Overcoming challenges with managing communications systems

According to a recent report by Bandwidth, over 90% of IT leaders struggle with managing their communications systems. This study observed 1000 IT managers from across the globe and their enterprise communications systems and processes.

More than half of these IT leaders manage between two and four communications carriers, whereas one-quarter of them manage between five and nine carriers. In addition, 49% of respondents are also managing three or more unified communications (UC) and call centre (CC) platforms.

Unsurprisingly, fewer than half of these IT managers believe that their communications solutions are meeting all of their needs. A big part of this comes down to complexity and wasted resources. Out of the 364 Software as a Service (SaaS) apps used by the businesses in the study, less than half of these are used regularly by employees.

All of the above-mentioned issues not only drive up costs for companies but also threaten their flexibility, scalability and user or customer experience. One of the major challenges faced by IT leaders is how to interlink these communications platforms to ensure interoperability and avoid disjointed communications.

Interoperability of communications tools

According to the study, 55% of enterprises need to enable more than four third-party tools within their communications stack to ensure interoperability. These include custom CC services such as call recording, messaging apps, voice transcriptions, voice biometric authentication, sentiment analysis and real-time coaching.

However, interoperability is not the only goal for IT leaders; the user experience is also a priority as it affects the willingness of employees to make use of the communications tools invested in by the company, as well as the customer experience when interacting with the business.

The UX and CX are both valuable differentiators in today’s competitive corporate world. IT leaders need to find the right communications tools that improve both the UX and the CX for the good of the enterprise. A recent Gartner webinar confirms this; companies that focus on UX and CX to offer a better total experience (TX) will outperform their competitors by around 25%.

However, achieving this exceptional TX will be challenging because all employee, customer and conversational AI tools are built differently. The communications strategy will require a cloud-based integration to create interoperability across the various comms apps and tools.

Cloud migrations, call reliability, price point and compliance are four more challenges addressed in the study. The latter comes down to regulations and adhering to local and international legislation.

Only 56% of respondents stated that their companies were fully-compliant with regulations – the rest of IT leaders say that managing compliance with remote or hybrid workforces is a complicated process that hinders progress.

Overcoming these challenges with ‘as-a-service’ solutions

Enterprises are becoming more adept in their communications deployments by adopting ‘as-a-service’ solutions. These include Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) tools, which are cloud-based, fully-integrated comms solutions that simplify management and functionality.

UCaaS combines various communication tools, such as voice, video, chat and email, into a single, cohesive platform to streamline and enhance corporate communications. It provides seamless collaboration, improved productivity, greater flexibility, scalability as well as cost savings when compared to traditional communication systems.

Similarly, a cloud-based CCaaS platform is an end-to-end contact centre solution for enterprises. This service provides full omnichannel, social media and inbound/outbound dialler functions, along with quality assurance, e-learning, full human resources and APIs for integration.

These ‘as-a-service’ communications tools allow businesses to overcome many of the challenges outlined above and ensure that employees, whether working remotely or from within the office, can connect with one another and customers effectively. This boosts the TX offered by enterprises.

Seacom offers several communications services to companies in South Africa, including UCaaS and CCaaS tools. For more information about these services or to get a quote, email us at marketing@seacom.com or leave us a message.

Seacom owns Africa’s most extensive network of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, including subsea cables and secure internet connections. We offer a diverse range of flexible, scalable and high-quality solutions for businesses that meet world-class standards for connectivity.

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