Although Covid 19 has accelerated the deployment of mobile communication platforms, many businesses reacted to the challenges in a knee-jerk way, focusing on dealing with the immediate issues rather than adopting a strategy for the longer term. If 2020 and into 2021 saw a piecemeal approach to cloud solution implementation, the shortcomings of these emergency measures have been revealed and enterprises are now seeking to implement a range of solutions that more closely fit their needs. 

This involves a more holistic and complete approach to communications platforms and, as organisations know more about the mid-term landscape they face, composed of increased hybrid working and continued remote working, they are able to make plans and base their product choices on a clearer set of criteria. This presents a strong opportunity for UC providers to serve their customers better and deliver enhanced value. 

As we go into 2022, many of the same business challenges are set to continue. Rolling lockdowns are predicted to be a regular occurrence into 2022 and beyond which will cause additional pressures for those managing a mobile workforce. Issues such as security, health and wellbeing of the workforce and ensuring everyone is equipped to work comfortably have become part of serving a permanent mobile workforce and we are starting to see an increased formalisation of home and remote working. 

“Everyone has worked hard to address the challenges of the pandemic but 2022 will see enterprises take the next steps in making temporary solutions fit for purpose for the mid-term,” says Scott Goodwin, Managing Director NetSapiens International. “We are seeing customers look to provide solutions that serve the needs of their workers while ensuring their health and wellbeing are well-supported.” 

At the same time as handling the challenges of the pandemic, there is increased use of artificial intelligence in the UC stack and NetSapiens is seeing greater adoption, particularly in CCaaS and in customer, sales and operational support. 

“Usage of AI is growing and we believe empathy analysis will become a reality for the masses in 2022,” adds Goodwin. “Early use cases will be in customer support and Sales and Operational support and AI will reduce the risks associated with fraud as well as tighten security barriers” 

Further challenges will become apparent in 2022. The supply chain issues caused by the pandemic will be compounded by potentially increased trade wars with China which could impact further on the supply of chipsets. Inevitably, IT planning will become more complex as a result of constrained chip supply. 

Another challenge to address will be API wars and open standards. The depth and breadth of APIs is being increasingly important in maintaining margins and designing solutions for customers. Differentiation is enabled by the development of technical ecosystems that provide further choice to the end user but few will want to fully open up APIs that give away perceived competitive advantage so new models will arise to make APIs available in ways that complement and compensate their developers. 

NetSapiens looks forward to 2022 and helping customers address all of these challenges as they serve their customers with state-of-the-art communications platforms. 

 

 



from UC Today https://ift.tt/3H8TL5V