How to improve collaboration and ROI from the cloud

By SMBWorld Asia Editors | Dec 14, 2011

0 comments

 

 

 

Digg

 Email

Print

Thumbnail: 

Year 2011 came across as a period of calamities and natural disasters and through most of the situations when traditional and mobile communications failed, people and enterprises found web and cloud based communications useful and reliable.

As businesses plan for 2012, there is no denying the significant benefits that businesses can leverage by adopting the cloud. Avaya outlines 3 benefits that businesses can make use of to enhance communications and improve collaboration in 2012.

1. Universal Collaboration: Many organizations today deploy communication and collaboration solutions but usually within the “walls” of their enterprise. The other way is by using technology to assist in universal collaboration.

Universal collaboration trumps unified communications by delivering on-demand collaboration and customer service capabilities — voice, data, video and messaging, but also presence, location, sequenced applications and multivendor integration.

All of the capabilities enable an entirely new collaboration and customer service model that is not just limited to the enterprise but can be scaled up for the benefit of customers and vendors as well.

2. The Application marketplace:  For Internet and cell phone users, downloading “apps” has become second nature in recent years.

But what if you could offer your company’s workforce a communications “app store” – a platform where the workforce could download individual apps, such as call-recording or multipoint conferences, to devices? Or they could take advantage of entire solutions that you have downloaded for use across the business.

The benefit of this structure can also be extended through SaaS-based applications that employees can use by subscription, on demand. Avaya web.alive is an example of this immersive Web collaboration tool that provides organizations with innovative ways to meet, sell and learn. A hosted cloud-based solution, web.alive connects participants from around the world in collaboration sessions featuring 3D visuals and spatial audio.

3. Cloud platforms: Probably the ultimate ease, flexibility and cost-efficiency for some businesses come when they can simply turn the management of their communications systems over to a service provider through an IaaS, PaaS and CaaS model.

In fact, recent industry research indicates that outsourcing adoption, including migration to managed services, tripled from 2006 to 2010. Organizations are doing this to overcome barriers associated with adopting next-generation technologies, such as large capital investments and spending for training and tools.