What if you could work the way you want? What if you could wake up amidst snow-clad mountains and talk to clients while sipping coffee at your favorite bistro?
It doesn’t really matter if you are not at your workstation; you can still stay connected with colleagues operating thousands of miles away from you.
Not just this, but no matter where you are, business is at your fingertips. And all thanks to unified communications, you can work from cafes, factories, airports, or home. You can be anywhere, but still, be aware of what’s going on.
Unified communications play a strategic role in business growth and continuity. It unlocks several benefits for the enterprise, including enhanced productivity and performance, as employees have the liberty to work from anywhere and anytime. Besides, businesses of all sizes benefit from incorporating a reliable and agile unified communication strategy that is designed to cater to all their communication needs.
Benefits of unified communications
- Improves business efficiency
- Cost-effective
- Boosts productivity
- Easily customizable
- Secure
- Scalable
2020- the year of unified communications
2020 has been the year for unified communications. Never in the past, an extravagant number of workforces operated remotely. The pandemic indeed has triggered a rapid adoption of the UC platform worldwide.
Things to remember
Incorporating a unified communications solution is way different than a typical IT project. If planned according to business needs, a successful UC implementation can literally change the way communication works for your business.
Well, it, indeed, is tough to name any other project that requires as much strategic planning and business engagement. Hence, it needs to be carried out after doing your homework right, and of course, under expert guidance. Therefore, to not let your UC strategy go out of sync, it is essential to stay up-to-date with what’s trending.
Top 5 UC trends to look out for in 2020
Not so long ago, tech elements such as artificial intelligence, virtual assistants, and video-enabled devices were aspirational concepts not handy to many. But today, the unified communications architecture has been enabled with these technologies.
Believe it or not, embracing unified communications trends is one of the top priorities for enterprises in 2020.
When it is the question of business communication, it is inevitable for businesses to implement the latest technologies to stay ahead of the competition: as the new formula for business communications is collaboration, remote intelligence, and, last but not least, customer experience.
If you are still operating with the basics, it is seriously time to make the shift to change the game.
Without any further ado, let’s check out the latest UC trends of the pandemic year.
AI or artificial intelligence
AI is changing the way everybody is communicating (even businesses). Unified communications are playing such a strong catalyst that a Gartner report has predicted AI to be one of the most pervasive technologies in almost every industry. And UC is no different.
After conquering most households, AI is now creeping into business communications to support businesses to control their meeting room technology. It also is changing the way the remote workforce is communicating.
The AI-powered virtual assistants are now trained to understand natural language processing (NLP) and potentially route calls to the right agent (isn’t that amazing). Similarly, the same mechanism provides caller information to the agent to create a better customer experience, also known as CX. This indirectly helps businesses reduce the wait time and increases the response rate that equals happy customers.
Cloud communication
I am sure a lot of us must have Googled, “What is UCaaS?”
If yes, then we know that it stands for Unified Communication as a service or a cloud mechanism for enterprise communication. Strategically speaking, the reality of cloud communications can be measured as cost-effective, fast, secure, and futuristic.
Engineered to offer instant messaging, video and web conferencing, team collaboration, and presence across all platforms makes UCaaS inevitable for business success.
Unlike on-premises, cloud communication services are reasonable and flexible. Today, the world is looking at these technologies because of the number of benefits it offers.
5G connectivity
A world where mobiles are no more a luxury but a necessity now has a gift called 5G connectivity. As planned, 2020 saw the emergence of 5G technology, which boosts mobile Unified communications and greatly impacts business success.
So, the next big thing to look for in mobile UC indeed is 5G connectivity.
Note**: Early adoption of 5G will significantly impact video conferencing and mobile VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).
Virtual meeting rooms
The power of globalization is making the world a smaller place, and the emergence of virtual meeting rooms is able to box the world in a single room.
Well, yes, that is the power of virtual meeting rooms where employee experience and productivity can be enhanced. And with the increase in the trend of remote workforces, it is time businesses re-evaluate and upgrade their meeting options.
Wrapping it up
Has the pandemic dramatically reduced travel and conveyance bills for your enterprise without hampering the overall productivity?
If yes, then it’s a result of well designed and well executed unified communication strategies.
To make more such changes to your business and not let distance be a concern, it is time to think on the lines of the UC trends seriously.
We have done our bit; now it is your turn.
To know more about Unified Communications, download our latest whitepapers on unified communication.