There are currently some very clear trends occurring
It’s never easy to predict the future, and doing so with confidence often results in embarrassment. However, it’s significantly easier to identify trends and subsequently take steps necessary to prepare an organization for success. For instance, there are currently some very clear trends occurring within the unified communications (UC) space.
UC has hit its stride in recent years with constant evolution from bulky, often unreliable systems to today’s streamlined and far more flexible cloud-based solutions. However, UC is continuing to steadily evolve with much of the advancement now centered on effectively leveraging the growing number of mobile devices entering the business environment. Conservative estimates put the mobile growth rate at 15 percent per year through the year 2020.
As mobility has grown, user dependence on smartphones and tablets has intensified with these mobile devices now playing a prominent role in enabling and empowering an array of business communication channels –- including dynamic access to text messaging, video conferencing and voice communications — regardless of where users are geographically. At the same time, there has been a shift in device ownership with the “bring your own device” (BYOD) trend taking hold within organizations of all sizes. So much so, in fact, that Gartner predicts that half of employers will require employees to supply their own work devices by 2017.
Understandably, as BYOD grows, the focus will intensify on empowering business people with the ability to customize and personalize how they use their own devices to communicate with coworkers, customers and suppliers. For organizations to stay ahead of the curve — to future-proof its investments – they must have a flexible UC system with an intuitive portal, like Broadview Networks’ MyOfficeSuite®. Like the 100 percent cloud-based OfficeSuite® system, the future of the UC business model is a solution that allows users to not only manage their preferences and settings from anywhere on their own personal device, but it is also dependent upon the initial system being one built around the users’ needs.
What makes a fully cloud-based solution like OfficeSuite® different is that it revolves around the user, providing all employees with the ability to manage everything themselves from anywhere, using any device. This self-reliance is crucial considering how many employees now embrace the always-on business mantra of operation. Today’s millennial user expects a far more intuitive customer experience that only comes from technology that is built from the ground up with one end goal: user empowerment.
