Warren Saari, President and CEO of Omega Communications Ltd.
KELOWNA – TeamTalk promises to make teamwork easier for companies.
Warren Saari, President and CEO of Omega Communications Ltd., has seen what the relatively new “push to talk radio” that works over the cellular network with nationwide coverage has done to help employees and offices communicate easier and more affordably.
“It’s a system of two-way radios that work via cell phone towers,” Saari explains. “I could be in Toronto and someone could be here and when they push to talk, it works and they can hear clearly. It’s a highly effective and cost-effective way of communicating with your team.
Saari notes that TeamTalk is ideal for all kinds of service companies that need to keep each other in the loop, as well as a central head office dispatch centre.
“Hardware for the system is really inexpensive and it’s only $25 to talk unlimited, with units starting at around $300,” he adds. “The system is also ‘distracted driving legal’, which means that anybody with a mobile work force that has crews driving around and needs to talk to each other and the office, this is very safe, as well as being a very efficient alternative to cellphones.”
Omega Communications Ltd. service trucks
Besides service industry businesses, clients that are using TeamTalk include municipal government departments, regional districts, utility companies, construction, landscaping and waste management companies.
Saari has been with Omega since 1992, starting as a service coordinator, then moving into sales and buying into the company in 2000. Slowly, he bought out the founding shareholders and became majority owner in 2016. Vice President Russ Coughlan is a shareholder as well, and has been with the company for almost 20 years.
Omega Communications Ltd. office in Kelowna
“We have an amazing team of really smart sales people and technicians, and we are always learning,” Saari states, noting he just returned from the International Wireless Communications Expo where he saw a number of new, cutting-edge devices. “We constantly research the latest technologies and see how and where they could fit in our offering.”
He notes this is their best fiscal year ever, as Omega has become “the ‘go-to’ for complex public safety systems, fresh & waste water DATA networks (data over radio), and providing radio over IP (ROIP) solutions to the biggest open pit copper mines in the country,” he says.
There’s no doubt that TeamTalk has been a big contributor to the increase.
“It works much like cellular, but provides a digital two-way radio solution for mobile work forces as an alternative to cellular coverage,” he notes. “It allows companies to take advantage of all those reasons why the ‘big boys’ use two-way radios.”
By Business Examiner Staff