Cloud Telephony and Its Growth in 2020
The world is changing in this era of the pandemic. So many different technologies are emerging as the solution to keep this world revolving. Cloud telephony is one of those solutions that is making sure that businesses are still connected with their customers. It is not only helping businesses connect with their customers, but it is also increasing productivity. How? With cloud telephony. It has a flexible structure that allows executives to work anywhere and anytime.
India is currently one of the greatest consumers of Internet-based communication or contact centres. Data is also now available here at a cheap price and almost everywhere. A wider man-power is also available in India. Yes, so many companies were unable to grasp the benefits of all these and remained behind the curve.
Cloud is the solution that has enabled all these companies to seize the opportunity. Also, the pandemic was the main reason that forced these companies to tap into adapting this work style.
Is It ‘Contact Centre’ or ‘Call Centre’?
If you look at the Contact centre in a microscope, you will find that the call centre is part of its functioning. When asked to an industry worker about it, sometimes even they might find it hard to explain how both are different. So, let me try to put both into some simple words. The Call Centre only handles connecting with customers over voice.
Contact Centre covers fax, chatbot, live chat, email, voice (call centre) and every other medium to establish connections with customers. Both are built to solve customers’ queries, but call centres handle it over voice and contact centre handles it over all other channels, including voice.
Looking into Global Trends
Looking at a report of Mordor Intelligence, a research firm, North America is the largest market of cloud telephony. But, in the same report, the growth of cloud telephony in the Asia Pacific is at the top from 2019 through 2025. Cloud telephony industry was worth USD 13.17 billion in 2019. Also, the industry is changing according to the demands of the customers and companies. In 2017, almost 40% of contact centres moved to cloud telephony, and 57% claimed that they are planning to move by 2020.
What Exactly is a Cloud Telephony System?
Cloud telephony is almost everywhere around us. We are moving from cord telephony to internet-based telephony. If we look at the growth, the cloud telephony grew so much faster in 2019-2020. Putting it into much simpler words, cloud telephony is a telephony system that is controlled via the Internet. Regions it is serving are, retails, eCommerce, banking, health and some others.
What Inspired The Growth?
Relief in the Maintenance:
There was a time when companies were using PBX for their contact centres. Maintaining this hardware of switchboard and licensing makes PBX a lot more hectic. As the cloud telephony started to become more popular, the replacement of PBX started happening. But why was it replacing PBX? One main reason was less hardware to install. As cloud offered service over the Internet, it required very much lesser hardware than PBX.
You can connect several devices without any need of demanding a new connection. After cloud telephony, companies got a website based dashboard to control all the workflow. This simplifies the complexity of the work chain for new and old employees.
Language is Not a Barrier Anymore:
When a company expands its business to a new location, it needs native people in its contact team. This seems to be like a burden, as you need to either set up a contact centre there or hire native ones at the main location. First one is costly and impractical and the second is hard to find as native speakers are not available everywhere.
Cloud telephony allows employees to work remotely. So now with this, a company can hire people from anywhere. To manage these remote workers, a company can use a web-based dashboard. No problem of accent, pronunciation, or other communication problems.
No More Interruptions:
We all know how calls on that old wired hardware were like. There was always grumbling about the wobble sounds, and with rain, calls were no less than pain. The Internet eliminated this problem by removing hardware from the equation. So, there is no more foggy communication.
Storing data on the cloud is also more convenient than storing it on company systems at the premises. This makes accessing data more flexible with an extra layer of security from the cloud.
Respect Privacy of the Customers:
As executives connect with customers over the cloud telephony system, it hides personal information on both ends. This layer of protection and respect of privacy makes a call more secure in that age of data leakage. Phone numbers, at both ends, are masked by the system. Due to this, both ends are unable to identify the real identity of each other.
Customization is Handy:
Cloud telephony gives a lot of customization to the software. You can integrate more tools, software, and other handy extensions to make the contact process effortless. With this, you can customize chat messages, call tone and other stuff according to seasons, festivals or holidays. This helps non-expert employees to work smoothly without any hassle.
So these are the reasons why cloud telephony is expanding its wings in a pandemic. Cloud Telephony is sure to grow more during this time and in future too. Companies and organizations have seen cloud telephony’s potential for making them future proof and flexible.
