Building a vertically focused comms business for B2B for MNOs
Enterprise communications needs are evolving, and the cloud PBX market is growing to support them. Differentiation will increasingly be required.
According to Transparency Market Research[1], the global cloud PBX market will expand at a 14% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) between now and 2030, reaching a value of US$68.3 billion. A variety of factors are driving a market comprised of end-users in multiple different vertical industries many of which have their own distinct enterprise communications needs. These verticals range from healthcare to retail to real estate to transport to government, logistics, freight, and others.
Specialised solutions are required for different vertical industries
The cloud PBX market serves a broad constituency. Within it, companies in different industry verticals have specific requirements which increasingly necessitate the adoption f specialised communications solutions. We can see this in the following examples:
Transportation & Logistics
Companies in this vertical have a mission-critical need to keep their office staff and drivers connected, so reliable mobile communications are of paramount importance. Customer satisfaction is also critical, so the accurate tracking of business operations is another necessity.
Voice communications forms part of the ways in which logistics companies can track status and obtain information that goes beyond basic location information. Integrating voice and other factors with logistics management systems provides a means of meeting sector needs. These (and other unique sector-specific) requirements must be handled by a flexible, reliable communications solution.
Healthcare
Companies in the healthcare sector must first and foremost prioritise data security as they have a responsibility to keep protected health information such as patient data safe. Given that this information is often shared through voicemail or text, a reliable and secure communications solution is vital to protecting patient privacy.
Collaborative communications are also important as they can improve the quality of care for patients, particularly when considering the high degree of role specialisation in this sector – connecting to the right person, at the right time, based on skills and availability is as important here as it is in the contact centre – but few have yet adopted systems that are specialised for handling such enhanced communications.
Government
Government and civil service agencies are unique, often comprised of relatively independent (of each other) departments that nevertheless need to collaborate and communicate closely together as well respond to the public quickly. A range of services stretching across multiple agencies and geographies in real-time must be supported by a functional communications infrastructure.
From just these three examples (there are many others – which we’ll explore in more depth in future posts), it should be immediately apparent that a single approach to communications solutions won’t fit all the parties who need to deploy one.
And it’s also vitally important that MNO’s keep this in mind when they are building propositions for their enterprise customers, an increasingly important and lucrative segment. Their enterprise offers must reflect the distinct services demanded by and provided to different verticals, including Cloud PBX. The enterprise is not a single, amorphous blog: it’s lots of different things, with very different modes of working and concerns.
What to consider with cloud PBX services
Thus, a one-size-fits-all approach is impractical and ineffective. Rather, the right features tuned to the needs of each specific sector must be deployed to fit the needs and priorities of the market at hand. In general, areas of consideration include:
- Security – does the solution help prevent fraud, how does it address system failure and call loss, is its performance safe and reliable?
- Optimisation – are processes optimised and are resources allocated efficiently to meet performance requirements specific to the vertical? Is end customer satisfaction improved?
- Functionality – are the variety of features that may be available (for instance, IVR, call forwarding, conference calling, groups, and others) sufficiently matched to the needs of the industry being served?
- User friendliness – is the solution easy-to-use and easily configured if changes are required?
- Location management – as we’ve seen, for some verticals interconnecting multiple sites, agencies, or workforces under a single communications network is critical. Can this be done efficiently and cost effectively?
Obviously, different vertical industries will prioritise the above considerations, and others, differently. The key is that the solution that best fits them will result from being able to make choices.
The Gintel solution for enterprise communications
The Gintel approach to enterprise communications recognises that each vertical industry presents its own unique requirements. While the core functional solution shares the same roadmap and evolution path across verticals, the deployment model and delivered functionality can be tailored to the needs of the individual enterprise sector.
Gintel’s Cloud PBX solution is, while fully available from the cloud, also ready for deployment in the Mobile Network Operator’s data centre should that be required to ensure full compliance with any local data protection regulations.
Interested in learning more? Let us know and we’ll show you how we can help.
[1] https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/cloud-pbx-market.html
