By Rob Lith, chief commercial officer at Telviva

Public branch exchange (PBX) has been synonymous with business communication for decades, representing a kind of mini phone network for internal and external business communication. Traditionally, it has been a big investment and, as we all know, technology ages and needs to be serviced. Fast forward to today when many businesses have switched to cloud PBX. Communication in the cloud is not just about convenience; it is crucial to competitiveness, especially the ability to enable customers to communicate as they prefer while enhancing team collaboration.

UCaaS

It doesn’t stop at cloud PBX. Far more relevant today is unified communications as a service (UCaaS). This has transformed business communication by offering a scalable and cost-effective alternative to traditional phone systems. It ensures that technology is up to date because UCaaS, by its very nature, is continually evolving with feature and functionality upgrades – and not at risk of reaching end of life with minimal support. In other words, by managing communication over the internet, there is no need to incur significant hardware, servicing and replacement costs.

UCaaS allows businesses to scale their communication systems up or down, depending on their needs, which is quite literally the opposite of investing in additional hardware they may not need in future. Remember when the “lines would go down”? Cloud PBX providers can ensure high uptime through redundant data centres and robust disaster recovery plans interrogate potential UCaaS partners about their processes and track records.

We have heard ad nauseam how the world of work has changed. It is true and a business that has pursued UCaaS enables its users to work from anywhere and on any device. Beyond this, integration with customer relationship management (CRM) systems and other business software unlocks better customer interactions, more streamlined workflows and a host of customised solutions for businesses.

It’s not all plain sailing, though. A good service provider with a solid track record is imperative because cloud PBX does come with its own set of challenges. Simply put, businesses need to ensure efficient integration with existing systems and they need to manage the transition carefully to avoid business disruption. Beyond this, data security is key and there needs to be careful and effective management of the significant amount of data being handled and stored.

Properly configured firewall services are essential. Businesses should, with their chosen partner, discuss VPN access for remote working as well as web real-time communication for secure connections. Besides this, they must acknowledge that the workforce represents their biggest cybersecurity risk and comprehensive and ongoing training is essential. Finally, businesses should seek providers that can help them comply with industry-specific regulations such as compliant call recording, secure communication and audit trails of engagements.

No single channel of communication

The days of picking up a phone or sending an email are gone. People still phone and email but customers, suppliers, employees and all other stakeholders want – and demand – to communicate on all available channels. This is where the power of the cloud comes to the fore because UCaaS platforms enable the integration of voice, email, video, instant messaging, WhatsApp and SMS. A good platform does this seamlessly so that no communication is lost or stashed in a silo as users can see the full context of all communication. This takes customer service and employee collaboration to the next level, emphasising why businesses without this capability are losing ground to their competitors.

Artificial intelligence is all the rage of late and for good reason. Evolving digital assistants allow scaling up of sales and support services. These digital assistants support employees by either being available as a co-pilot or handling entire engagements with the option to hand over to a real person when complex matters need human intervention. However, some people don’t want to deal with machines; they want to speak to people. A good UCaaS platform must allow businesses to switch seamlessly between the two.

There is no doubt that cloud communication has reshaped the industry and businesses globally – and South Africa is no different. This is true for cloud-hosted PBX offerings all the way through to rich unified communication and collaboration platforms that integrate with productivity, enterprise resource planning and CRM platforms. It is evident that many businesses have already leveraged the cloud for their communications. Even in South Africa, this has seen the industry mature significantly to the point where businesses migrate from cloud to cloud when they realise that their current UCaaS service isn’t efficiently fulfilling their needs.

The maturity of the sector will accelerate as access to good, reliable connectivity widens and hyperscalers continue to invest in South African data centres. Importantly, this good proximity of cloud services lowers latency and speeds up the responsiveness of the services. It was PBX then it became cloud PBX. Soon you can expect UCaaS to become synonymous with business communication in South Africa.