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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