Larger teams generate better concepts, and the more diverse the team is, the higher the impact of their innovation efforts. That’s the key takeaway from a recent field study that showed how mixing up different departments and putting the right software in their hands can be an innovative idea in and of itself.
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Metaphorically speaking, Unified Communications (UC) solution vendors walk around carrying a long list of benefits for service providers who want to offer UC services for SMBs and other organizations (i.e. upgrade their business communication channels). The are many reasons and truth is this crusade against old technology is very justified. Any way you look at it, UC services, especially when hosted in the Cloud, knock the socks off any legacy phone network.
A call center is, in and of itself, a network of phones. Much of UC’s functionality actually originated in call centers. The only difference is that unifying these features enables Service Providers (SP) to take better advantage of resources with the end goal of increasing productivity and improving the customer service. So what better business to target with UC if not contact centers? And although every feature counts, it’s those that touch the customer directly that weigh the most
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Success in business depends as much on innovation as it does on adaptability, strategy, marketing, and of course solid investments. The evidence in favor of digital investments as a key driver is overwhelming. In the not too distant future, a company’s communication and collaboration efforts will be inherently reliant on cloud technology. And the reason is simple: everybody’s doing it, and he who doesn’t falls behind in reach, discoverability, customer satisfaction and many other areas that make or break a business.
Fierce competition, but also the always-on nature of cloud solutions, forcefully dictate the need to incorporate technology as a business strategy. Research conducted by IDG Enterprise gives us a bird’s eye view of the direction of spending, areas of investment and drivers, with a focus on the communication tools employed (or soon-to-be-employed) at large companies
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Communication infrastructures established in the ’90s are becoming increasingly incompatible with today’s connected economy. When it takes too long for partners to connect, or to fulfill customer needs, you know there’s a problem somewhere. For every problem, there’s a solution.
Unified Communications (UC) was born out of the need to enable faster decision making, but also to make collaboration more efficient. UC merges real-time communications (voice, video, instant messaging) with real-time data (presence, file sharing), and we often end up using the term Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) to describe these solutions. Provided as-a-service, UC&C has a series of technical and financial advantages that make it a key asset for virtually any business today
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Calculating the true size of the Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) market has never been easy as many organizations are still operating a multi-vendor mix of communication and collaboration solutions, and so the data is scattered all over the place. However, there is one key area of UC&C that has shown steady growth over the years, and it’s poised to grow even more in the coming years.
IDC forecasts that UC&C services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are set to rise from $7.7 billion in 2012 to $11.7 billion in 2016, but more importantly that the main driver for this growth is mobile UC. Most other think tanks agree that mobility is arguably the fastest-growing component of UC&C. IDC, for its part, has calculated a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32% per year. However, the mobile UC ecosystem is still a fountain that sits largely untapped
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Most small-to-medium businesses (SMB) don’t have legacy UC&C software to grapple with, making them more likely than enterprises to move to pure cloud-based UC&C services, according to data gauged by IDG Enterprise. The ratio is 20% versus 7%, respectively.
In its 2015 Unified Communications & Collaboration Survey, IDG uncovered that 33% of IT leaders plan to increase spending in Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C), both hosted and hybrid – a combination of hosted and on-premise services. Spending will increase by an average of 9% through 2016, while enterprises currently lavish an average of $8.1 million on UC&C products and / or services alone. In 2012, a similar survey uncovered that 49% of respondents still used on-premises solutions. That number has only slightly increased to 51% so far, but things are about to change
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As we close the books on 2015, tech industry watchers are opening a new chapter full of exciting predictions for the future. Cloud computing is helping organizations big and small meet their business objectives now more than ever, especially in emerging markets. Additionally, IT shops will have more than half of their operations hosted in the cloud by the end of 2016.
Data from IDG Enterprise indicates that 56% of a company’s IT environment will be hosted in the cloud by the end of next year (up from 44% today). 8% of the 962 IT decision makers interviewed for the study said their entire IT environment was in the cloud. Companies use a mix of public, private and hybrid cloud services, with the private model being mostly preferred by enterprises. Now, here’s what we think sounds particularly interesting, not just for hot shot enterprises but for medium-sized players as well
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Communication is one of the major challenges to tackle when you’re in the public sector doing business with partners, trying to grow a customer base, etc. Being able to take orders, answer questions, close deals and, most importantly just be there for your partners and clients in a timely manner is essential for growing a reputation as a trusty player in your field. To fulfill today’s growing demands and avoid being crushed by competitors, leaving the past behind is a good way to cement your business and assist your growth plan.
Private branch exchange (PBX) has come a long way since its inception in the early ’90s, when operators had to manage switchboards manually, using cord circuits
We need to do something with the emails that keep piling up, cut down on redundant meetings, and unplug that desk phone once and for all, yet still stay connected. Why not try a tool that does all three without you having to get up from your desk?
I’m sure you’ve been in situations where one minute you’re posting on Twitter, the next you’re checking your inbox or answering a chat message. And two minutes later you’re in a call while skimming an article someone shared on Facebook, wondering whenever you got there in the first place. Simply put, we have too many networks to keep an eye on and too little time on our hands. Fortunately, there are solutions and one of them comes from Hubgets.
