As employees moved to home offices in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, IT and business leaders began re-evaluating everything—from processes to technologies to costs. The dramatic change in work location for most served as a catalyst for digital transformation projects designed to leverage technology automation to deliver value in the form of reduced costs, improved employee productivity, and increased revenue generation. Indeed, 64.9% of organizations will have a digital transformation project complete, underway, or in progress by the end of 2022.
Digital transformation projects often include deployment of Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) applications, as well as contact center and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications. Each of these areas delivers underlying benefits that improve communications and information delivery among employees and between employees and customers. Without well-functioning, well-managed internal and external engagement capabilities, companies won’t be able to survive very long.
As organizations work on these transformation projects, they must consider a few key areas, including the following:
- What functions are at the core of the project? Automation of onboarding, implementation and workflow? Monitoring real-time network and application performance? Having visibility into metrics that help with business decisions? Answering these questions will help guide the project and establish short lists of vendors that can meet requirements.
- What architecture makes the most sense? This will help determine the provider and associated management, monitoring, reporting, and automation tools that will help with the transformation.
- What information is needed to make the best business decisions—today and over the next several years? Technology partners that provide a diverse set of features across multiple architectures will help the most moving forward.
- How does the company want to measure success? Determine metrics up front to track whether applications are delivering the anticipated success.
- To what extent will automation play a role? If it’s a lot, then it would be imperative to select providers with a solid artificial intelligence strategy.
- How easily can the tools adjust their capabilities and adapt to changing business needs—without the cost and delay of professional services. Moving forward, will the selected tool be an enabler for rapid change and innovation?
