Source: https://www.8x8.com/uk/blog/key-trends-that-will-impact-ucaas

Author: Bryan R. Martin, Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer at 8x8.

We have already seen several contact centre acquisitions in the unified communications space as other players finally realise that UC and contact centre should never have developed as separate products. We knew long ago that they belong together on one platform, not only so that every interaction and conversation anywhere in the enterprise is captured globally for analytics and business improvement, but also because the simplicity of one platform is easier to use for both the business administrator and the end-user.

Real analytics comes to customer service

We’re seeing a whole class of data analytics technologies coming in—these capabilities will soon move from the lab to the real world.

Analytics will allow a contact centre manager or agent to understand (beyond basic caller or chat ID) who exactly is on the other end of the interaction and anticipate why this person is interacting with the contact centre. Then, they will both optimally route or escalate the interaction and provide the receiving agent with the right context and breadth of longitudinal data to better serve that customer.    

AI will come of age, boosted by better data management

Machine learning and artificial intelligence help 8x8 understand the full picture from the tons of data that comes from our global cloud services every day—and use those insights to improve customer experience.

Customers do not always communicate with a business through the contact centre, which is why one platform of engagement that can capture any and all interactions across any site or channel is so important.  Incomplete communications datasets make it difficult to leverage machine learning for business insights.  

The UK will lead cloud adoption in Europe

GDPR and the evolution of this regulatory framework continue to be the topic of frequent discussions in the UK and across Europe. With some of the recent high profile breaches, including British Airways, Google and Facebook, it will be a very interesting year on the regulatory front. At the same time, we continue to see the UK leading the rush to the cloud, and expect continental Europe to follow. We have green shoots from the local launch of our services in France last year, and are excited to see the interest in everything cloud growing elsewhere in Europe.

Speed to become the new competitive battlefield

Speed of business performance is becoming an increasingly competitive differentiator, with both employees and customers expecting instant and complete information access. In this digital era, “I will get back to you” or “give me a few minutes to find someone to help you” is a relic of the past.

Social, mobile, chat and SMS are the new phone call. But the rate of technological change is forcing IT to manage multiple channels and systems, slowing down the business by causing communication breakdowns and delays. Employees need the right information at hand as well as access to subject matter experts to give customers the service they expect.

Leaders must shift to modern communications that enable their businesses to keep up, or risk getting left behind.

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To put these key trends into practice and discuss more ways to maximise the UCaaS industry, why not Register Free here for UC EXPO 2019?

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