The Cloud Comms Summit, hosted by the Cavell Group, was back this week with a bang! This service provider event has become popular for those businesses looking to augment their propositions to cater for new demands from business customers.
Over the past two years, we have seen the communications market race to prepare for remote working, driven primarily by the pandemic. Although the transition was largely successful, albeit under stressful circumstances, the working world soon found itself needing hybrid tools as a complete return to the office became unlikely. Today, customers demand more from their communications as they look for areas of differentiation around customer engagement, integration of workflows, and personalised tools that lend themselves to their market or customer base.
Cavell Group works with hundreds of service providers across the globe to help them understand market trends, develop new services and deploy new go-to-market strategies.
Cavell Group, Five9 and Cisco answered some of the big questions in communications at the Cloud Comms Summit.
1. Interview with Matthew Townend, Director, Cavell Group
Talking Points:
1) Key differentiators for Service Providers
2) Using CPaaS to provide personalised solutions
3) The future of fixed handsets
Matthew Townend, Director, Cavell Group, talks about the startling statistic that 38% of enterprises are looking to change their comms provider. We also hear about the changing nature of communcations in the recent years, and some of the big trends (analytics, the rise of integration, “bundling” and customer engagement). One big question Matthew Townend is interested in is what are companies going to do with the vast amounts of data they are sitting on? Watch this space!
“38% is a very important trend. Traditionally enterprises thought it was all about cost. Now it’s about product features.” – Matthew Townend, Director, Cavell Group
2. Interview with Thomas John, VP of Partner Sales, Five9
Talking Points:
1) Highlights from the Cloud Comms Summit
2) Service Provider challenges in the current climate
3) How AI and Gamification impacts EX
Analytics is the buzzword, according to Thomas John VP of Partner Sales, Five9. We hear how service providers are looking to reduce costs due to these uncertain times and that creating a virtual world with built-in rewards for sales agents could be the future.
“There is going to be a new way of working. I don’t call it work from home or even work from the office; it’s work from anywhere… What we see is going to be cutting edge is [finding out] how we can gamify [an agent’s] world” – Thomas John, VP of Partner Sales, Five9
3. Interview with Thomas Boesen, SVP Business Development, Cisco
Talking Points:
1) What are the topics and trends dominating the conversation with service providers?
2) How do Cisco see service providers fitting into the wider CPaaS landscape?
3) What are the biggest challenges service providers face?
Thomas Boesen wants to know how to keep employees interested in hybrid work as there has been much instability with people changing job every couple of years. We hear that Cisco’s acquisition of imimobile has been a fruitful one thus far. The big issue over the next 12 months for Boeson is which direction service providers are going to go in: they can either open new channels of communication with the consumer, or remain a one trick pony!
“At this point, [service providers] could either play the part that helps enterprises communicate with the consumers, or they can end up saying ‘ok, fine we’re just a data pipe.’” – Thomas Boesen, SVP Business Development, Cisco
