People today have become astoundingly connected to one another through technology—not just to family and friends, but to coworkers and professional colleagues as well. Workforces are steadily adopting mobile and wearable technologies to help improve their operations, and the retail sector is no exception.

Wireless workplace solutions provider Spectralink Corporation has announced a partnership with Vertical Communications, a business communications software and solutions provider. Together the companies will offer North American retailers with integrated communication devices and application solutions to help optimize their communications infrastructure, enhance customer experience, reduce costs and improve productivity. Vertical will serve as a direct reseller of Spectralink Wi-Fi and DECT product solutions, and will develop custom applications for Spectralink's purpose-built handsets.

Vertical is no stranger to the retail sector, as the company’s solutions are currently being used by 10 percent of the top U.S. retailers and in more than 20,000 retail outlets nationwide. Likewise, Spectralink offers wireless solutions that have been designed specifically for retailers, keeping their store managers and employees constantly connected on the sales floor.

The power of Spectralink’s devices lies in the connectivity they provide retailers, enabling employees to have instant access to current information on store performance and inventory. The devices can even double as barcode scanners for inventory and price checks, allowing employees to better serve customers. By making valuable real-time information available to workers on the ground, employee efficiency goes way up, as does customer satisfaction.

“This deal is particularly important for the retail sector, which is a key market for both Vertical and Spectralink,” Glenn Goldberg, CEO of Parallel Communications Group, Inc., recently told TMC. “Both companies have strong customer bases in this industry, and the growing need for retailers to integrate compelling unified communications technology with mobile communications makes this partnership particularly relevant.”

The move made by Spectralink and Vertical to team up, making wireless devices more widespread amongst retail workforces, is a very smart one.

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“Despite the perception that general purpose mobile devices like smartphones and tablets fit all, the fact is that there is still a large need for purpose-built wireless solutions in a variety of vertical markets,” commented Peter Bernstein, an industry expert and senior editor at TMC. “Retailing is a prime example of this, especially since in those types of venues a ‘BYOD’ device, which by its very nature leaves the premises, is not a reasonable solution for security and other reasons. It is why this partnership is a good fit for serving a robust market with unique needs.”

While other technologies have slowly nosed their way into the retail space, the sector—on the whole—has remained under-developed until now. The self-scanners in big department stores seemed ground-breaking at the time, but how long has it been since those were rolled out? It’s time for some serious technological changes in retail. Imagine the possibilities of totally autonomous and mobile employees who can conduct business with you on the spot, in any type of store, much like the touted Apple Store experience. With the latest partnership between Spectralink and Vertical, this is a trend worth watching.