Chicomm Blog

In any manufacturing plant there are a lot of moving parts, involving people, processes, and equipment, and safety and security are paramount. Sources indicate that in 2017 alone, there were 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported by private industry employers, translating to 2.8 cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers.

Not staying informed about what’s happening on the floor can wreak havoc on operations. Two-way radios are key to factory communications and keeping employees and equipment safe.

Companies with great internal communications didn’t get to where they are by accident – they have worked hard to break down silos, enable collaboration and have the right tools at the ready.

Across industries, well-connected workforces are safer, more productive and more efficient, and there is a single solution that makes it happen: two-way radios.

What four things do companies with great internal communications already know? It starts and ends with radios.

Chicago Communications is proud to be a unified workgroup communications provider, and we’re so sure your team is going to love the new Wave OnCloud solution, we’re offering a free 30 day trial.

Wave OnCloud instantly breaks down communications barriers across frontline and field workers, across distance and, most importantly, across devices. Your team can say goodbye to juggling multiple radios, phones and tablets and hello to one easy-to-use, push-to-talk application for everything.

Let’s take a quick look at Wave OnCloud’s benefits as well as how to sign up for your free 30 day trial.

Push to talk is an important feature of two-way radios and other communications equipment. Also called "press to transmit", it enables the operator to start communications with another individual or with his or her team at the push of a button.

The term has its origin in the early history of two-way radio communication, where the PTT button physically engaged the operating mechanism of the handheld two-way radio transmitter.

Your legacy workforce management system probably isn’t just one system – it’s a series of disparate solutions that don’t talk to each other, don’t offer real-time updates and, worse yet, actually make it more difficult for staff across your office, plant or warehouse to communicate.

If you’ve just been putting up with your workforce management system’s shortcomings or haven’t shopped around for a while, you may not realize how stuck in the past your plant or office operations have become or what new, economic options are available.

To help decide whether you could use an update, here are 5 signs of an outdated workforce management system.

As the end of the year approaches, how you spend your technology budget can impact not only your current communications operations, it can affect how much money is allocated to you next year. If you don’t use all of that money wisely this year, you likely won’t get an increase – or even as much – next year.

To preserve your technology budget and your ability to serve your organization, you need to make investments that show you’ve improved communications and overall efficiency. Fortunately, there are some great solutions available that serve a variety of wireless communications needs. 

Here are three savvy ways to spend your end-of-year technology budget. 

Wide area networks enabled by applications like PDV’s DispatchPlus have gotten even wider coverage capabilities – without the need for more devices – through integration with smart phones and tablets.

ChiComm Account Executive Todd Niccum says the new feature is particularly a hit with company owners and managers who are already juggling multiple handhelds, including their personal cell phones, business cell phones, tablets and laptops.

“Another device wasn’t what they were looking for,” Niccum said.

DispatchPlus was developed and brought to market by pdvWireless, whose chairman and vice chairman are co-founders of Nextel Communications. The strength of the Nextel brand has helped win over both cell phone customers looking to make the sensible switch to radios as well as non-Motorola radio users looking to step up their service, Niccum said.

“The superior voice quality isn’t matched by any other radio or cellular system,” he says. And when customers hear of pdvWireless’ history, they say, “’Ooh, I used to have Nextel, they work great.’”