Philippe Hulsmans, Country Manager Avaya Belgium & Luxembourg gives some 2015 predictions. First one was about “Generations Y&Z make video imperative” this morning. Let’s follow with “Next generation networks come of age” and “Midmarket communications move to the cloud”. Tomorrow morning will be about “Wearables gather momentum in customer service” and “Social media in the contact centre”.

2. Next generation networks come of age

2014 has seen the speed of business increase rapidly due to advances in customer expectation, social media and mobility. Organisations are beginning to realise that their technology infrastructure, including the corporate network, plays a critical role in helping them to engage with their customers and employees alike, in an agile and timely manner.

However, most businesses are still relying on networks that are slow, inflexible and often unstable. Research conducted by Avaya earlier this year shows that organisations can spend more than nine months per year waiting to make the necessary network changes to deliver a new or improved service to the business. As companies begin to better understand this problem, they will shift to a next-generation networking approach, which can reduce configuration times, speed up network changes and reduce errors. Avaya’s next generation Fabric Connect technology helps companies operate a tomorrow’s business speed today and has seen a 150 percent increase in demand in the last quarter alone.

3. Midmarket communications move to the cloud

According to research from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) released this summer, some 80 percent of UK large enterprises have adopted at least one cloud-based service. However, when it comes to the midmarket, cloud uptake remains very patchy. Communication-related applications, like video conferencing, unified communication and collaboration, still largely remain on-premise.

But we are now at the tipping point where this is set to change. This is for a number of reasons.

First, midmarket businesses in the EU are booming. In the UK, for example, throughout the recession the sector bucked the economy’s negative growth trend and since then has continued to outperform the rest of the economy. Research from GE Capital predicts that the Italian midmarket will employ a further 74,000 people this year and the French midmarket will contribute nearly €49bn to its economy moving forward. The benefits that cloud can deliver to these growing, vibrant businesses are instantaneous and can have a bottom line impact in weeks.

Second, traditionally many business communication applications have been part of the large enterprise armoury, out of reach for the midmarket. However thanks to tailored midmarket solutions and flexible cloud delivery methods, this is now changing, enabling them to compete more effectively with larger companies.

Perhaps most importantly, putting business communications applications into the cloud gives midmarket companies the flexibility and agility that allows them to respond to their customers even more quickly and appropriately, enabling them to offer that amazing customer service that they are so famous for.

These benefits, coupled with the fact that midmarket-specific solutions are now available, and that cloud is not a new technology, mean 2015 will see a massive surge in the numbers of midsized organisations opting for cloud-delivered communications and collaboration services.

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• Article 1 : generation X&Y

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