It's certainly an exciting time for business communications, but what do some of the most expert voices in the industry have to say about the way that the sector is heading? Whether its CX, AI, voice in general or how people are using technology to talk to each other - here's everything you need to know from the Cavell North America Summit 2024.
It's clear that business needs are changing and voice is becoming more important than ever. Those looking for communication, collaboration and contact centre solutions have a wide range of needs so selling to them is becoming a lot more technical. One way of tackling this technical complexity however is to embrace partnerships, with companies of all shapes and sizes preferring a single provider for all their needs.
Cost reduction initiatives, better CX, more aligned EX are all subjects of scrutiny across major verticals, with security and compliance being one of the top priority for businesses ranging in size from 250 all the way through to 1000+ employees (with the #1 focus of those under 250 being saving on costs). On top of this we are seeing SMEs embracing the informal contact centre model more and more, with further growth expected in the years to come.
One trend that we were already seeing before has been reconfirmed with customer experience being revealed as still being the top strategic priority for more than a third of businesses. It was also shown that nearly half of all customers believe that customer service is now worse than it was 3 years ago.
There was a lot of discussion around how mobility is going to start playing a major part in business communications going forward (including some input from us...OK maybe a lot of input from us. With technology barriers removed and the vast majority of the global workforce already implementing some form of mobility, we now see this as a prime time for integrated business mobility and mobile UC to take the forefront.
Overall, when it comes to creating value in communications the main focuses for providers will be (in no particular order):
As the most popular UCaaS in the world, when Microsoft makes a move in the communications space the reverberations are felt throughout the sector. This is why its so important to bear in mind that we are seeing large amounts of critical investment into customer engagement, customer contact and the Teams Phone suite. With the inclusion of integrated native calling, Teams Phone Mobile and co-pilot, Teams is vying to be the centre of the organization universe.
As one of the most polarizing technologies that the world has seen recently, of course AI has a big part to play in the conversation around how the way businesses operate is starting to shift. For collaboration, AI is seen as the ultimate information retention tool for actions, tasks and talking points. Zoom especially are focusing on this with perspectives from an individual, team and business level where information can be retrieved in a productive and value adding fashion.
Microsoft specifically have well and truly entered the age of co-pilot and generative AI. They are looking to move away from task-driven assistance and more towards understanding intended outcomes, acting on the behalf of individuals and adapting how they work. This could potentially be seen as a step towards co-pilot agents that can help bring data and information together and then inject that information into chats.
Once again however, when it comes to AI, the main concern overall globally is the privacy of company data when using AI, so providers will have to reinforce this above all else.
Voice integration will be a key opportunity in both the near and long-term future, not just because of cost saving measures, but also for ease of use and the way in which integrated voice can lean on, and in turn integrate with, the native features of UCaaS, including the all-important AI aspect.
Voice enablement of key cloud platforms will be one of the biggest pieces of the UC puzzle in the way that it slots into both existing and future usage of UCaaS as a whole.
Our COO, Christophe was also in attendance at the summit and he had a few key takeaways.
Omnichannel is one of the key contributors to success, making sure that all of the different functional aspects of a business, especially in SMEs, are connected and compliment each other. Whether it's sales, delivery or customer service everything has to work in tandem. A focus on parity between customer and employee experience will allow businesses to save on training costs and improve on loyalty in both areas, especially for smaller businesses that are close to subcritical mass.
For providers looking to drive adoption and become more relevant, working through APIs is crucial, and working within the channel is a big driver towards being able to do just that.