It’s ok. We know how you feel, and the good news is we actually love sorting out a bit of a tangle because we specialize in handling complexity. Our work with RS Components highlights our expertise at unraveling those complexities and offering solutions that work. RS Components, a leading global supplier of industrial components and tools, turned to Orange Business to be its single end-to-end managed services provider. End-of-life technology, lack of integration and regulatory compliance drove the need to execute on this transformation as soon as possible. This includes digitizing its sales processes and migrating contact center activities to the cloud.
The lesson 2020 has driven home is that anything and everything can change, assumptions can be weaknesses. Flexibility and adaptability are critical attributes of any contact center operation, but integration is another vital component in the plan. To compete in this fast-moving environment, you’ll depend on the integration capability of UC and contact center environments. This integration must facilitate collaboration of back-office and front-office functions, resulting in improved operational and business efficiency.
There are snags that need dealing with. Legacy issues tend to hinder contact center modernization. On-premises deployment, data silos and a lack of integrated tools will delay your progress in modernizing your contact centers. Despite this, over 60% of companies deploy their contact center tools on-premises and plan to do so in the next upgrade cycle. Data silos and lack of tools mean that more than one in three decision makers struggle with fragmented data and so find it harder to make the right calls confidently. Most companies don’t have an integrated approach for unified communications (UC) and contact center (CC) technologies. This is a missed opportunity. Of companies that integrate UC tools and contact center applications, 89% agree that integrating CC apps and UC tools yields positive business outcomes.
The increase in internal efficiency and the better use of data in decision making are good enough reasons to push for this integration. There’s more because the benefits to the customer of integrating unified communications tools and contact center applications are many. They include a faster time-to-resolution along with improved or personalized resolution. It’s cost effective because it also leads to a simplified interaction, which in turn means a happier customer.
Agents delivering service to customers benefit from the integration of unified communications tools and contact center applications, too. They enjoy an improved understanding of customer issues and an ability to provide customer assistance suggestions in real time.
We’ve talked about the problems and the benefits, but now a major decision must be made: we have to select the actual technology platform. At Orange, we support many major vendors, and our strong understanding of user personas helps us guide customers to the right solution – one that can bind customer-facing teams with those behind the scenes into a single productive organization. In this case, Microsoft Teams is the best fit. It enjoys widespread, worldwide adoption by small and large businesses. There are also the advantages of the long list of supporting vendors and solutions, including contact center, voice recording and attendant console, which all natively integrate into Microsoft Teams.
The starting point for RS Components was Orange Direct Routing to fulfill their initial requirement to connect to Microsoft and for global expansion, when needed, through our underlying global voice network. It is a key and vital starting point. As that journey continues, Orange has other supporting Microsoft-based services like Tenant Management, Managed Teams Rooms and more, all designed to simplify the solution through a single support organization, while adding significant business benefits in how people work on a daily basis.
At Orange Business, we know the capabilities firms seek in a technology partner. Our customers are looking for ease of integration with multiple deployment options and value-added/managed services.
Every business situation and problem presents its unique challenges and, as in this case, it is the initial and comprehensive understanding of a customer journey that allows us to provide the right answers and technologies to achieve the initial desired results, while also ensuring that the long-term strategic goals are met. Transformation is never a one-off project but is a process of continual improvement and change to maintain a leadership position. Orange prides itself on being the partner for that journey.
There’s a potentially confusing array of tools available to you, all designed to improve business efficiency in their own ways, but they need to be properly integrated to maximize the cost benefit.
Need some advice navigating this landscape? Simply contact us, and we’ll guide you as you transform your contact center and communications operations.
Editor in Chief, International, at Orange Business. I'm in charge of our International website and the English language blogs at Orange Business. In my spare time I'm literally captain of my own ship, spending my time on the wonderful rivers and canals of England.