Business Communications: The Next Wave in Cloud-Based Computing?

Dec. 6, 2010 - PRLog -- Dubai, United Arab Emirates – 6th December 2010 - Cloud computing has quickly established its rightful place in modern IT organizations, helping enterprises become more agile while keeping costs in line. And with near-mainstream appeal, the new delivery model has proven its stripes with applications like messaging, storage and CRM. Now, technology innovators are applying what they’ve learned—and what they’ve gained—to business communications. A recent study by IDG Research Services explores how and why enterprises are taking communications into the cloud.

CLOUD SERVICE DELIVERY HAS HIT CRITICAL MASS, with a majority of organizations already riding the wave. With that adoption, enterprises have become more comfortable with this innovative service delivery model and their newfound confidence is paving the way to exciting new cloud opportunities.
A recent online poll by IDG Research Services concludes that business communications is poised to be on the next big wave of cloud-bound applications. Key findings include:
•   A majority of companies are bringing business communications into the cloud.
•   Compelling business benefits and a healthy ROI are driving migration.
•   Experienced applications vendors are the partners of choice in that migration.

“Cloud-based communications isn’t a product out looking for a problem,” says Shaheen Haque, Territory Manager, Middle East & Turkey, Interactive Intelligence, a provider of business communications software and services based in Indianapolis. “In contrast, cloud-based communications is a solution laced with many benefits—making for a very compelling business case.” And that has CIOs ready to hit the wave.

Communications Goes to the Cloud
Cloud service delivery has become more than a novel new way to deploy applications. Since its inception, it has evolved quite quickly into a strategic directive for many companies. “It’s a way for companies to focus on their core business, offloading IT manage¬ment to trusted third parties,” Haque explains. And with all the early-adopter barriers crumbling, it’s effectively become a new way of life for IT organizations.

In an attempt to uncover just how ingrained that new way of life has become, IDG Research Services queried approximately 150 technology and business leaders across a range of industries. The research determines that 81 percent of responding companies are indeed already using or planning to use cloud-based applications.

The cloud is perfect in situations that require a system to be up and running in a short time. In addition to improved deployment times, companies enjoy little to no up-front costs, reduced IT management and more.

So it’s no surprise that CIOs will continue riding the wave, bring¬ing other critical business functions into the cloud. “It doesn’t make much sense to put one foot in the water and keep the other one out,” says Haque. Rather, IT organizations are fully committing to the new delivery model with enthusiastic abandon.

One application that is cresting the adoption wave is business communications. The function includes such business-essential applications as inbound and outbound call center automation, IP PBX, interactive voice response and more. In general, 54 percent of respondents indicate that business communications applica¬tions are a good fit for cloud delivery. “Cloud delivery is applicable across the whole spectrum of business communications applica¬tions—from basic PBX functionality to sophisticated call center technology,” Haque notes. “There’s really no limit to the pos¬sibilities.” Especially, when according to this survey, 79 percent of respondents report executive management support.

Business Value for All
The momentum behind bringing communications into the cloud is a testament to the value it brings to the enterprise—from the IT organization to the business and on to the customers.
•   The IT Organization. From an IT perspective, moving communications to the cloud evokes day-to-day impact. The majority of respondents feel that reduced IT staff requirements (57 percent) and faster deployment (47 percent) are primary benefits of the service delivery model. Just consider a cloud-based IP PBX installation. Instead of buying hardware, building out the PBX, and monitoring the equipment 24/7, IT can hand off the burden to a capable vendor. That translates into faster deployment because the vendor does all the heavy lifting. And staff that would normally be responsible for maintaining the system can be redirected to more strategic projects.

•   The Business. There is positive impact at the business level, too. Many respondents point to little to no up front capital expenses (56 percent) and the add-as-you-grow purchasing model (50 percent) as strong business drivers for cloud delivery. Such cost benefits certainly apply to implementing a blended contact center application, which can be laden with up-front capital outlays and little predict-ability in terms of future capacity. Not to mention, all those cloud-triggered cost savings can be funneled back into the business. At the same time, there is soft value associated with being able to focus solely on the call center and reacting quickly to the fast-changing environment. All the time and energy normally dedicated to infrastructure can be diverted into growing revenue streams.

•   The Other Stakeholders. Cloud delivery also enhances communication for customers, employees, partners and other key stakeholders—even if it’s transparent to them. For example, a strong percentage of respondents rally around the promise of quicker access to features (40 percent), which introduces value at the end-user level. For example, new functionality can be brought into a cloud-based interactive voice response system to improve customer interactions on a more frequent basis. Instead of waiting for a major release from a vendor, customers benefit from the latest and greatest capabilities as soon as they’re available.

All this value is so compelling that 59 percent of respondents expect cloud-based business communications applications to yield ROI in a shorter timeframe when compared with on-premise applications. According to Haque, the primary contributors to faster ROI are twofold: “Hard savings in the form of lower capital expenditures and reduced administrative costs garner most of the attention,” he says. “But it’s the soft returns—like improved IT productivity, getting users up and running faster with business-enabling applications, and unrelenting focus on the core busi-ness— that can take an enterprise from mediocre to masterful.”

Interactive Intelligence in the Cloud
With singular focus, Interactive Intelligence has taken a unified approach to business communications and process automa¬tion. Our standards-based IP platform unifies every aspect of your business—from multichannel contact center applica¬tions and IP PBX functionality to interactive voice response. Now all that know-how is available in a cloud delivery format that affords you the freedom to deploy functionality quickly, while off-loading the management and cost burdens associ¬ated with on-premise solutions. For more information, visit http://www.inin.com/cloud.