The Changing Landscape in Unified Communications and a Consultant’s Predictions for 2023

Just like that, 2023 is nearly upon us. What will the new year hold for your organisation? We’re here to answer that question from a communications perspective.

Since 2020, almost everything about the way that we work has changed. Even now, it is clear that remote working is here to stay, with employees all over the world more likely to be operating in a hybrid working environment, made possible by advancements in technology that allow people to work and stay connected from anywhere. Clearly, employers still see the benefits that remote working affords their organisations, such as lower overheads and increased flexibility.

Of course, when we think about how much the world of work has changed over the last three years, it is undeniable that unified communications and collaboration have sat right in the centre of this change, almost holding it all together. It is only natural, therefore, to put much consideration into the future of communications when considering the overall future of the business. With that in mind, what might the future hold for business communications in 2023?

Hybrid Here to Stay

Hybrid working is here to stay and will make the journey with us into 2023. The facilitation of this will likely, for now, continue to be dominated by the same big players that have dominated throughout the pandemic, such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. With that said, however, there is certainly room for UC vendors to challenge incumbents in the market with their own cost-effective solutions that address more unique and specific business needs.

(See also: ‘What is Meeting Etiquette in a Hybrid Working Environment and How Can Modern Collaboration Tools Support This?’)

A More Complex Approach

Until now, many businesses have facilitated hybrid working within their organisation on a fairly basic level – namely telephony, video and live chat. In the future, however, we’re predicting that UC will increasingly support complex workflows across multiple, disparate hybrid teams.

One Size Does Not Fit All

In 2023, we are predicting the beginning of the end for one-size-fits-all UC solutions. As mentioned earlier, we are expecting organisations to instead begin favouring more finely tailored solutions that address their own unique business needs. Many organisations will find that there is, in fact, no one single product or service that meets all of their requirements, instead making the move towards carefully integrating a handful of communication and collaboration features and services.

(See also: ‘CPaaS and Omni-Channel: An Introduction to Communication Platform as a Service’)?

Programmed to Adapt

Many organisations firmly believe in the value of a state-of-the-art system. According to?Mitel, 84% of businesses believe that modern communications solutions are vital for business success. 73% say that such solutions drive business growth. We are predicting that UC vendors will want to ensure that their solutions do much more than simply facilitate hybrid work on its most basic level, but also allow organisations to change, adapt and grow in the face of changing conditions, whilst constantly modernising the business.

AI on the Rise

A further prediction for 2023, which we are starting to see come to fruition already, is the continued rise in organisations using artificial intelligence (AI) in order to enhance their day-to-day operations. Specifically, generative AI, which is artificial intelligence capable of producing unique content, as opposed to just analysing or acting on existing data. Generative AI could revolutionise an organisation’s contact centre with its ability to form responses to customer queries in the same way that a human being would, even providing customers with personalised content based on their history with the organisation.

Cybersecurity

As always, cybersecurity is at the forefront of many organisation’s concerns for the future. Phishing attacks in particular rose?by 61% in 2022?and this will likely continue into next year.?Because of this, we’re predicting that many Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) will be recruiting designated employees with a specific focus on cybersecurity, data safety and the prevention of attacks.

(See also: ‘The Importance of Cybersecurity’)

In Conclusion: Opportunity to Take Stock

As organisations approach the new year and consider what the future might hold for communications technology, now is the time to take stock of your current deployment, in the context of your unique and ever-changing business needs, and consider how changes to the business and communications landscape might affect how this deployment suits your requirements in the future. Is your current deployment future-proof? Does it address all of your business needs? Could you be benefitting from newer, more cutting-edge technologies like generative AI?

To find out more about whether or not your organisation should be revising its unified communications strategy and deployment, chat to one of 4C Strategies’ expert UC consultants today on?01858 438938, or email?[email protected].