Due to Covid-19 regulations in 2020, businesses were forced to adopt remote working into their corporate environments. The drive of 2020 to move to mobile solutions, has left a lasting impression on the telecommunications industry.
Here are the trends to expect for the Telecom’s industry in 2021:
Solutions to Drive Remote Working
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many employees began working from home. The shift from working in a central environment to a remote location served as a challenge for businesses and employees, and forced businesses to begin adopting solutions to enable efficient remote working. Remote working was more prevalent in other countries before the pandemic, and South Africa is now following suit. Solutions that allow remote employees to connect to the business’s central environment need to be implemented.
- Cloud computing:
- Cloud computing services provide flexible resources that your team can use from any location. This will lower operating costs, allow your business infrastructure to be run more efficiently and easily scale as your company changes.
- VoIP systems:
- VoIP phone systems allow calls to be made over the internet rather than from a landline or mobile network. This allows employees to answer the phone from any remote location as if they were in the office.
The shift to implementing remote working solutions will likely continue in 2021, as businesses are lowering their overheads by downsizing.
Traditional landlines to become obsolete
The use of landlines are decreasing, as businesses switch to digital communication systems, such as VoIP. This allows businesses to ascertain more flexibility and mobility than is achievable with a landline. As at home, where people have abandoned landlines and adopted smartphones, so businesses are doing the same. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is flexible, user-friendly and maintenance- and infrastructure-light, providing a more reliable and efficient option for business to client calls. VoIP systems also provide more useful functionalities than the landline, such as call queues, multi-office integration, auto answering and conference calling.
The adoption of 5G
5G systems are being rolled out in South Africa. This fifth generation wireless technology has been engineered to increase speed and responsiveness. 5G platforms provide businesses with a much more effective workspace, as operations will no longer be encumbered by connectivity issues. The benefits of switching to 5G includes:
- Faster speeds (5G is anticipated to be 100 times faster than 4G networks)
- Reduced latency
- Better reliability
- Increased capacity
Enhanced customer experience due to increased data demand
Personalised consumer experiences are in high demand, and technologies, such as CRMs and AI, are able to provide these desired experiences. Self-service systems are expected to be on the rise in 2021, as data collected on customers allow an enhanced and efficient customer experience. Data driving allows companies to get a better understanding of their client’s behaviour and modify their client experience to suit their target market.
Larger variety of channels to communicate with clients
There is an increase in the amount of communication channels that consumers can use to engage with businesses and vice versa, as CRM systems are easily integrated into the business-client portal. These options include IVR systems, chatbots, Twitter or the traditional real-time employees. Clients can then use their preferred communication channel; improving their customer experience.
