Unified communications (UC) allows companies to build a structure for streamlining communications and connecting people through the adoption of presence and availability awareness tools. These tools meld each individual’s capability for communication with the availability to communicate and the specific knowledge that person holds.
Technologies such as UC become relevant especially during times like economic slowdown when companies are driving cost control. Unified communications technologies fall squarely in this category, with several companies beginning to adopt wide-scale UC strategies. According to Datamonitor, the UC market is set for continued growth over the next five years at an overall compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.4 percent. A key trend is the adoption of UC among enterprises with large end-user interaction, such as FMCG companies and telcos etc, since UC enables better customer connect, and enables the enterprise to deliver higher customer satisfaction and therefore drive loyalty.
Two key variables are implicit in building a creative UC strategy for such companies. One is the end customer, along with an understanding of the tools that the customer uses to connect to the company. The second is the contact center, where agents can use the UC infrastructure to boost and extend the effectiveness of the customer experience. This offers the opportunity for people with relevant expertise, outside the contact center, to become part of the knowledge pool that can be tapped by the agent during the customer interaction. Here, performance optimization technologies, long a staple in the contact center, present a unique opportunity to extend the UC best practices enterprise-wide.
