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Take Our Survey: How Do You Use Cloud Communications?Take Our Survey: How Do You Use Cloud Communications?

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Beth Schultz

August 22, 2018

3 Min Read
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With an eye on programming for Enterprise Connect 2019, the No Jitter content team has had lots of conversations over the last few weeks with the industry analysts and consultants who share their thought leadership and industry smarts on these pages as well as at our annual event. Cloud, as you might imagine, has been a frequent topic in those conversations.

For example, one analyst shared how her research shows that the cloud communications decision hinges on the "mundane" more so than the "sizzle." In other words, enterprise IT professionals buying UC or other cloud communications services for their businesses are doing so for reasons like improved reliability and security rather than to gain new features and functionality.

If that's a pervasive attitude, it represents a change from what we've observed in our own research on cloud communications adoption and usage trends. When we've asked the No Jitter and Enterprise Connect enterprise communities why they have or would be moving from on-prem communications systems to cloud platforms, access to features and functions rated among the top reasons (along with TCO and agility) in our 2017 Cloud Communications Survey.

We just launched this year's cloud communications survey, our fourth annual, and this is definitely a data point I'll be keeping close tabs on as responses come in. If we see features and functions slip down our list in favor of factors like reliability, what does that tell us about how enterprises are thinking about cloud communications overall?

You could think about this in a couple of ways. For one, as the technology platforms mature, no one cloud UC vendor's features and functions stand out among others, leaving enterprises to place higher weight on other decision criteria. Alternatively, as the use of cloud UC services grows, enterprises are realizing that reliability and security deserve greater consideration than they thought when initially pursuing cloud communications services.

On this latter point, we've heard from more than one of our go-to cloud experts that getting out of a cloud communications services contract is not an easy endeavor. If you want to do this because your cloud communications service suffers from reliability issues, you're certainly going to be taking a harder look at this factor for any cloud decisions down the road.

Do either of these explanations resonant with you? Have you changed the decision factors you apply to cloud communications in your business? Help us understand how enterprises are thinking about and using cloud communications today by taking our 2018 Cloud Communications Survey. Click here for the survey, and complete it by Friday, Sept. 21, for the chance to win one of three $100 gift cards.

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About the Author

Beth Schultz

In her role at Metrigy, Beth Schultz manages research operations, conducts primary research and analysis to provide metrics-based guidance for IT, customer experience, and business decision makers. Additionally, Beth manages the firm’s multimedia thought leadership content.

With more than 30 years in the IT media and events business, Beth is a well-known industry influencer, speaker, and creator of compelling content. She brings to Metrigy a wealth of industry knowledge from her more than three decades of coverage of the rapidly changing areas of digital transformation and the digital workplace.

Most recently, Beth was with Informa Tech, where for seven years she served as program co-chair for Enterprise Connect, the leading independent conference and exhibition for the unified communications and customer experience industries, and editor in chief of the companion No Jitter media site. While with Informa Tech, Beth also oversaw the development and launch of WorkSpace Connect, a multidisciplinary media site providing thought leadership for IT, HR, and facilities/real estate managers responsible for creating collaborative, connected workplaces.

Over the years, Beth has worked at a number of other technology news organizations, including All Analytics, Network World, CommunicationsWeek, and Telephony Magazine. In these positions, she has earned more than a dozen national and regional editorial excellence awards from American Business Media, American Society of Business Press Editors, Folio.net, and others.

Beth has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and lives in Chicago.