyze and use that information to maintain and improve your radio system.

I can't tell you how many times I’ve heard from a customer, "My police radio system sounds bad," only to find that their radios are not set up correctly.

Not having the right setup and/or not using two-way radios properly will lead to all kinds of performance issues, even if you have the latest emergency communications equipment. This can impact everything from routine conversations to emergency communications and disaster response. Before you call to have your radios or systems serviced, it’s worth the time to try a few troubleshooting tips first.

The simplicity of the solutions here may surprise you, so keep reading for my answer to why your police radio system sounds so bad. Hint: It’s probably not the radio.

Tight budgets and funding challenges are a reality for most businesses, schools, healthcare facilities, and public safety organizations.

Between supply chain delays, labor shortages, and adapting to a more virtual-based work environment, 2022 was a challenging year for businesses and organizations, ranging from manufacturing to healthcare to hospitality. With all that going, you may well have missed a few Chicago Communications blogs, including reader favorites looking at video surveillance, commercial radio systems, avoiding battery issues, and tips for pairing your two-way radio with a Bluetooth headset.

Healthcare facilities are busy, complicated environments. One of the biggest challenges is knowing who’s entering and exiting. Clinics and hospitals have many points of entry, like delivery areas, emergency, and possible places for maintenance and staff to leave the building. With all this activity, how do healthcare facilities monitor who’s coming and going in order to keep patients and staff safe?

Understandably, much of the focus on school safety involves what happens to students when they’re on campus, but what about school bus safety? Among the tools for keeping millions of students, coaches, teachers, and drivers safe on buses every day, two-way radios are at the top of the list.

For a variety of reasons, two-way radios are an ideal communications solution for school safety in general, and transportation in particular.

Let’s look at ways to enhance school bus safety with two-way radios.