MARKET REPORT Unified Communications
“Analytics is the key – it can truly help SMEs ‘level the playing
field’ and help convert customer interaction data quickly and
easily into knowledge and actionable intelligence.”
Carl Boraman, Director of Strategic Alliances at Tollring
preferred choice of platform or
a preferred hour of the day. For
a small business they want to be
able to oer this multi-channel
approach, and they don’t want to
break the bank to deliver it.
We’ve recently invested in
our UC platform, integrating to
enable call, text, mail, webchat
or even social, as well as an
integration to archive and retrieve
business-critical customer data for
compliance issues.”
Carl Boraman, Director of
Strategic Alliances at Tollring says
the big opportunity for SMEs is
the‘democratisation’of customer
data; making it available to
all in their organisation and
understandable by everyone.
“Analytics is the key – it
can truly help SMEs ‘level the
playing eld’ and help convert
customer interaction data quickly
and easily into knowledge and
actionable intelligence.
Early feedback shows SMEs
who have harnessed the power
of analytics have increased their
turnover, achieved higher prots
and expanded their workforce.
However, to succeed, the
solution needs to be simple to
deploy and use whilst delivering
tangible and measurable results
quickly. O-the-shelf cloud
analytics tools delivers this whilst
being available on a predictable
xed monthly cost per user.
Cloud based analytics services
means powerful CX tools such
as call and UC analytics and
call recording are now accessible
to SMEs. When built in and
part of the service from cloud
analytics vendors, these tools also
bring with them and facilitate
a high degree of security and
compliance, for example with
ISO20017, Cyber Essentials,
GDPR and MIFID II.
SMEs who have leveraged
these new analytics and
compliance capabilities can
condently target larger
enterprises and even public sector
bodies - highly lucrative markets
SMEs have traditionally been
locked out of.
And by 2022, the UK
government plans that one third
of its spend on goods and services
will be with SMEs, so there
has never been a better time for
SMEs to harness the power of
analytics and the benets it oers
their business and customers.”
Without lament Myles Leach,
Managing Director at NFON,
says, “Gone are the days that
SMEs were restricted to relying
on heavy and CAPEX intensive
hardware for their data - cloudcomputing
has simplied
the delivery of all business
applications over the business
network infrastructure, from
operational systems like CRM, to
essential IT services like storage
and email. And as the cloud has
changed the game for data, it also
Myles Leach, Managing
Director of NFON
stands to revolutionise the voice
market.
Remote working has been
the biggest driver for SMEs to
switch to cloud telephony. With
workers spending an increasing
amount of time working
outside of the oce, the move
to a mobile rst strategy
is both commercially and
technologically advantageous.
However, the benets of
cloud telephony don’t end
with Presence, it also enables
advanced functionality around
FMC, IM, chat and video
conferencing - plus it has a
host of additional features
that enables a SME to become
more productive, such as call
recording options, call groups,
options to listen into calls for
training and creating/reviewing
reports on demand.
Demand and adoption of
cloud telephony in the UK has
hugely increased in recent years,
as businesses look to consolidate
their ICT providers and move all
functions to the cloud. e SME
market is a huge opportunity for
NFON. In October 2017 NFON
and Westcoast announced that
its partners now have the unique
opportunity to derive ‘Skype
for Business as a Service.’ For
the rst time, through a single
solution, partners can deliver all
the telephony features and the
collaboration tools customer’s
need – whatever their business
activities, wherever their people
are based, and however they
work.”
Are cloud based UCaaS delivery
options starting to dominate
the SME market?
“Judging by the still 80%
dominance of the traditional
PBX solution the answer is
not yet,” says Iain Sinnott at
VanillaIP, “but resellers who
have the smart tools within the
UCaaS range like voice and chat
agent services, adaptable call
recording, simple collaboration
options and the ability to service
users within the traditional
workspace and in alternative
locations, are certainly winning
high ARPU and high margin
deals.”
Roy Shelton at Connectus,
comments SMEs are becoming
far more informed and aware of
cloud-based solutions and the
benets which can be derived
from such an approach.
“e convergence of IT
and communications in to
UC is growing in demand and
popularity due to connectivity
becoming more of an expected
utility for businesses. Our
approach to mitigating cost,
complexity and risk from our
clients is driving the adoption of
UC faster than ever before and
we see that continuing for the
foreseeable future.”
EXPERIENCE asts from SOS
Call 01403 224450 www.soscommunications.co.uk
42 | Comms Business Magazine | April 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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