UC&C14 Nov 2017 · 4 min read

UC Trends: It’s All About the UX

As well as being able to perform well and provide all the latest communications features that aid collaboration and drive business growth, the success of any UC application depends heavily on its simplicity.

Ian Taylor

For example, a business could invest in highly advanced technologies in the hope that doing so would be enough to generate a sizeable return, but if the UX is poor and the infrastructure is complicated and costly to manage it then the whole thing is potentially one big failure.

So, what needs to be done to ensure that unified communications deployments will take off with employees in a modern business? Here are a few things to consider:

User Adoption

At its very core, the goal of UC is to maximise the communications experience of the user and make their lives simpler - and businesses must remember to bear this in mind when implementing new UC applications into their infrastructure.

In order to do this, it makes sense for businesses to think about the difficulties their employees face on a daily basis and choosing a UC application that will provide an ample solution to these problems.

Single Pane of Glass

One of the major buzz phrases that we’ve been seeing crop up in 2017 is the ‘Single Pane of Glass’ approach to unified communications which is based on the idea that users can now securely access all of their UC communications features through a single app-based interface.

With this feature, users no longer have to waste time opening numerous different applications and are able to easily access the services they need or retrieve important information quickly from a single application that can be used on multiple platforms.

Mobile First

Unlike the past, we now live in a digital age that’s driven by mobile communications where handy, convenient apps play an integral part in the lives of many people who use them for the speed, efficiency and flexibility they offer.

Though it’s already huge, reports predicting the mobile enterprise application market will continue to grow from USD 48.24billion in 2016 to USD 98.03billion by 2021 at CAGR of 15.24% prove it shows no signs of slowing down and the demand from users is fierce.

With this in mind, it is essential for modern business to find a solution that can provide an all-in-one unified communication service that users can quickly access at the tap of a finger from whatever device they happen to be carrying with them at the time.

Ubiquitous Collaboration

As technology evolves, so too do the people that use it and, according to sources, it has been revealed that as much as 88% of millennials now prefer collaborative work-culture rather than a competitive one.

Unlike previous generations, we now live in a world that is becoming increasingly resentful towards hierarchies in the workplace and the future of business is leaning more towards an open plan working environment that is driven by collaboration.

As well as this, millennials have also demonstrated a huge preference for remote working on account of the convenience it brings into their lives and it is predicted that as much as 60% of office based employees will regularly work from home by 2022.

With this in mind, it’s fair to say that any UC application that provides a rich, ubiquitous collaborative working environment that enables employees to work together and communicate through multiple channels (voice, video, IM etc), from any location of their choosing is going to be hugely beneficial to the modern user.

Productivity Benefits

In a recent PwC study, it was shown that the main drivers of UC adoption are most commonly ‘hard’, bottom lined-oriented benefits with productivity gains being the most commonly cited factor from 52% of the buyers included in the survey.

With UC, employees are able to produce better quality work and perform at a much higher-level due to the comfort and convenience offered by a communications application that minimises app hopping and keeps everything in one place.

Contextual Communications / AI

Another exciting development that we’ve seen over the last 12 months is the growth of AI and the phenomenal changes that are happening in the world of UC as a result of machine learning and deep learning technologies.

With things like chatbots, video-enabled help desks, SMS appointment reminders, and authentication services removing some of the tedious burdens end users face, AI now enables said users to focus more heavily on engaging with the customer at an empathic level.

Moreover, by employing contextual communications, users are able to access a wealth of complex, detailed information about the customer that would ordinarily have taken hours, days even months to source without the assistance of AI.

As a result, the whole user experience, for both employees and customers alike, benefits enormously from AI and we believe this will be a really help drive UC adoption in the businesses of tomorrow.