The world is changing in this era of the pandemic. So many different technologies are emerging as the solution to keep this world revolving. Cloud telephony is one of those solutions that is making sure that businesses are still connected with their customers. It is not only helping businesses connect with their customers, but it is also increasing productivity. How? With cloud telephony. It has a flexible structure that allows executives to work anywhere and anytime.
India is currently one of the greatest consumers of Internet-based communication or contact centres. Data is also now available here at a cheap price and almost everywhere. A wider man-power is also available in India. Yes, so many companies were unable to grasp the benefits of all these and remained behind the curve.
Cloud is the solution that has enabled all these companies to seize the opportunity. Also, the pandemic was the main reason that forced these companies to tap into adapting this work style.
Is It ‘Contact Centre’ or ‘Call Centre’?
If you look at the Contact centre in a microscope, you will find that the call centre is part of its functioning. When asked to an industry worker about it, sometimes even they might find it hard to explain how both are different. So, let me try to put both into some simple words. The Call Centre only handles connecting with customers over voice.
Contact Centre covers fax, chatbot, live chat, email, voice (call centre) and every other medium to establish connections with customers. Both are built to solve customers’ queries, but call centres handle it over voice and contact centre handles it over all other channels, including voice.
Looking into Global Trends
Looking at a report of Mordor Intelligence, a research firm, North America is the largest market of cloud telephony. But, in the same report, the growth of cloud telephony in the Asia Pacific is at the top from 2019 through 2025. Cloud telephony industry was worth USD 13.17 billion in 2019. Also, the industry is changing according to the demands of the customers and companies. In 2017, almost 40% of contact centres moved to cloud telephony, and 57% claimed that they are planning to move by 2020.
What Exactly is a Cloud Telephony System?
Cloud telephony is almost everywhere around us. We are moving from cord telephony to internet-based telephony. If we look at the growth, the cloud telephony grew so much faster in 2019-2020. Putting it into much simpler words, cloud telephony is a telephony system that is controlled via the Internet. Regions it is serving are, retails, eCommerce, banking, health and some others.
What Inspired The Growth?
Relief in the Maintenance:
There was a time when companies were using PBX for their contact centres. Maintaining this hardware of switchboard and licensing makes PBX a lot more hectic. As the cloud telephony started to become more popular, the replacement of PBX started happening. But why was it replacing PBX? One main reason was less hardware to install. As cloud offered service over the Internet, it required very much lesser hardware than PBX.
You can connect several devices without any need of demanding a new connection. After cloud telephony, companies got a website based dashboard to control all the workflow. This simplifies the complexity of the work chain for new and old employees.
Language is Not a Barrier Anymore:
When a company expands its business to a new location, it needs native people in its contact team. This seems to be like a burden, as you need to either set up a contact centre there or hire native ones at the main location. First one is costly and impractical and the second is hard to find as native speakers are not available everywhere.
Cloud telephony allows employees to work remotely. So now with this, a company can hire people from anywhere. To manage these remote workers, a company can use a web-based dashboard. No problem of accent, pronunciation, or other communication problems.
No More Interruptions:
We all know how calls on that old wired hardware were like. There was always grumbling about the wobble sounds, and with rain, calls were no less than pain. The Internet eliminated this problem by removing hardware from the equation. So, there is no more foggy communication.
Storing data on the cloud is also more convenient than storing it on company systems at the premises. This makes accessing data more flexible with an extra layer of security from the cloud.
Respect Privacy of the Customers:
As executives connect with customers over the cloud telephony system, it hides personal information on both ends. This layer of protection and respect of privacy makes a call more secure in that age of data leakage. Phone numbers, at both ends, are masked by the system. Due to this, both ends are unable to identify the real identity of each other.
Customization is Handy:
Cloud telephony gives a lot of customization to the software. You can integrate more tools, software, and other handy extensions to make the contact process effortless. With this, you can customize chat messages, call tone and other stuff according to seasons, festivals or holidays. This helps non-expert employees to work smoothly without any hassle.
So these are the reasons why cloud telephony is expanding its wings in a pandemic. Cloud Telephony is sure to grow more during this time and in future too. Companies and organizations have seen cloud telephony’s potential for making them future proof and flexible.