Phones and phone numbers remain a critical part of the business environment. However, as the communications landscape evolves and large enterprises shift from on-premises telephony solutions to cloud-based UC platforms, managing numbers becomes increasingly complex. 

Tasks that were once manageable, like using a spreadsheet or a simple database to handle numbers for voice, messaging and integrated services, have grown overwhelmingly complex. IT administrators must now juggle tracking which numbers are compatible and available for specific platforms (e.g., extensions for one platform and DIDs for another), identifying numbers currently in use, ensuring proper forwarding when employees leave and securing access at end-of-use. 

Fortunately, new solutions are emerging that offer companies a holistic picture of their number landscape – providing intelligent automation features and helping enterprises to become more efficient. 

Phone Number Management Predictions 

As communication ecosystems transform, enterprises can no longer afford to rely on piecemeal management tools that are jurisdictional, regional, and departmental to manage phone numbers. They need a comprehensive, dynamic view of their ecosystem – to manage resources, costs, and performance effectively.  

Going forward, the need for a powerful phone number management solution will be enhanced by: 

  • Rapid cloud technology adoption: As the PSTN/ISDN switch-off approaches, businesses must transition rapidly to cloud-based systems. This shift will require adaptation to new number formats and communication ecosystems, significantly increasing the complexity of UC management. 
  • Ongoing Telephony requirements: Even with a range of communication options, including messaging and email, phone conversations remain crucial. Teams will continue to rely on phone systems for collaboration and customer service. 
  • Multiple numbers will be necessary: Businesses will need to manage a broader range of phone numbers, from toll-free numbers to DIDs, local numbers, virtual phone numbers and mobile numbers – creating more complexity. 
  • Increasing security issues: The internet-based nature of telephony in the future will raise serious concerns about security and data transmission. Businesses will need a comprehensive way to monitor numbers and track risks.  
  • Advanced technology: Advancements in automation, AI and zero-touch provisioning solutions will empower organizations to accomplish more with their UC management strategies, with less effort and expense.  

The Future of Phone Number Management: Key Trends 

The growing complexity of the telephony landscape has led to the rise of several key trends – all of which will transform how businesses operate in the years ahead.

1. UC Service Management Platforms Become Essential 

With numerous phones, users and ecosystems to navigate, companies can’t afford to take a fragmented approach to UC management. All UC and collaboration apps come with their own native provisioning portals, and relying on those alone leads to increased complexity, and silos between teams. A comprehensive UC service management suite addresses these issues. 

Solutions like Kurmi’s provisioning suite for enterprises unify the IT admin experience in a single pane of glass, simplifying user MACDs (Move, Add, Change and Delete), configurability, insight tracking and provisioning on a comprehensive scale.  

Studies have shown using these solutions can reduce operational management costs by 36.9% and minimize provisioning times by 46.6%. The longer-term value is the ability to integrate UC and Collab management with your other IT systems like ServiceNow, BMC Remedy, and Workday—leading to further gains in efficiency through automation.

2. Multi-Vendor Environments Will Remain 

Complexity in the UC landscape has prompted many companies to search for ways to consolidate ecosystems, reducing the volume of apps and numbers they need to manage. However, many organizations are still reliant on a multi-vendor ecosystem.  

Around 32% of companies use more than one calling system, according to Metrigy. To keep the phone numbers connected to these tools businesses will need a flexible system that can integrate with all their on-premises, cloud, and hybrid solutions.  

They’ll need a system to integrate all the best-of-breed services employees need, from softphones and video conferencing tools to instant messaging apps.

3. The Rise of Intelligent Automation 

As businesses scale, manually managing phone numbers becomes difficult, insecure and mistake prone. IT teams don’t have the time and capacity to handle everything themselves. Intelligent automation is becoming increasingly essential. UC service management platforms allow companies to automate: 

  • Onboarding and offboarding users and devices 
  • Setting up accounts, and assigning roles and permissions 
  • Configuring software and applications for users 
  • Phone number and DID management 
  • MACD operations with scheduling and grouping 
  • Secured data via role-based access control 
  • User migration into cloud ecosystem 

Kurmi’s UC service management tool allows organizations to automate processes in bulk – saving IT engineers, administrators and managers hours configuring, managing and deleting individual users. 

4. Increased Demand for Insights 

Companies attempting to unify and align their UC systems and phone numbers aren’t just looking for ways to minimize complexity. They also need insights to ensure they’re using resources effectively and reducing operational costs.  

End-to-end visibility into how phone numbers are used in an environment helps organizations to reduce costs and eliminate waste. Comprehensive tracking capabilities also ensure businesses can monitor changes made by users in real-time, making it easier to spot issues and risks that could contribute to compliance problems.  

With a powerful UC service management tool, you’ll be able to gain visibility and audibility into user actions. This protects your business against threats and incompatibility with emerging regulations.

5. Enhanced Focus on User Experience 

Finally, ensuring employees can thrive in their roles, regardless of whether they’re operating within the office, remotely, or in a hybrid environment, is crucial. Companies need to ensure they can deliver intuitive experiences to users anywhere. This will make the ability to create user profile templates increasingly important. 

Additionally, the rise of hybrid and remote work will make it crucial for businesses to be able to offer team members the opportunity to make basic configuration changes themselves, without IT administrators. Self-service portals built into UC service management tools will not only improve the end-user experience but reduce the strain on IT teams.  

Embracing the Future of Phone Number Management 

In a complex communications landscape, old-fashioned phone number management strategies are ineffective. Companies need a holistic way to manage their ecosystem from a single pane of glass, leveraging automation, zero-touch provisioning, and advanced security solutions. 

Kurmi’s UC Service Management platform helps businesses adapt to changing trends in the world of multi-vendor, multi-system unified communications, creating better IT admin and user experiences, reducing costs, saving time, and boosting productivity.  



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