2021 for UCaaS was one for the history books! As the COVID-19 crisis continued to rage around the world, we entered into a new phase of living with the virus while trying to get back to some semblance of a normal life with the help of unified communications. This provides fertile ground to look back over the last twelve months and see what lessons we can learn and how they inform the trends we will likely see during 2022.
With the nature of the office transforming significantly during the pandemic, the need for a more flexible UC solution is top of the agenda for many businesses around the globe. Evidence suggests that many people want to maintain the working from home paradigm they’ve gotten used to during the crisis and are actively seeking out employers that provide the flexibility of a hybrid work environment. UCaaS providers can expect to see continued interest in services throughout 2022 and need to prepare marketing and sales teams for this surge. net2phone is already ready!
As an ever-increasing number of customer service interactions are given over to artificial technology by way of integrations, UCaaS brands that fail to make the most of these innovations are likely to lag behind their more advanced competitors.
net2phone offers integrations with Salesforce, Zoho, Microsoft Teams, Zapier, and more to provide our customers with a competitive edge. With our n2p Zapier integration, for example, our customers have access to over 3,000 applications that can help enhance workflow by automating tasks and building connections between applications.
Security Importance For Unified Communication
Nearly half [46%] of illegally made calls around the world in 2020/2021 were carried out using VoIP technology. The use of the internet for making and receiving calls comes with a host of benefits but can also be more vulnerable to cyberattacks than a traditional phone line.
Compounding this issue is the fact that 38% of small businesses have no established protocols for dealing with cybersecurity threats. This means UCaaS providers need to make sure the security protocols in their offering are robust. It is also important that they help educate customers on the risks of cyberattacks and how to best insulate their businesses from the harm such criminal activity can cause.
net2phone makes sure to take security precautions as we take our customer’s privacy very seriously. This is why we continue to participate in compliance and certification programs to ensure our standards go above and beyond expectations.
As you can see, many of the lessons we need to learn from 2021 are not even COVID-related. With so much being put on hold due to the crisis, it has been easy to lose sight of issues such as security. Now that 2022 is here, we are all anxious to get back to some semblance of 'business as usual' and start building a brighter UC future.