Starting his role at NSC Group this week, Rennie believes 2013 will be a pivotal year for the industry as more clients demand flexibility in their cloud based communication offerings.
“There is little doubt that 2013 will be the year where ‘service orientated purchasing’ becomes the new buzz phrase within our industry. While it has been an underlying trend for the past couple of years, the rapid growth in smartphone ownership along with subdued business conditions mean businesses will need cheap and simple ways to communicate effectively with both customers and employees.
“The slow economic recovery also means that for many companies, the purchase and maintenance of large communication infrastructures will not be a possibility. This means organisations of all shapes and sizes will be looking to unified communication providers to offer innovative and cost effective services which effectively utilise all available technologies. “The providers which best tailor solutions to individual clients will most likely flourish in 2013,” says Rennie.
And while the smartphone revolution has led to an explosion in the way customers interact with companies, Rennie says the move toward a more flexible workforce will also be a key reason why many businesses will seek to unify their communication processes.
“Australia’s continued love affair with smart phones along with the national push for greater teleworking options has created a ‘perfect storm’ for the unified communications industry. Businesses across all sectors will now need to streamline their internal and external communications in order to stay connected with their workforce.
“While this may present the industry with a range of new opportunities, it’s vital unified communication providers remember the position many of these businesses find themselves in and tailor our services accordingly,” says Rennie.
NSC Group Managing Director, Trevor Boal, says the hiring of Col Rennie along with the investment in Breeze, the company’s Communication as a Service (CaaS) offering, reflects the increased importance many customers are placing on cloud based communication infrastructures.
“The greater utilisation of cloud technologies has certainly shifted the goalposts for our industry. One of the major opportunities it has provided for organisations like NSC Group is the chance to develop far more innovative and business orientated service offerings for clients.
“This means organisation will have to be more in tune with their customer’s needs in order to present the best cloud based solutions for their customers. As an industry, this is where our focus should be. And the companies who can offer the best CaaS solutions to their clients will have a very fruitful year,” says Boal.
