TECH PERSPECTIVE / THE DIGITAL EDGE
PUBLISHED 18 JANUARY 2018
Getting more out of voice telephony in the connected world.
As enterprises continue to grow rapidly beyond geographical boundaries, efficient “human connection” is now a critical determinant of productivity. By enabling voice communication, telephony has been a key anchor of the business ecosystem, but the future demands more. Thankfully, voice technology continues to evolve fast, opening up new possibilities and gearing up to meet the demands of future workspaces.
No matter how much technology we use in communicating with each other, nothing connects us the way a good conversation does. No wonder then that even in this era of modern communication technology, “pick up the phone and talk” is an oft repeated advice, particularly in the corporate corridors, and for good reason. Technology that makes communication over distances possible can also make work relationships impersonal and purely transactional. Thankfully, it is technology again that can make human interactions more human. It all depends on how technology is orchestrated.
At the workplace, the importance of verbal communication has become critical as more and more geographically dispersed teams are required to work together, often without “seeing” each other for months or even years. A large number of customers never get to meet their sellers. Enterprises are beginning to realize the importance of this and have started to focus on orchestrating ‘Voice’ to enhance collaboration as well as customer experience.
The Telco Advantage
Delivery of Voice—that was once the mainstay of the telecoms industry—has undergone (and continues to undergo) rapid changes. With the advent of IP Voice, the ability to offer voice telephony is no longer the sole preserve of telecoms companies. Communication applications from OTT and Cloud players find widespread use today. However, communication needs of the workplace world hinge on a delicate balance of convenience, security, user experience, collaboration enablement and cost. It is here that telcos can play a very focused role. On the one hand, they have to offer user experience and convenience equivalent to—if not better than—those offered by OTT players, while taking into account the specific needs of the workplace on the other.
Reliance/GCX has been offering traditional Voice services (like PRI, Centrex) to thousands of enterprises in India for a decade and a half. It is the first operator in India to have designed a nationwide Voice network purely to serve the IP voice requirements of enterprises. As the world moves towards an IP-centric future, services like SIP Trunking and IP Centrex are helping enterprises make this transition smoothly without having to make major changes in their network investments. Having launched the country’s first IMS-powered Enterprise SIP Trunking service and readying an IP Centrex service for the near future, Reliance/GCX is at the forefront of enabling this transition to the IP world.
Reliance/GCX has been offering traditional Voice services (like PRI, Centrex) to thousands of enterprises in India for a decade and a half. It is the first operator in India to have designed a nationwide Voice network purely to serve the IP voice requirements of enterprises.
VOICE TECHNOLOGY HAS SIGNIFICANTLY WIDENED ITS SCOPE OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS.
Cloud Telephony
What was once only a mode of one-to-one conversation now easily facilitates one-to-many and many-to-many interactions. It is now possible to use Voice innovatively and effectively in almost every business function. The technology that has brought this ability within easy grasp of large enterprises as well as SMEs is Cloud telephony.
Cloud telephony of course offers the quintessential Cloud advantages: no capex, on-demand scalability, freedom from technology obsolescence, and the ability to focus more on core business, to name a few. Its biggest impact though is making things possible that were erstwhile impossible. Here’s an example. A leading stock broking company in India was using manual telecalling to seek mandatory customer confirmation for its daily trades. At the end of every trading day, the company’s telecalling executives in multiple offices across the country would make thousands of calls manually to investors, and would then manually update records. Reliance’s cloud telephony solution—AutoCall Notifier—enabled the company to completely automate the process.
Now, investors receive personalized, automated calls and convey their acceptance by pressing a button on the dialpad. The company has access to call reports at the click of a button.
By integrating telephony intelligently with customer databases, applications and processes, cloud telephony is redrawing the boundaries of possibilities in the digital era. It helps enterprises add significant efficiencies to almost every business process, whether it’s data-driven Marketing, lead generation at the ‘moment of interest’, personalized customer service, or any other process that relies on verbal communication. For instance, by using our cloud telephony solutions, companies are able to get exact data on campaign ROI by each media vehicle, connect with leads the moment they click on a website link, manage incoming calls with great efficiency and convert impersonal text messages to automated, personalized voice messages for bulk calling. A comprehensive cloud telephony portfolio from an established telecom player has the crucial advantage of seamless integration with traditional voice channels.
Voice of the Future: Loud, Clear and Connected
The Voice of the future is on the digital wall: companies that take a strategic approach to creating a connected ‘human’ workspace despite geographical dispersion will have a clear advantage in productivity, innovation and collaboration. A seamless flow of interactions with no geographical contsraints—that’s the future tense of workspace.
The change has already begun. The cluster of divided spaces in physical offices is morphing into a collective, flexible, fluid, collaborative environment that doesn’t let distance come in the way of conversations. Over a layer of complex technologies, the reassuring human voice is playing the role of an expert anchor, making instant interactions more effective and productive. Technology is helping us reap the advantages of being human!
