'Evolving technology trends such as Digital Transformation strategies and the Internet of Things (IoT) are having a profound input on organisational agility, but these movements are completely dwarfed when you consider the impact that business communications are having, and the UK channel needs to be able to respond to this.' This is according to Russell Lux, CEO of communications provider TelcoSwitch.
TelcoSwitch has identified six core trends in business communications the industry needs to be aware of and address:
Although there is rapid migration to the mobile phone, there is still a place for the desk phone. The issue is that these systems need to be able to integrate with BYOD and other mobile devices.
As more businesses embrace text, chat, file sharing, and video alongside the more traditional email and voice communications, UC has arisen so the channel needs to be able to offer end users solutions that can embrace this.
More and more connected devices are being added to the comms landscape. As a result, they are beginning to transmit real-time business data that employees use throughout the working day. As this develops over time they will cease to be one-way conversations with machines, but become more interactive.
The rise of BYOD and mobile use has resulted in web-based comms platforms becoming more attractive to end-users and the market is seeing higher levels of adoption.
WebRTC is an open standard for peer-to-peer UC that enables businesses to embed rich communications in apps and websites without the need for plug-ins, hardware or other bespoke solutions. Those organsiations adopting WebRTC are doing so as it is an easy, cost effective method of rolling out UC, and this is a trend that is expected to continue over the next few years.
With business communications becoming almost entirely digital, concerns over hacking are on the rise. UC and BYOD are now a reality for many businesses and so security awareness is playing catch-up.