Gearing up for auto-pilot mode

Enterprise communications ensure seamless delivery of information to the end-user. From emails to voice calls, this technology is all around us.

By Dr. Debabrata Das

The COVID-19 outbreak that the world faced last year accelerated the need to adapt to newer technologies like never before. Technological advancements in recent years combined with the ‘work from home situation that has become a functional mandate today, stand testimonies to the impact of enterprise communication technologies in business processes. With new technologies constantly replacing the existing IT landscape, it is critical for organizations to leverage enterprise communications and keep abreast of the latest advances in order to add value to their operations.

Fueling fast, reliable flow of communication

Going back to the basics, enterprise communications ensures seamless and flawless delivery of information to the end-user. From emails to voice calls and video conferencing, this technology is all around us. Business organizations have adapted their IT infrastructure in day-to-day operations as it ensures accurate delivery of information through a highly reliable, fast, and flexible network. For the enterprise communications technology to function efficiently, the IT infrastructure and the applications platform that integrates communication requirements of the service are critical.

Rapid advancements and limitations

Sectors ranging from educational institutions to e-commerce ventures, agriculture, healthcare, and banking, have all embraced enterprise communications. While this technology is able to meet the rapid advancements in business functions, it also brings an extremely short lifecycle for its supporting infrastructure.

Today, in order to keep abreast of new developments, corresponding hardware requirements have to be met and replaced at an increasing pace. Technological innovations have given us larger cloud storage size, computational speed, and cloud computing capabilities, all of which enable organizations to augment their business processes. However, the bigger challenge, particularly for small and mid-sized organizations remains the question of feasibility to adapt to fast-changing technologies.

Another challenge that small and mid-sized organizations face is the complexity of setting up network and data center systems as part of their IT infrastructure. The security required inside the data centers and the cost involved in running hardware and software licensing add to the challenge. While there is always the option of renting cloud technologies available in the market, to help reduce the cost of highly skilled manpower and the license cost, it comes with its own security concerns.

Embracing enterprise communication

Despite its challenges, we cannot deny the fact that it is enterprise communication technologies that are keeping business processes alive for several organizations especially with the COVID-19 outbreak. While it is important to keep up with technology, developers need to keep the accessibility and applicability of their projects in mind, as the quality of experience (QoE) will define its end result.

Internet protocol is extremely elastic by nature to accommodate traffic by best-effort service. However, applications need to be designed with simplified architectural design aspects that would ensure a valuable customer experience. Businesses need to be more open-minded to embrace technological improvements and also keep their IT team abreast of advancements.

Augment business processes with emerging technologies

Organizations have realized the significance of enterprise communications. Automation in IT infrastructure is the next big leap organizations should prepare themselves for. Research is underway to develop a level of automation with a good class of IT infrastructure. While chatbots are already being deployed by many organizations, we could expect an upgrade to high-level robotic assistance through digital employees or digital assistants in the near future.

Internet of things (IoT) is also increasingly being deployed in enterprise communications. Autonomous cars, drones, and remote patrolling are some of the upcoming technologies we could expect to see in this space. Virtual and augmented reality will also have a great impact on the business, along with security advancements like blockchain and zero-trust security architecture.

In that regard, robotics and automation is a critical advancement that organizations should be deploying to truly leverage the benefits of enterprise communications and IT infrastructure.

Today, most organizations are investing heavily in enterprise communications to outshine their competitors. Enterprise communications is a lot more than integrated communications in business. When deployed right, organizations could greatly benefit from greater accuracy, reliability, and efficiency of business processes.

Dr. Das is Director Designate and Professor, IIIT Bangalore

feedbackvnd@cybermedia.co.in