Few would argue that 2021 has been challenging but showing some hope and progress for our future. But the truth is, even the past year has proven new challenges, there are some interesting trends emanating from the business sector, with many having to do with how companies are discovering the power of their communications solutions. Here are a few UCaaS gains that industry sources are attributing to the new normal of 2022.
According to an article in eWeek, cloud communications has immediately developed into one of the largest growth areas of the new pandemic era, including unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and contact center as a service (CCaaS). Collaboration and communications technologies are proving essential for businesses to maintain their operations during new waves of COVID spikes.
However, there is a key caveat that goes with this exciting industry trend: as the UCaaS opportunity is growing, so too are the incidents of fraud. Businesses of all sizes are experiencing breaches during collaborative sessions — and as a result, businesses need to be particularly vigilant in ensuring that their security protocols are robust, up-to-date, and in compliance with specific industry mandates, like those in financial services and healthcare.
The consensus among industry analysts is that remotely managed networking services present a great opportunity for businesses, especially since it’s been difficult to deploy hardware at physical business locations during shut-downs. In general, the ability to obtain a more comprehensive range of branded services — such as cloud contact center solutions, videoconferencing features, or other collaborative tools — helps businesses create a competitive edge and a sense of camaraderie in virtual spaces.
One of the most significant – if somewhat unexpected – workplace silver linings is the sudden growth in remote workers. Rather than experiencing an unsupervised and less productive workforce, home-based employees are now being hailed as at least as efficient as their on-premises colleagues. Now that the work form home model is proving effective, many employees believe they should continue working from home, at least part of the time.
In an article in UC Today, 79 percent of the workforce is willing to “happily make sacrifices going forward to obtain the flexibility they need” to continue working from home. The article states that employees will accept fewer company benefits and a greater workload if they can work even a few days from home—especially if it includes Friday.
More pertinently, half of the respondents in a similar study said that workers would be willing to leave their current positions to work from home. This, in essence, becomes a huge recruiting tool for businesses that can attract better talent if they can dangle a work from home carrot. Keep in mind that the foundation for all WFH environments are the reliable and flexible UCaaS and CCaaS services that accommodate this distributed workplace.
Businesses—and the technology partners that service them—need to keep a keen eye on how the workplace reimagines itself. The intelligent application of cloud technology is helping businesses overcome the substantial burdens put forth by the pandemic, and is actually helping place these companies on a path of heightened productivity and profitability.
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