Communication is evolving. Trends like artificial intelligence, the demand for big data, and remote working are changing the way that businesses connect, both with employees and customers. In a complicated workplace environment, most organisations need to implement dozens of different tools and platforms to empower their teams. Unfortunately, keeping track of those assets can be difficult, even if you have a dedicated IT team on-site.
Service Management Software has emerged as the ultimate security and efficiency booster for today's complex communication stacks. With service management tools from leading brands like Virsae and Swoop Datacom, business leaders will have a better overview of their end-to-end communication environment. This means that it's easier to find and eliminate problems before they become too significant. It also means that rolling out updates, patches, and new software can be a lot simpler.
Service management software has evolved from a solution associated mostly with network strategies and IT, to a crucial component of the UC environment. The right tools can help you keep your business running at optimum performance on a daily basis, by showing you where the bottlenecks are in your performance. What's more, service management software can even streamline the process of training and empowering new employees, so you end up with better customer satisfaction.
We spoke to the current leaders in the service management space, Virsae and Swoop Datacom, to get their thoughts on the changing SM landscape.
The Customer Trends That Shaped the Service Management Industry in 2018
Like many disruptive solutions in the communications market today, service management software is generally delivered over the cloud, giving teams the freedom to accelerate or reduce their support depending on their individual needs. The pay-as-you-go nature of service management equipment and its flexible structure makes it perfect for industries that need to frequently update or alter their strategy according to changing seasonal trends.
Over the last year, countless companies have begun to recognise the various benefits of service management software for themselves, Virsae and Swoop Datacom shared their opinions on the trends that have driven the industry forward.
John Bennett, CEO of Swoop Datacom:
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John Bennett, Swoop Datacom[/caption]
According to the CEO of leading service management provider, Swoop Datacom, the communication industry today is facing a period of rapid evolution and "extreme competition." In the last year, we've seen countless examples of vendor acquisition and consolidation. "Customers are looking to reduce costs with their process improvements, and product innovations. In response, vendors need to find more cost-efficient ways to make their offerings more attractive. The result has been an increase in collaboration between vendors and customers."
According to Bennett, rather than creating new products from scratch, many businesses have begun to take the "if you can't beat them, buy them" approach in service management. "This has provided customers with upgrade opportunities, better consolidation, and enhanced interoperability. The chance is particularly noticeable in the cloud platform where consolidation is creating new offerings, along with hybrid systems."
Bennett and Swoop Datacom believe that 2018 is set to become a year that we look back on as an era of "comebacks". John noted that we're seeing various estate reclamation and refresh moves from vendors like Cisco, Avaya, and Mitel who are adapting to suit the ever-changing needs of their customers.
Ian McCarthy, Senior Director of UK and EMEA for Virsae:
Ian McCarthy of Virsae also believes that customer experience is a crucial concern for the service management environment right now. "Clients are looking much more closely at customer experience as an overall measure of success. While SLA adherence and uptime provide operational metrics when it comes to performance, clients also want to see difference where it matters - in the minds and hearts of customers."
As customer experience continues to reign as the most crucial differentiator in any vertical, service management philosophies could offer a powerful solution for businesses that are striving to stay ahead of their client's demands. "Service management philosophies that map directly to customer experience are finding favour with a growing number of clients."
Virsae and McCarthy believe that while it's important to keep an eye on things like your KPIs, the bigger issue will always be keeping customers happy. According to Ian, the shifting focus on CX places additional pressure on today's service management vendors to provide "simpler answers to complex problems." Clients will begin to look for more control and command functions to help with automating system diagnosis, checking and fixes for their enterprise.
The Technologies Creating the Biggest Opportunities for Service Management
Service Management is a new, but exciting concept for people in the communication environment. The idea of service management solutions is that they give companies more control over their complex communication network. What's more, service management solutions can also reduce the risk that you'll suffer from any highly disruptive problems in your business, because they'll help you to pinpoint issues faster.
Of course, as more disruptive technologies enter the communications marketplace, service management tools will need to evolve to support an ever-changing technology stack.
Ian McCarthy, Virsae[/caption]
