Businesses have been using VoIP for over 20 years, and while having gained widespread acceptance, it’s easy to forget just how disruptive it once was. The breakup of AT&T in 1984 spurred much-needed competition in the U.S. telecom market, but innovation did not follow for another 10 or so years. During that time, there were more telcos to choose from, and few choices for business telephony service until VoIP came along to challenge legacy players with lower cost, rich features, and a strong value proposition. This evolution eventually gave way to cloud communications - as we know it today.
The cloud – innovation-driven disruption
Cloud represents a different type of disruption in the communications market today, and one that is innovation-driven rather than price-driven. Whether businesses are looking to migrate premises-based telephony to the cloud, having a commodity, price-driven mentality around telephony will prove short-sighted in many ways.
First of all, telephony is hard to do, especially when enterprise-grade quality and reliability is needed. Not all cloud voice services are created equal, and when considering a move away from legacy telephony, this could be your most important decision. While many vendors say they offer cloud voice, accomplishing a true PBX replacement is not to be taken lightly and requires overcoming many engineering complexities. That view was certainly validated by RingCentral’s CEO and Founder, Vlad Shmunis, during a recent talk among industry analysts.
The power of voice can not be understated, and has always been foundational to business communication, not just internally, but also for customer-facing interaction. Aside from interacting in-person, voice provides the most immediacy and intimacy for communication, and desk phone telephony has long been the best option for this mode. Other modes like email, chat and video have their virtues, but each has some shortcomings when compared to telephony.
That said, workplace demographics are shifting, and based on the messaging-centric preferences of digital natives, it may appear that voice is losing relevance. For these workers, the desk phone is more like a last resort for everyday communication, but when considering the broader trends around digital transformation and AI, the reality is precisely the opposite. As we move into conversational AI and voice-enabled chatbots, workers will engage in new ways that go beyond person-to-person communication, and with that the role of voice will be enhanced, not diminished.
During his talk, Vlad explained how there’s been a steady evolution around voice technologies, but most businesses are still constrained by premises-based phone systems that are built around legacy features and functionality. These phone systems are like islands, operating independently from all the other communications applications running on a data network.
With the phone system being supported by a standalone voice network, voice cannot be integrated with these other applications. Not only does this make for inefficient workflows, but it’s also a poor use of network resources. As such, it’s not enough to just have telephony service, the value comes from extending voice in the cloud, and realising bigger outcomes around integrated unified experiences and seamless workflows.
As Figure 1 below shows, that bigger value first comes by IP-enabling voice via PBX replacement, and adding voice to the data network where it shares a common foundation with all the other communications modes. That first wave creates the foundation for future waves of cloud-based evolution, where all these modes become more tightly integrated, not just for Unified Communications, but higher-order capabilities like AI, which we’re just starting to see now.
Figure 1 – 4 Waves of Business Communications Evolution
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Evolving strategically from voice to collaboration - click to enlarge[/caption]
This evolutionary path gives rise to two factors businesses must consider to make a strategic transition with telephony. First is the need to replace the legacy phone system – likely a PBX – with cloud-based telephony, and without any compromise in quality or reliability. Most cloud communications providers can support their performance claims with metrics, but beyond that, you should tap third party sources for independent validation. There is a wide variance for how well these cloud services perform, and to move along this evolution path, it’s essential to know what you’re getting.
With those assurances in hand, the next factor is to think beyond telephony and how voice can help drive productivity, both for individual workers, and team-based work. Both modes of working are essential in the workplace now, and telephony has a key role to play with each. However, that role cannot be fulfilled with a like-for-like upgrade from PBX to IP PBX.
Jon Arnold[/caption]
