In our always-on interconnected world, how typically have you ever discovered your self frantically checking varied communication platforms to be sure you are updated on a subject?
Having to cross-check and click on in and out of functions can disrupt your considering course of and waste helpful time.
To deal with this disjointedness, enterprises have began to maneuver in direction of a unified communications (UC) strategy the place an all-in-one system for communication integrates and combines a number of communication channels equivalent to voice, video, private and crew messaging, voicemail, and content material sharing.
Life on Microsoft Teams is an instance of unified communication that most individuals have had publicity to post-Covid-19. You can chat, meet, name, share and ping your colleagues advert infinitum.
It even has built-in meme and GIF choices to maintain the workplace spirit chirpy.
But this isn’t the place the chances cease …
What concerning the very particular wants of some organisations to centralise all buyer communication – even these which might be coming by way of on social media platforms?
Or what if a enterprise requires limitless VoIP (voice over web protocol) to attach workers, clients and companions from any machine, wherever they’re?
According to Sharon Maasdorp, managing govt for unified collaboration at BCX, the proliferation of UC platforms and instruments might help curb prices in an inflationary financial system.
“Leveraging the BCX UC platforms, for example, is much more efficient than organisations trying to maintain multiple systems and platforms at once,” she says.
“Businesses no longer need to make capital-intensive investments. We have made those investments already, the solutions are hosted in our data centre, and you can access them simply and effectively via multiple entry points.”
The services are additionally accessible on a subscription foundation in order that shoppers solely use what they want and can scale up and down because the enterprise requires.
Using know-how to offer alternative
Being capable of provide a number of choices for consumer and buyer interplay however sustaining a single view of all conversations on one UC platform drives effectivity.
For instance, says Maasdorp, the youthful generations not favor voice communication. Why speak when you possibly can sort? Why have a two-way dialog when you possibly can ship a voice word? Or even higher, why have interaction with one other particular person in any respect if a chatbot can reply your question outdoors of workplace hours inside seconds?
Then once more, this isn’t each buyer’s cup of tea. Some non-digital natives favor to talk to an precise particular person on the different finish of what seems to be a conventional phone line – even whether it is really VoIP.
“It speaks to the maturity of the offering that we provide this omnichannel capability,” she says.
“We want to empower our customers and our customers’ customers by giving them the choice of how they want to interact.”
The cloud and past
BCX presents its UC instruments and services on a subscription foundation, offering unified communications as a service (UCaaS).
Maasdorp says the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant improve in distant and hybrid work has opened up a brand new pool of clientele who would beforehand not have thought of the cloud in any respect.
“We have even seen customers in the public space, who pre-Covid did not consider the cloud, being pushed in that direction,” she says.
“Our applications sit in our datacentre, but we also have apps that live in the hyperscale environment, perfectly positioning our solutions to provide that flexibility, whether your preference as an organisation is public or private cloud. We can cater for all scenarios.”
A hyperscale cloud is normally a multi-tenant platform the place computing assets may be accessed (and added or eliminated quickly) relying on demand.
Ready for UC? What to search for …
If you or your organisation is able to leap into the UC pool, Maasdorp says step one is to enlist the assistance of a trusted and skilled advisor.
The advisor or supplier you select ought to have experience in not simply PBX (personal phone networks) but additionally voice and information because the underlay of all of the functions which might be required. She advises that you simply discover somebody who can present the required ICT help, a supplier that has expertise in managing complicated ICT programs.
Choosing the correct associate reduces danger, she provides.
Secondly, audit your present community setup to find out whether or not it’s prepared for a UC migration venture or if it first wants an improve.
If you will make the leap, says Maasdorp, use the chance to additionally future-proof your programs in phrases of challenges equivalent to electrical energy provide.
The energy of conversational AI
According to Maasdorp, the impression of applied sciences and synthetic intelligence (AI) can be important in creating higher communication experiences as clients proceed to make better use of digital channels equivalent to net and video chat, chatbots, social media integration and so on.
She says it’s even potential, with the developments in machine studying and AI, to foretell what a buyer’s channel choice can be, or what their intent may very well be with a subsequent interplay as soon as contact has been made.
Conversational AI already results in decrease customer support prices, increased buyer satisfaction, elevated buyer agent effectivity, and higher information assortment.
“It is the key to a whole new level of personalisation,” says Maasdorp.
“It will be a real game-changer, and organisations should be ready.”
Brought to you by Telkom BCX.
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