Mitel, the leading communications provider, recently published a new report into the state of Unified Communications as a Service in Europe. The research includes information taken from 1,000 decision-makers in the IT landscape, sharing their views on the third edition of the Europe-wide survey from Mitel.
The study found that across Europe, more agility is becoming the top reason for businesses to migrate communication strategies into the cloud. This is the third consecutive year in which Mitel has been able to conduct research into the adoption of the cloud by European companies. The survey conducted in conjunction with Spoking Polls highlights the rising adoption rate among companies. Mitel also acknowledges a new maturity in migrating to cloud and as-a-service models.
In large part, the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating this trend by transforming the economy and highlighting how significant it is for companies to find vendors that allow them to remain productive and agile, regardless of the environment.
A New Attitude Towards Cloud
The survey from Mitel demonstrates that 44% of respondents are already willing to consider migrating their contact centre environment into the cloud. This represents a massive increase of 29% since 2018. The survey comes at an important time.
Currently, the European markets and the UK are sitting on the edge of an economic crisis. Businesses are having to rapidly adapt to cloud communications, with as a service strategies at the helm. Notably, while Mitel found that demand for innovation and agility is growing, it isn’t essential at any price.
The survey found that companies will only migrate communications into the cloud if doing this helps them to meet their operational and business goals. This maturity comes from the fact that agility, the top reason for migrating (35%), now takes precedence over functional components.
UK companies were more concerned about agility today than their European peers, with 46% ranking agility as the highest concern on their agenda, compared to around 35% for Europe as a whole. Innovation is also an important concern taking 28% of the vote today. This is significantly lower than the percentage for innovation in 2018.
New Approaches to Cloud Migration
The Mitel research discovered other signs of an increasing maturity in cloud migration throughout the UK. During 2018, 88% of the respondents said that the cost of migration was the most important metric when evaluating ROI. 2 years later, the IT decision makers surveyed were less concerned with migration costs at 24%. However, they are concerned about specific costs for certain equipment.
Mitel’s research also highlights the need of British businesses for a fast-paced and competitive market. The results indicate that avoiding vendor lock-in is crucial over other contractual criteria. Around 46% of respondents want to be able to change provider rapidly if the service contract isn’t fulfilled. Further, UK businesses place a high priority on the length of the contractual commitment.
Around 35% of respondents said that they wanted to avoid vendor lock-in. Unsurprisingly, the development of cloud-based software and services has led to a demand for more flexible methods. The uncertainty of the market caused by COVID-19 and Brexit accelerates this trend.
Around 32% of businesses believe that reliable and feature-rich voice communications are the most important capabilities of a first-class UCaaS system. This puts them ahead of UC features like IM, video conferencing, and presence, which topped the list previously. 29% of IT decision makers say that the integration of BYOD is important, and collaboration tools are essential too, for 27%.
The Shifting Journey to the Cloud
UK companies are more likely than their EU counterparts to use a public cloud solution for communications. Around 1 in 3 companies said they’d prefer a public approach to cloud.
Private cloud coming in second at around 20%. Across Europe, variations of private cloud are a more popular choice for business.
This is an indication that cloud computing is gaining more adoption in Britain than other markets. Businesses across Europe and Britain have turned a corner in recent years, according to VP of Mitel Cloud Sales, Rami Houbby. Companies are selection the cloud as a flexible way to access the latest innovations for greater customer experiences and productivity. IT leaders must deliver on the objectives of their organisations for competitiveness and agility.
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