It would seem that the traditional telecoms carrier of the past simply can’t keep up with the seamless communication solutions that customers expect today. Around a decade ago, marketing firms were just beginning to forecast the future of the IP Telephony market – suggesting that telecoms companies and cable providers would be heading into the battle for VoIP subscribers. Back then, experts believed that there would be a serious migration into VoIP services in the U.S. – and they weren’t wrong. However, they didn’t have any idea that a new type of cloud-based communications provider was going to hit the scene.
Today, consumers expect seamless, instantaneous communications with their favourite brands, and that’s something that traditional telecoms companies struggle to provide. Conventional carriers are restricted by outdated regulatory controls, legacy networks, and organisational girth. However, today’s cloud-based providers can give businesses a chance to deploy and manage their voice and messaging solutions directly through the network. Cloud providers aren’t tied up to an infrastructure – everything operates on cloud software, making deployment faster, simpler, and less costly.
The Future of Cloud Communications
During the 2016 Cloud Communications Survey, research by “No Jitter” discovered that many enterprises are being drawn into the world of cloud communication for a host of reasons. Some of the primary features prompting adoption included: cost of ownership compared with on premise options, and agility when adding features, users, and features in response to business needs.
Today, we’ve seen a huge change in the way that businesses use messaging, voice, and other communication services. CPaaS, or Communications platform as a service gives businesses the chance to use communication services in innovative new ways to improve the experience of customers and add extra functionality to existing services and products. For the growth of 2017, this means we may see further changes.
What to Expect in 2017
The trends that most experts are predicting for 2017 include:
- Communication providers driving innovation: Many predict that 2017 will be the year when cloud-based IP communications providers take control, with business models that work on delivering open access solutions to telecoms such as phone numbers, text messaging, outbound and inbound calling, and advanced signalling data
- Taking Call Centres to the cloud: Despite the rise of social media-based customer services and chat bots, the traditional call centre remains to be one of the most popular methods for dealing with customer complaints. However, as businesses continue to implement new IP telephony and communication tools, customer services agents no longer exist within a specific set location. According to the 2016 survey, 22% of respondents suggest that their organisations are relying upon cloud-hosted ACD and contact centre options, while 10% want to add those features in the next 12 months
- Team Collaboration will start to rule: Team apps are set to replace traditional video conferencing and UC apps. The ability to people or meet and share content on any device and from any location is adding huge value right now and we’ll continue to see ‘team’ technology as the new business productivity tool.
- Security is a concern for Enterprises: As cloud based communications becomes more common, companies will need to make sure that their customer and business data is secure. In 2017, cloud calls may mandate further security measures – perhaps locking them down similarly to a VPN token. This should help to eliminate the ability to spoof numbers and steal confidential information.
Now, all we can do is wait and see how the predictions above unfold throughout the rest of 2017.
What do you think? Drop a comment or a prediction just below.
