The world of business is clearly changing - the question is, are today's companies ready for the transformation? To discuss the ever-growing list of concerns that businesses have to face in the search for the right communication options, we sat down with Modality Systems co-founder and CEO, James Rodd.
Modality Systems was formed in 2007, and since then, it's seen tremendous growth in the enterprise. In the beginning, Modality Systems started by explaining to customers what cloud technology, and software-based communications were all about. They developed their consulting practice early on, and by 2014, they had 60 people in their company, no debt, and a global footprint. Modality Systems were acquired by PGi in 2015 and have gradually expanded to help organisations across the world with their Microsoft UC strategies.
How Do you Feel about the Balance Between Communication and Collaboration?
As a company that started off in the very early days of the emerging balance between communication and collaboration, Modality Systems has a lot of insight to offer into the way the world is changing. James noted that in recent years, collaboration has taken more of the focus in the current space - it's the main topic of conversation. However, you can't have collaboration if you can't communicate at the same time.
"A lot of vendors right now are focusing on trying to connect content with communication. There's this shift of putting the data first and then contextually discussing that information. Our specialty is making sure that once you have the content, you have the context too."
In terms of whether communication services or collaboration solutions should be presented first, Rodd noted that it really depends what a vendor's history or background is:
"If you're a traditional communications player then you're bound to lead with communications. If you've historically been in content and data, then you can lead with collaboration."
Why is Collaboration so Popular Now?
James acknowledged that collaboration isn't exactly a new concept, but it has been enhanced, improved, and contextualised in the modern marketplace.
"Today, people are starting to see how context can enhance a user workflow. Our job is to demonstrate how customers can see the ROI from enhancing the experience for their users. Back when we started Modality Systems as a company, the big focus for a lot of companies was presence, and presence is still a major focus today. Presence dictates how you decide to communicate."
According to James, it's important for today's companies to have individual presence access to make their communication decisions.
"Most people are looking for specialists when they want to collaborate over a project. Today, you can use things like bot technology to get a system to direct you to someone with the right skillset. It's all about making those contextual connections."
What Are People Asking for With Workflow Systems Today?
The biggest focus for most people investing in collaboration and communication is finding a system that can deliver ROI by enhancing workflows, providing a seamless user experience (UX), and boosting efficiency. I asked James what he considered to be the biggest driving factor for most companies looking at UC&C.
