The Role of Telcos in the Revolution of Communications

Experts say we are now in the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ – a new age of technology that has the potential to entirely reshape the way we live our lives. Cloud computing is on the rise – tech experts agree that the question is now not if cloud computing is the best option but how best to implement it – and with it, a complete revolution of communications technology. Also pushing the Fourth Revolution forwards is 5G. The release will facilitate the Internet of Things to gather momentum and exist on a greater scale that unites limitless items through one network.

Technology has always played a central role in reshaping industries; developments have pushed boundaries and redefined business strategies, ultimately forcing new business models. This is no different within the communications industry, where the smartphone redefined mobile communications, and social media redefined online communications. The latest innovative developments, including big data and unified communications, have once more revolutionised the communications industry. Sectors within the industry must again adapt and fight to keep up, whilst businesses outside of the industry should look to utilising and benefiting from these advances. Telcos must adapt to the developments of cloud call recording, UC and big voice analytics, if they are to remain on top of the communications industry.

A recent survey conducted by Dubber found some interesting data that provides insight. The data corresponds with the suggested need for companies to adopt new solutions in the communications industry. The survey questioned over 100 small to medium businesses in the USA, and found that even though 93% use the telephone to conduct business frequently, 81% do not use a call recording solution. In the increasingly modernised and mobile workplace, voice analytics and call recording have proved themselves to be a very useful tool. More and more companies are using the solutions to gain insight into customer interactions, and to improve their customer service. In this sense, the survey respondents are missing out on beneficial solutions for business communications.

The respondents in the survey were from the legal, sales, finance, health or leisure, food or retail and freelance sectors, and all could benefit their business by deploying call recording and voice analytics. Firstly, the legal and financial sectors are actually required by law to deploy call recording, in order to comply with regulations. The sales sector must maintain high standards in sales performance to be successful, and those working in food or retail, health or leisure and sales must ensure they provide incredibly high standards of customer service. Call recording, therefore, plays vital roles in optimising business processes, increasing productivity and ultimately increasing the success of a business. Traditionally, call recording requires varying amounts of hardware, which is accompanied by substantial costs and hardware’s associated flaws. However, recent developments in cloud computing have seen call recording transformed to native cloud platforms, and freed of all hardware requirements and restraints. Call recording as a service is now available, and a cloud-based platform ensures that it is both accessible and affordable to companies of all sizes, with all size budgets.

Research by the Aberdeen Group investigated the benefits of using multi-channel call recording and analytics, and the statistics simply speak for themselves:

Average retention of customers is 89%, 70% for those without the solutions

First-contact resolution at 87%, 59% for those without the solutions

Annual reduced costs at 12%, 2% for those without the solutions

Businesses in every industry sector are increasingly adopting cloud computing and unified communications for their business telephony processes to experience the benefits highlighted by the Aberdeen Group’s research. Firstly, there are obvious financial benefits of subscribing to a communications solution “as a service” as opposed to purchasing and installing on-site hardware solutions. The business benefits are not limited to cost; there are also many strategic advantages in terms of scale, consistency across a network and the ease of adding future solutions and innovations when technology next advances.

The respondents to Dubber’s survey also indicated that they would also be interested in call analytics and intelligent data from their calls. The most popular feature, which approximately half of the respondents from the finance, health or leisure and freelance sectors choose, is an intelligent search feature that allows keywords to be located within a call. Deducing the mood of the customer and automating actions based on a specific spoken phrase were also popular options. The Aberdeen Group’s research provides a clear evidence base for the business benefits of investing in UC, analytics and call recording. There is, therefore, a strong case for the survey respondents, and all small businesses, to make the move to cloud computing and benefit from the associated business communication solutions, such as UC, call recording, big data and voice analytics. With this in mind, there is an equally strong case for telcos to deploy these cloud communications solutions to small businesses, similar to those surveyed.

Time for Telcos to seize the day

As the move towards cloud computing gains momentum, 5G and the IoT draw closer and the demand for big data and analytics grows, telcos are in a unique position to benefit from the current revolution of the communications industry. Cloud call recording, unified communications and big voice analytics have all increased the relevance and usefulness of business communications solutions for companies of all sizes, bringing new revenue streams to any telco that deploys these revolutionary solutions to SMEs globally. With their unrivalled knowledge of the industry, telcos are in a position of power to profit from the revolution of communications, as long as they are able to reshape their business models and adapt to keep up with the changes.