Three Cloud Communication Trends to Watch

RingCentral is a Business Reporter client.

Is your organization ready for Zero Trust security, advanced telephony and company dialects?

The 2020s have been turbulent so far, and there’s little sign of that changing in the short term. Businesses are grappling with an array of challenges, including rising inflation, the energy crisis, the shift to hybrid work and a shortage of employees.

None of this has affected the adoption of cloud communication solutions, however. This continues apace, because it’s a prime route to improved business resilience, agility and productivity. The question is, how will this technology evolve in the coming years? Here are some of the trends that we expect will develop.

Zero Trust security

One of the top priorities for CIOs and CISOs is ensuring the security of cloud communications data—whether voice, chat, meetings, SMS, email or e-fax. They know that it’s vital to securing the trust of their employees and customers. Yet in recent research, 57% of executives said their organizations had suffered at least one material data breach in the past three years.

The increase in digital surveillance—firms monitoring employees’ activity when they are not in the office—is also heightening security anxieties. This practice, which can mean anything from recording mouse clicks to tracking people’s physical location, is controversial and can erode employee trust. Trade unions have called for stronger regulation around it, and there are predictions that in 2023, new legislation will emerge.

For these reasons, employing a Zero Trust approach to security will continue to be a priority for businesses in 2023 and beyond. This is not just the responsibility of CIOs and CISOs. Organizations need to ensure that all their employees are suitably trained in cybersecurity, are aware of best practices and are mindful of what they do and where they click, and the impact it might have.

Of course, there are many security benefits inherent in cloud communications. Compared with legacy systems, the cloud is quicker and easier to upgrade, so you can fix vulnerabilities and deploy the latest security technologies fast. And with unified communications as a service (UCaaS), the IT department’s risk surface is also minimized, because relying on a single vendor allows better control of data privacy.

However, both cloud solution providers and businesses need to do more. Solution providers can give businesses more control over their data privacy, such as the option to turn on end-to-end encryption, which prevents any unauthorized third party (including the cloud solution) from accessing communications data. And to address digital surveillance concerns, business leaders need to prioritize privacy rights and be transparent with employees about what data is collected and why it’s necessary.

Advanced cloud telephony

You might be surprised to find telephony included in an article about emerging trends, but it continues to evolve year after year.

With cloud communications, any device and any app can now become your “phone,” so wherever you go, it goes with you. This ability is vital as remote and hybrid working increases.

The combination of cloud phones and advancements in AI, network infrastructures and wearable devices could revolutionize many jobs in the future. Imagine if all retail assistants on shop floors had a phone-enabled wearable device; they could answer more customer calls, easily check stock while callers stay on the line and quickly contact colleagues in other stores and teams. As 5G and AI improve, these devices will become more powerful, with better network coverage, quicker connections and the ability to help people find the right information fast.

Telephony is becoming more intelligent. Chatbots and virtual assistants have been around for a while, but advances in AI in the coming years will make their voice conversations more engaging and human. These will increasingly be used to help employees and customers get real-time information.

Advances in AI will also automate the process of analyzing voice conversations, which is often done to monitor employee performance and gain business intelligence. Instead of supervisors having to study the transcripts of recorded calls, cloud phones equipped with voice analytics will provide real-time summarized conversation insights, including sentiment analysis (identifying the emotions of the speaker).

Telephony is becoming more integrated. The constant switching between apps for different communication tools has become a productivity drain for businesses. But with the rise of UCaaS platforms, we’ll see more firms providing a single interface for phone, chat, video calls and emails, which gives workers the ability to switch seamlessly between them. 5G will take this to the next level, enabling people to share screens during phone calls without the need for a special app, thereby boosting collaboration.

UCaaS solutions can be easily integrated with CRM, ERP, helpdesk and other systems to drive efficiencies and streamline processes. For example, a sales agent’s cloud phone integrated with a CRM could automatically store call records and document the outcomes of calls.

Company dialects

Instant messaging has been increasingly used by businesses since the pandemic. In an April 2022 survey, almost 87% of respondents were using messaging services for work at least some of the time.

This shift has led to the adoption of more informal language in business communications. Concise language as well as expressive emojis and gifs have become popular among hybrid workers. In fact, many employees feel their company now has its own emoji language.

We expect this shift toward instant messaging, informal language and company “dialects” to continue in the coming years, since most employees say it makes business communications more human. However, there are some potential issues, such as ambiguity and passive-aggressive behavior. To avoid these, business leaders should consider training their workers on best practices for written communications, and monitoring employee sentiment on the issue.

Organizations shouldn’t rely too much on instant messaging or email, either. While written communications provide a ready record of employee interactions, phone and video communications are less ambiguous because participants can pick up on tone of voice and body language.

Are you ready for the future of cloud communications?

Whatever the future of cloud communications turns out to be, your organization can be better prepared by partnering with a trusted, expert provider such as RingCentral. Head over to our website to find out more about us and the importance of cloud communications in a hybrid world.

For more information, please visit ringcentral.com.

This article originally appeared in Business Reporter.

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