The Real Costs of Doing Nothing

Mayur Pitamber at 8×8 explores the real cost of doing nothing when it comes to legacy communications.

Your IT team has put a great deal of work into evaluating and understanding various business communications solutions that meet your organization’s needs. But securing funding for strategic priorities, like employee communications and customer engagement tools, is often complex.

Today, CIOs and CFOs are increasingly scrutinizing their organization’s current infrastructure investments, including standalone phone systems, maintaining on-premises video collaboration tools, and undertaking expensive and disruptive contact centre upgrades.

Two-thirds of IT and finance decision-makers admit that wasteful spending on upkeep projects does not “move the needle.”

Sticking With Outdated Communications Hurts

Sustained competitive pressures and demanding customer and employee expectations are redefining entire industries.

Hanover Research revealed that 51% of organizations choose combined cloud communications to improve productivity and employee experiences, while customer satisfaction accounts for half of all respondents.

Businesses with legacy communications technology may find it tempting to maintain the status quo and just “bolt-on” new services, but keeping aging and disparate communications tools on “life-support” can bite deep into already stretched IT budgets.

The True Cost of Inaction

While on-premises communications systems offer full control over the hardware and configurations, they require specialists to provide system maintenance, making it costlier than cloud communications.

Integrating on-premises platforms with popular business apps and CRMs incur substantial manual activity costs. Human error in managing legacy systems can adversely impact staff productivity and risk reputational damage as customer complaints increase.

Trying to wrestle new functionality from on-premises communication tools is expensive and lacks the agility and hassle-free advantages of cloud alternatives.

Furthermore, connecting individual vendor platforms and maintaining separate communication tools requires considerable efforts from overburdened IT staff struggling to make an older system work in the digital world.

Implications of a Patchwork Quilt Approach

While doing nothing may seem like the best choice, maintaining a patchwork of legacy communications is counterproductive when considering the broader implications.

These organizations often experience communication outages and unplanned downtime, not to mention potential security threats. Service disruptions cause instant knee-jerk reactions and costly decisions for backup communications.

Legacy communications tools are limited in enabling digital channels for quick and easy customer interactions, and they disadvantage businesses compared to competitors using cloud-based communications for customers’ social media contact.

Demonstrating Clear Business Value

One of the best ways to achieve financial and IT goals is to choose a single communications provider that integrates all employee communications and customer engagement tools on a unified cloud platform.

According to Metrigy Research, having one integrated communications platform can deliver a measurable return on investment and 56% lower TCO than a multi-vendor strategy. Articulating the benefits of the cloud to key business stakeholders and convincing them to take that step requires hard numbers to build the justification.

Forward-thinking companies using cloud communications are realizing not only reductions in costs and operational expenses but are also spending less time setting up IT hardware, adding employees, and training.

However, it’s not just about the cost. Regular system and security updates guarantee the latest functionality, enabling teams to work together whether in the office, in the contact centre, or the field from any device or location.

This single platform approach can provide unexpected and significant gains for customers when it comes to controlling costs and improving customer service.

The cost of doing nothing in the current business environment is unaffordable and a step backwards.

This blog post has been re-published by kind permission of 8x8 – View the Original Article

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8x8 is transforming the future of business communications as a leading Software-as-a-Service provider of voice, video, chat, contact centre, and enterprise-class API solutions, powered by one global cloud communications platform.

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Call Centre Helper is not responsible for the content of these guest blog posts. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Call Centre Helper.

Author: 8x8