Mitel Exec Shares Insights on Why CPaaS is Crucial for Digital Transformation
Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) is a cloud-based platform that enables developers to embed real-time communications in their own apps. Development teams that leverage CPaaS can accelerate time to market, optimize infrastructure use and human resources.
Mitel, a global leader in enterprise communications understands that CPaaS is not merely a communications system upgrade, but an enabler and a differentiator—one that provides a clear route to complete digital transformation.
In this article, Stefan Zschiegner, the Vice President of Cloud Management at Mitel, talks to VoipReview about the importance of digital transformation, the steps enterprises need to take in order to transform successfully, and how businesses can leverage CPaaS to achieve a complete digital transformation. Zschiegner also shares how Mitel is approaching trends in the CPaaS market.
How Companies Can Prepare for Digital Transformation
According to Zschiegner, digital transformation initiatives and the quick adoption of new technology give businesses a competitive edge as they enable faster decision making and improve operational efficiency, which results in an accelerated pace of growth. However, Zschiegner cautions that in order to take advantage of digital trends, companies must evolve their business model. “Failing to do so is one of the biggest pitfalls companies can face during this transition,” said Zschiegner.
For organizations to successfully apply digital transformation to their business communications, Zschiegner recommends that businesses make the move to the cloud, manage their network and make the simple transition from traditional premises-based unified communications (UC), to a cloud-hosted business communications solution.
Zschiegner offers the following tips for preparing one's organization's network for stellar digital transformation:
- Know where to look – Leverage sophisticated alarm management to focus on the most important problems
- Monitor everything – Take a holistic performance management approach to help pinpoint and address issues quickly and easily
- Gain insight – Test the network before setting up new services to get an idea of what to expect
- Become proactive – The support mode should transform from reactive to proactive
- Understand the user – The focus should be implementing digital transformation with improved user experience.
CPaaS as a Crucial Foundation for Digital Transformation
By deploying application program interfaces (APIs), CPaaS allows developers to insert real-time communication services to business applications. “When combined with existing UC solutions, CPaaS-enabled contextual and real-time interaction empowers organizations to genuinely redefine workflow, resulting in a higher caliber of employee productivity and customer engagement,” said Zschiegner.
Mitel's CloudLink has the benefits of CPaaS and has the ability to enhance those further. According to Zschiegner, the CloudLink platform, which is built on a modern development stack (Amazon AWS serverless architecture), offers enterprises a clear path to the cloud--regardless of their current technological setup. In this way, CPaaS redefines enterprise communications.
The platform offers support for different developer personas--whether from enterprise IT to channel and solution partners. “This approach gives customers the opportunity to accelerate their business at a pace and in a way that works best for their business needs,” mentioned Zschiegner.
CloudLink has a wealth of advantages over competitors in the marketplace. For one, it offers flexible options to adapt to the unique needs of the customer. It is also built using the latest AWS serverless technology, which gives businesses a guarantee that their processes and workflows are scalable and secure.
Zschiegner also shared that prior to Mitel's acquisition of ShoreTel, the latter have already invested in Summit, a custom developer platform for Connect CLOUD, enabling Open API for their UCaaS and cloud applications. Mitel, meanwhile, had previously invested in building the CloudLink platform to consist of communications microservices and connect Mitel's 70 million strong installation base (both on-site PBX and UcaaS). And now with the merger of two business communications giants and their complementary technologies, Zschiegner is positive that integrating Summit into Mitel's CloudLink platform will further their progress toward accelerating their customer's journey to the cloud.
CPaaS Market Predictions in 2018
Zschiegner believes that AI/machine learning/neuro-linguistic programming technologies will play a vital role across the unified communications and contact center industries due to recent emphasis on designing a customer experience that puts consumers first. Customer-to-business communications have also continued down the multi-channel path with more options for communication via email, SMS, social media, and voice. Due to this increase, consumers will expect faster responses from customer service agents. “To keep up, Mitel architected the CloudLink platform to optimize customer workflow and easily integrate AI/machine learning technologies,” said Zschiegner.
About Mitel
Powering more than two billion business connections, Mitel is a global market leader in enterprise communications, Mitel offers a range of products and services that enable organizations to collaborate, communicate, and engage customers easily. The company serves 60 million end users in over 100 countries and owns over 1600 patents.