Today’s professionals spend much time in the cloud. The rise of hybrid and remote work means cloud environments like UCaaS and CCaaS platforms are quickly becoming the digital hub of the workforce. These spaces allow for more agile and flexible access to technology wherever your team members might be. However, the disconnect between different cloud tools can cause problems.

With so many tools to use daily, it’s easy for teams to become overwhelmed in a disconnected digital environment. In fact, some studies suggest the average company uses up to around 245 SaaS applications per day. 

Combining communication environments for UCaaS and CCaaS can help to minimise these issues, improve productivity, and even drive cost savings. Here are some of the hottest trends driving the consolidation of the clouds in 2022. 

  1. The Convergence of Clouds and XaaS

Perhaps the most significant factor pushing UCaaS and CCaaS together today is the consolidation of various “as a service” cloud solutions. XaaS, or “Everything as a Service”, is growing increasingly popular as more companies transition people and processes into the cloud. The UCaaS landscape is growing increasingly flexible, allowing for more integrations with additional SaaS tools, from CRM systems to workforce management solutions.

A flexible cloud environment can open the door for more aligned cloud technologies across a range of different platforms. Not only are UCaaS and CCaaS (Contact Centre as a Service) offerings becoming more intertwined, but many vendors are also offering additional XaaS services too. For instance, it’s becoming more common to see CPaaS and API offerings included with UCaaS/CCaaS platforms.

With consolidated cloud environments, companies can leverage the power of an end-to-end ecosystem for internal and external communications. This can lead to more contextual conversations in the contact centre, with access to CRM data and other useful insights. It also means companies can build more versatile omnichannel strategies for CX, where teams can easily connect and collaborate.

  1. The Rise of Hybrid Work

Hybrid and remote working strategies are more popular than ever. Around 76% of employees in one study said their companies are now shifting to a hybrid working model, and more modes of flexible work are emerging all the time. As companies discover the engagement, productivity and efficiency benefits of flexible working, they also recognise a growing need for the right cloud environments to empower their distributed workforce. 

While individual UCaaS and CCaaS tools can support hybrid and remote workers, these disconnected environments can lead to reduced productivity and information silos. Bringing the two spaces together ensures the team members can access the same information, support, and guidance wherever they are – even through mobile apps. 

With UCaaS and CCaaS combined, business leaders empower their hybrid teams to deliver better levels of customer service, greater productivity, efficiency, and accuracy. At the same time, an all-in-one environment makes it easier for IT and security teams to track the performance and processes of team members wherever they are. We’re even seeing a rise in the number of cloud environments expanding to allow for intercompany collaboration.

  1. Employee Wellbeing

Concepts like “Total Experience” and a rising focus on employer empathy have transformed the workplace in the last couple of years. To retain the best talent across the contact centre and the company’s backend, businesses need to ensure they’re supporting their team correctly. Today’s UCaaS and CCaaS solutions can help with this. 

Aligning both communication platforms ensure team members can access support and assistance when they need it most from colleagues, so they’re less likely to feel isolated when working remotely. The same tools also make it easier to get insights into employee engagement levels and areas where staff might benefit from additional training or guidance. 

Many UCaaS/CCaaS platforms even come with workforce management tools and collaborative environments where businesses can optimise and enhance their teams. With a team collaboration system as a central work hub in the cloud, business leaders can even implement gamification methods to bring distributed staff together. 

  1. The Personalisation of UC Tools

Part of keeping employees engaged and satisfied in a transforming workplace is ensuring they have access to the exact tools they need in a personalised space. By aligning UCaaS and CCaaS, business leaders can provide teams with a way to customise their workplace experience. Tools like Microsoft Teams are growing particularly popular as a new work hub for this reason.

Teams solutions not only enable UCaaS and CCaaS in the same place, but they also allow users to add apps and integrations specific to their needs without disrupting the productivity of other team members. Companies can further personalise the experience by using BYOC solutions like Operator Connect and Direct Routing to bring existing communications providers into Teams.

With versatile cloud environments, companies can adapt their technology to suit the various employee personas in their workforce while ensuring everyone has access to the same central tools. Teams can even choose how they want to communicate with colleagues through video, chat, or phone calls.

  1. New Augmented Experiences

Finally, the consolidation of UCaaS and CCaaS solutions allow businesses to build an agile and adaptable environment for the new age of work and customer experience. With everything your teams need to communicate internally and externally in the same place, it’s much easier to implement new and disruptive tools as they emerge. 

For instance, companies can add artificial intelligence capabilities to the cloud, which allow teams to offer self-service solutions to customers. However, those same self-service bots can also help employees to find information and assistance quickly when they’re working in the cloud. The right tools can also open the door for augmented meetings with colleagues and customers alike.

Not only are many vendors experimenting more with VR collaboration and XR tools for customer service, but they’re also looking for ways to bring more contextual insights into conversations. This could mean using AI to bring information about a contact to a user, whether they’re having an internal meeting or discussing a service with a customer. 

 

 



from UC Today https://ift.tt/EMUI7ik