Recently, 8x8 commissioned Hanover Research to survey 400 IT decision makers about their cloud communications use and experience, including the benefits that matter and are delivering value for them.

The survey confirmed that businesses today, fueled by the transition to remote and hybrid work, are continuing to transform the way their employees and customers communicate, and that long-term strategic plans are now replacing pandemic-driven band-aid solutions. For benchmarking your organization, the complete analysis can be found here in the 2021 State of Business Communications Report.

Highlighting just a few of the key findings, here are 10 top takeaways:

  1. 69% of respondents surveyed say their organization is currently using a cloud-based unified communications platform, with 22% saying they’re in the process of moving to a platform, and 9% saying they’ll do so within the next two years. Extrapolating out over the coming 24 months, cloud communications should be completely ubiquitous, relegating on-premises communications to niche use cases.
  2. On the contact center side, 72% of respondents say they’re currently using a cloud contact center platform, with 21% saying they’re in the process of moving, and 7% saying they’ll do so within the next two years.
  3. Of those same respondents, 87% identify their organization as forward-looking and say that an integrated communications solution bringing together unified communications (UC) and contact center (CC) on the same platform is the future of business communications.
  4. 85% identify their organization as a market leader and say an integrated communications solution is a way to keep their edge.
  5. Looking at the benefits, 85% of organizations that have deployed an integrated cloud communications platform (UC + CC) have experienced increased customer satisfaction.
  6. 84% of organizations that have deployed an integrated cloud communications platform (UC + CC) have experienced increased employee productivity.
  7. 83% of organizations that have deployed an integrated cloud communications platform (UC + CC) have benefited from ease of data and analytics collection.
  8. 82% of organizations that have deployed an integrated cloud communications platform (UC + CC) report it has increased the business’s agility and flexibility.
  9. 81% of organizations using an integrated cloud communications platform (UC + CC) say it has improved overall business resilience.
  10. 80% of those who have deployed an integrated cloud communications platform have also experienced increased sales.

Recent research from the strategic advisory firm Metrigy confirm many of the same benefits, and that a unified communications and contact center platform approach is delivering a competitive advantage for early adopters and fast followers. Read more from Metrigy founder Robin Gareiss here.

Download your complimentary copy of the State of Business Communications today or view more from 8x8 on this platform approach.