Over the last decade we’ve seen a huge shift in the way businesses communicate and cloud-based UC applications have played a pivotal role in helping businesses operate more efficiently and more productively than ever before.
As technology evolves, the user’s expectations evolve with it and we are now seeing a much higher demand for real-time, truly unified communications that provide customers with instant responses to their queries and problems via a channel that is most convenient and comfortable for them to use.
When you take into consideration a recent survey which states that 60% of people’s willingness to recommend, buy from and invest in a company is driven by their perceptions of the company itself rather than just the products it sells, investing in solutions that boosts customer engagement and maximises their experience with the company as a whole becomes crucial
Unlike 10 years ago, we are now living in a world dominated by mobile Internet and cloud-app based communications such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, FaceTime and Instagram.
In place of traditional voice and email only based interactions, customers now expect businesses to offer video, text and other forms of real-time communications, as well as having customers’ details readily available to help speed up transactions– and the future of any business depends on how well they can adapt to this new way of doing things to ensure they stay relevant and competitive 10 years down the line.
But what exactly are these cloud-based UC apps, why are they necessary and what sort of benefits can they bring to help businesses today? In order to find out, we’ve decided to create an informative guide on what new cloud communications products are currently available to businesses and how they are changing the world of business communications.
Web-Based APIs
When a recent report claimed that the global telecom API market, valued at $59.4billion in 2015, was estimated to expand with a CAGR of 20.2% from 2016 to 2023, it became clear that APIs would have a drastically important role to play in the future of business communications – but why?
If you were to look at the vast number of internet-powered products currently used by the everyday consumer and business user – everything from smartphones, tablets, televisions, PlayStations (the list goes on) – it gives a clear indication of where the world is heading and finding a way to transfer business data across all of these channels evenly via APIs is essential.
As we drift away from web and into a new world that’s driven by apps, APIs provide a fitting solution that enables brands, marketing companies and developers to engage with their customer through mobile communication, creating a channel that is fast, widely accessible and uses very little bandwidth (thus making it ideal for mobile users with limited data allowances).
CPaaS
Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) is another booming trend in the world of UC and with a recent IDC report claiming the market will grow from $867million in 2016 to $8.2billion in 2021, we know that it will be a major player in the future of business communications – but why is this?
As we’ve mentioned previously, the demand for real-time communications in a world that is communicating more and more prevalently through cloud-based applications, CPaaS offers a solution that enables developers to add real time communications features such as video, voice and IM directly into their own apps without having to build backend infrastructure.
Ordinarily, to accomplish this, businesses had two options: either invest a great deal of time and money into developing the infrastructure themselves, or to rely on third party providers such as Skype or WhatsApp to provide that service for them.
Now, however, CPaaS offers businesses of all sizes the opportunity to easily develop and embed real-time communications features such as video-enabled help desks and IM chat windows directly into their applications or on their website, thus simplifying the customer care process by giving them everything they need in one place whenever they need it.
Platforms like 8×8 for example provide a third option for businesses, regardless of size, location or technical know how. 8×8 provides the ability to use out of the box applications with pre built integrations, along with providing access to the underlying technology to allow businesses to modify and enhance their applications with communications features.
Moreover, though many businesses have been relying on shadow UC apps to engage with customers through these real-time communications channels, the new GDPR laws set to begin mid-2018 forces them to find a compliant solution that doesn’t expose customer information to anyone outside the business and can be retrieved whenever it is needed.
Though WhatsApp, Facebook Chat, Messenger and others may have provided temporary solutions, CPaaS gives businesses full ownership of the data and will safeguard them against any fines that could occur if regulators investigate how information is being shared.
Will WebRTC become the mainstream UX in 2017?
With a market report claiming growth at a CAGR of around 36.8% over the next decade to reach approximately $41.94 billion by 2025, it’s clear that WebRTC is going to play a huge part in the evolution of how businesses engage with customers in the future.
As we’ve been discussing throughout this article, real-time communications are an essential component in meeting the expectations of customers in a modern market and delivering high quality service that ensure they remain satisfied and happy with the company.
More than simply resolving the issue, real-time communications is the key to ensuring that the customer’s experience is pleasant, effortless and filled with the idea that the company is genuinely concerned about helping them from start to finish.
More UC Trends 2017
- UC Trends 2017 – Moving to the Cloud
- UC Trends: But is it Safe?
- UC Trends: It’s All About the UX
- UC Trends 2017: The Robots Are Coming!
- UC Trends 2017: Who Just Joined?
UC Trends 2017 Series is kindly sponsored by 8×8
