Converged Contact – Going Beyond Mobile UCaaS to Give Businesses a Competitive Edge

This white paper addresses the challenges that businesses face when adopting a hybrid work model, especially in terms of mobile collaboration. Although the use of UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) is essential, it is not sufficient. The paper highlights the need for an integrated approach that goes beyond collaboration to support the employee experience, customer satisfaction, and digital transformation initiatives. The paper also outlines the mobile adoption trends in Europe and the challenges that businesses need to address in terms of mobile collaboration.

The European mobile market is substantial, and penetration rates are rising to the point where the use of mobile communication is nearly universal. According to Jon Arnold, president of Jon Arnold & Associates and author of this white paper, European businesses continue to embrace mobile communications as a primary tool, making it market-ready for innovation. As one can expect, the smartphone is the dominant form of mobile connectivity across all major countries, indicating that this is not just a regional trend within the continent, but a major driver of productivity and efficiency throughout Europe. The paper notes that mobile innovation is poised to accelerate as 5G adoption grows, creating an environment where even more compelling solutions enter the marketplace.

Arnold identifies three challenges that a small, mid-size or large enterprise must address to have success using mobile collaboration tools: seamless and consistent experiences across different networks, the limitations of IP infrastructures, and user behaviors and expectations. Different network architectures pose a fundamental challenge for integrating platforms like UCaaS across different types of networks, especially in maintaining a consistent experience across networks that, by design, behave differently.

The limitations of legacy IP networks are another challenge that the paper highlights. Over-the-Top (OTT) providers, for example, may offer both fixed-line and mobile collaboration solutions to businesses, but since they may not own the fixed-line or mobile network, their traffic – both voice and data – must run over IP networks that may not necessarily work cohesively. This may lead to less-than-ideal user experiences when it comes to mobile collaboration, especially with bandwidth intensive applications like video collaboration.

Lastly, the user experience with mobile communication can be a significant challenge. Although consumer-based mobile applications are intuitive and easy to use—based on their mobile-first design—the same may not be true for most mobile UCaaS solutions. These tools were typically designed as solutions to flourish within IP-networks and are not optimized in the mobile world. This presents a challenge for businesses trying to support hybrid working, as well as for operators offering these services.

The white paper addresses these challenges head-on by describing real-world examples of how businesses are successfully using a strategic mix of mobility, UCaaS, contact center, and other technologies to address the hybrid workspace. This approach allows businesses to provide native applications on the mobile device for a better user experience, while improving productivity and efficiency across the organization.

Follow this link to download this paper to learn how an integrated Converged Contact approach that incorporates UCaaS, CCaaS, native mobile support, and deep integrations across fixed and mobile networks can benefit your business.