The rapid advancement of technology has evolved the way we live in today’s world. The amalgamation of multiple technologies and digitization has fostered the way we interact with each other. Cloud services have disrupted the technology and have made the digital space more efficient. Acceptability of mobile, internet, augmented reality, virtual reality, cryptocurrency, VOIP, etc. has now taken a boost.

The paradigm shift in the landscape of consumer and business technology has raised the business acumen amongst people in India. Ankit Jain, CEO, MyOperator feels that cloud telephony has made business communication efficient and has been at the centre of many businesses. It has replaced the traditional PBX system and has gained momentum this year. Also, it is estimated to be around $100 billion by 2020.

In the coming years, cloud telephony will be a need of the hour for every business. Some of the many sectors which will further adapt this technology will be early-stage startups, institutional and governance sector.

Voice bots, multilingual technology and data analysis are going to be the key trends in cloud telephony segment irrespective of the business sector. You can read below the detailed analysis of cloud telephony trends to look out in 2018.

1. Voice Bots will be ruling the business

In today’s time, communication technology usage is far beyond transistors and landline phones. With the onset of mobile phones, people started relying on SMS for textual conversations. But now, with the wide acceptability of mobile phones and internet, it is possible to interact with bots and send messages in the form of audio and video. Initially, it was restricted only to specific users but now it is fostering the common man lives as well.

In the coming years, we will see that voice bots will start becoming common for businesses but would be limited mainly to high volume operational processes. They are going to be the future of cloud telephony, thereby helping businesses reduces human efforts in all aspects.

2. Breaking the barrier — multilingual technology

India is a multilingual country and is known for its multicultural values. Each state has its own native language and efficient communication is the only way that binds these states and the people. Nowadays, it is possible to have a single communication system to understand different languages. Indian language based speech technology has evolved over the years. Businesses can now connect with their customers in the customers’ local language with the help of IVR. Use of customised IVR not only enhances customer satisfaction but contributes significantly to enhanced customer experience as well.

3. The need for analytics — Data will be the key

It is very important to understand the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. Are we on the right track or do we need to change the strategy? Is marketing working for us or not? These are some of the many questions that every company wants to know. With the digitisation picking pace, consumer-related data is becoming increasingly important. It helps us to measure the ROI of marketing campaigns and also the business growth.

Data analytics will play a major role in the coming year. With the widespread use of voice and chats bots, analytics will become more intense. Keywords will now be defined by sentiment analysis. Analytics usage would be limited to enterprises and mid-enterprise market due to increased demand of consumers. Also, voice analytics will help businesses in streamlining the audit process.

4. Act as a SaaS tool

Cloud telephony services are easily scalable and are simple to integrate with other SaaS tools. The costs and efforts associated with upgrades are lower than the traditional model which usually forces the user to buy an upgrade package and install it, or pay for specialised services to get the environment upgraded. Therefore, cloud telephony will be considered as the most important SaaS tool for any business in India.

5. Sector Agnostic Platform

Irrespective of the nature of business, cloud telephony is one platform that serves all businesses to have seamless inbound and outbound communication processes. In today’s scenario, customer care for e-commerce, banking, telecom, etc. is driven with the help of IVRs (Interactive Voice Response), which is a product of cloud telephony. Institutional and governance sectors are using toll-free numbers to reach millions of customers without any hassle.

With the increasing awareness about cloud telephony, SMBs and even early-stage startups are coming forward to adopt this technology. Businesses which are still using traditional PBX system will soon realize that they can improve their business communication immensely using cloud telephony products. Cloud telephony is one of the most important technologies that businesses must adopt in 2018.