Transforming Communication Platforms To Drive Business Results

In order to stay connected and in touch with customers and employees, businesses of all sizes are transforming their communication platforms to stay ahead. However, to fully embrace the AI economy, many enterprises still face challenges with their infrastructure, connectivity and systems.

Previous blog posts have explored reasons to upgrade technology across the enterprise, as businesses continue to search for technology solutions to help solve their problems. As the trusted network for AI, Lumen offers a comprehensive voice and collaboration platform that aligns with your digital journey, incorporating the right tools to meet you where you are, whether it’s a complete replacement or complementary elements to modernize your communication platforms.

This blog post will explore how Lumen can revolutionize your enterprise network and IT operations by providing a carrier-grade, full-stack cloud communication platform with voice and collaboration services in a single, scalable solution.

Challenges In Modern Communications

Businesses are constantly challenged to stay competitive and be ready for new technologies like AI. With existing voice systems, even if they have been updated from old copper lines or centralized PBXs, there are still challenges as they look to update these outdated systems with more flexible and expandable solutions. The main challenges are:

• Costs and inefficiency: Existing voice systems limit flexibility and require more integration work with existing work streams. Forty-five percent of companies who use or have used legacy voice solutions are looking to cloud voice solutions to improve the efficiency of business processes.¹ Additionally, the systems often require specialized knowledge and frequent repairs, leading to increased expenses. As these systems age, they become more prone to breakdowns, diverting valuable resources away from innovation and growth initiatives.
• Limited scalability: Scaling non-cloud systems to accommodate business growth can be challenging and costly. These systems often lack the horsepower to effectively enable AI, with little flexibility to easily add new users or locations, hindering the ability to expand operations efficiently without large investment and resource-intensive commitment. Thirty-seven percent of companies want to scale voice, messaging and collaboration services as business needs change, indicating a significant need for services that are flexible and adaptable.¹
• Security vulnerabilities: Designed in an era when cyberthreats were less sophisticated, legacy voice systems often lack robust security measures needed to defend against modern cyberattacks. This can lead to significant financial and reputational damage. Lumen has a tested and proven network, which helps protect both your own and your customers’ data, limit exposure to threats, and meet industry and government regulations.

Business Outcomes From A Single Trusted Provider

Lumen has addressed these concerns with Lumen^® Cloud Voice, a solution from an experienced resource that owns and operates its own secure network, providing seamless service across voice and collaboration applications. By selecting Lumen, you eliminate the need to coordinate and manage multiple relationships, meaning you have one contact, one company for your needs. This helps you:

• Make money: Enhancing your customer experience is vital to drive additional revenue through both new and existing customers. Having seamless, high-quality experiences is key, whether it be via voice, chat, messaging, online or other interaction channels. A highly reliable, cloud-based system can also help limit downtime and outages, further enabling you to address customer needs without interruption.
• Save money: With a subscription model, you can scale with your business and choose the exact service level you need. If you have employees that don’t need video and collaboration, you can match that need and not overpay for services you won’t use.
• Save time: Streamline your operation with a single interface that your IT personnel access to add or remove users, apply settings and view reports, all centrally managed, resulting in fewer support calls and less potential downtime.
• Increase efficiency: Giving employees the tools and resources to conveniently and accurately serve customers provides boosted efficiency from a consolidated platform. Removing disparate systems provides a more streamlined operational flow, including automatic software updates to give you the latest technology and features with minimal work on your end, regardless of the package chosen or where they are located.
• Amplify the mission: Lumen is experienced in migrating and managing environments while deploying dedicated teams to work with you every step of the way. You will be there to serve customers, virtually anywhere, anytime and on any device, positioning your brand to be a technology leader.

A Comprehensive Solution To Meet Various Needs

Whether your business simply needs phone services or wants to enhance communications with mobility and collaboration tools, one solution does it all. In addition to auto-attendant, extension-to-extension dialing, customizable calling plans and advanced call handling features, Lumen Cloud Voice also offers applications for desktop and mobile devices for communications mobility, plus collaboration tools for team messaging, video conferencing and screen sharing. These packages can be mixed and matched, providing a single consolidated platform for knowledge workers who need full collaboration as well as full voice functionality for staff positions.

Boosting Results: AI In Voice And Network Strategies

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how businesses communicate, both internally and with customers. AI-powered tools such as chatbots and virtual assistants are becoming more capable of engaging in human-like conversations, enhancing customer service and operational efficiency.

This has a large impact on how enterprises approach their voice, network and connectivity strategies, as 47% of North American enterprises report that generative AI had a significantly larger impact on connectivity strategy and roadmaps in 2024, which is up from 25% in mid-2023.²

The key is for enterprises to be able to leverage the digital data cloud-based networks capture and store, which can be rather voluminous. Specific to voice networks, AI can analyze voice data in conversations to provide faster resolution times, improved customer satisfaction and fewer complaints.

Leading communication service providers like Lumen are working with AI resources to optimize network operations and enhance customer experience. AI-driven telecom solutions enable businesses to innovate and grow by providing intelligent automation and actionable insights.

Conclusion

Lumen Cloud Voice is a feature-rich, cloud-based solution that offers a range of functionalities to meet your business needs. By leveraging the Lumen Network, businesses can overcome the challenges of legacy systems, realize significant benefits and support the growth of AI in the enterprise space.

Learn more to see how a cloud-based solution can fit your situation.

¹IDC, Migrating Voice to the Cloud: Realizing Greater Business Effectiveness and Outcomes, November 2023.
²IDC, Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending Survey Wave 6, June 2024.

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