Over the past year, businesses have faced evolving challenges, from economic uncertainty and technological advancements to an increasing focus on sustainability. These shifts present both opportunities and uncertainties for organizations looking to stay ahead.
As we begin 2025, we share our insights on the key trends that will shape the year ahead.
Strengthening hybrid work ecosystems
Hybrid work has become a standard expectation for many. In 2025, we foresee businesses continuing to refine their hybrid work models further to maximize productivity and boost collaboration.
Modern, innovative technologies are revolutionizing infrastructure, enabling greater scalability, automation, and flexibility. The iPECS Cloud platform supports innovation, ensuring that businesses can take advantage of new trends and meet the changing demands of the modern work environment.
Tools like iPECS ONE remain instrumental in empowering businesses to unify communication across devices and locations. With advanced features for voice, video, and instant messaging, iPECS ONE enables seamless internal collaboration and efficient customer-facing communication, no matter where employees are located. Hybrid work isn’t just the norm – it’s a key driver of innovation and employee satisfaction.
Generative AI and beyond
AI remains at the forefront of technological evolution, and 2025 will see further integration of advanced AI solutions in daily business operations. Generative AI continues to evolve beyond simple chatbot functions and virtual assistants into sophisticated tools that deliver deeply personalized and context-aware applications resulting in better user experience.
Building on innovations like ENGAGE for iPECS Cloud which utilizes AI through webchat, we expect AI-powered communication tools to continue to grow in demand and functionality. Solutions will not only analyze customer queries but also proactively suggest intelligent responses to agents, significantly improving service quality and resolution times. AI integration with platforms like iPECS ONE will continue to drive smarter, faster, and more meaningful business interactions.
Transforming customer experience
Customer experience (CX) will see a dramatic evolution in 2025, driven by generative AI and hyper-personalized services. Advancements in technology are making personalization ever more achievable. More and more, business are seeking more personalized omnichannel experiences from trusted providers. From tailored solutions to sophisticated device recommendations, businesses will rely on AI to transform CX, anticipating customer behavior and proactively seeking solutions.
The iPECS Cloud platform is already at the forefront of enabling seamless CX through intelligent call routing, omnichannel integration, and real-time analytics. Through iPECS Cloud, businesses can deliver consistent, memorable experiences that build loyalty and enhance customer satisfaction. Through the power of iPECS, the iPECS global community are supporting businesses to deliver exceptional customer experience, helping to build strong relationships and maintain a competitive edge.
Data-driven decision making and advanced analytics
Data continues to shape business strategies, and in 2025, the focus will be on transforming data into actionable insights. Advanced analytics are empowering organizations to predict trends, identify opportunities, and optimize resources in real-time.
iPECS Analytics remains a powerful tool for analyzing call data, offering businesses deeper insights into call patterns, customer behavior, and operational efficiency. By harnessing predictive analytics, organizations can proactively address customer needs, optimize staffing, and refine their strategies for greater success.
In 2025, 5G technology is poised to revolutionize industries, enhance connectivity, and unlock a wave of innovations. One key development is the rise of private 5G networks, which will see widespread adoption. Sustainability will play a significant role in 5G’s growth, with telecom providers prioritizing energy-efficient infrastructure.
On a global scale, the adoption of 5G-enabled devices and network rollouts in emerging markets are projected to support over a billion connections by the end of 2025. This rapid growth will not only strengthen global connectivity but also foster innovation and collaboration across borders, reshaping the digital landscape for businesses worldwide.
Cybersecurity and digital transformation
In a world of increasing cyber threats and unpredictability, resilience is essential. As hybrid work, cloud technologies and services increase, businesses that rely heavily on these solutions need to consider the cybersecurity implications. It’s crucial that businesses with remote and hybrid workers use secure networks and have robust measures in place around security.
As digital transformation drives forward, businesses will increasingly prioritize cybersecurity to ensure networks and customer data is protected. Robust encryption, enhanced privacy protocols will be key areas businesses will be looking for in their modern technology and infrastructure.
At IPECS, security is of upmost importance which is why the iPECS Cloud platform is hosted in the most secure data centers. It is also why we ensure secure communication with encrypted calls and recordings while offering robust backup options for business continuity.
Our mission for 2025
Whether through advanced AI, enhanced CX tools, or innovative communication solutions, our mission at IPECS remains the same – we empower businesses to connect, collaborate, and thrive in a rapidly evolving world.
With flexible, scalable, and secure iPECS communication solutions, the IPECS community is helping businesses adapt to new challenges and seize new opportunities.
If you’re ready to embrace the power of iPECS in 2025, contact your nearest global partner today. Let’s make this year one of connection, growth, and innovation together.
The journey of leading corporations for digital transformation already began a long time ago.
A global consulting group, A.T. Kearney defines digital transformation as a corporate activity that pursues a distinctively enhanced competitiveness on its current business by preemptively adapting to the major momentums from a dramatical shift in entrepreneurship settings, which are brought by cutting edge technologies as mobile, cloud, big data, AI, IoT and the like, or to newly revolutionize its business model to bring about the new growth model through the similar technological breakthrough. In other words, the core of digital transformation is on the action of a corporate’s autonomous adoption to the technical advantages that its pace and effect can be fully optimized, prolonging the competitiveness of an institution.
With corporations bringing new emerging digital innovation and making numerous new technologies introduced to the market popular by quickly making them a common everyday feature. Nowadays the trend allows companies to apply and deploy digital technologies easier and cheaper. It’s a phenomenon that is seen to be identical in the business communications market as well. As cloud solutions become the new normal, many efforts are made on applying the new technologies, as big data and AI to the conventional communications solution.
All means in communications will be unified in a single platform.
Unified Communications (UC) represents all means of communications including phone calls, e-mail, messaging, as well as video conferencing system, unified in a single platform efficiently operated and managed. UC makes network equipment, software, and terminals seamlessly unified, structuring all communication system in a single operating system. Commonly, UC is to support applications of IP phones, Instant Messaging (IM), Real-time presence, E-mail, Voice or Video conference, file or screen sharing and the like. Through these features, various communication and collaboration are made available from one on one to multilateral.
In addition, UC solutions support PC’s, tablet’s, smartphones and more. Multi device support surely expands the boundaries of personal and professional communications for in and out of office, anywhere anytime and on any device allowing the same user experience. Collaboration and communication among colleagues will be close to the on-line office environment.
Why would UC be an important part of your digital transformation strategy?
Through digital transformation strategy, a corporation can adapt to the latest digital technology, reduce operating cost by combining digital technology to the existing physical layer, increase flexibility and agility of the business, and can create value by cultivating a new profit model. The UC deployment can be crucially important to achieve the above objectives.
Digital Workplace establishment
Through UC deployment, a corporation can structurally organize and unify their means of communication under one platform and that can establish the fundamental infrastructure of a digital workplace for a radical change and modernization of the business process. From IP phones to IM, e-mail, voice or video conference and more, all are to be operated in a single platform, regardless of the physical location of an employee, the same settings will be provided for the work performance. The workforce in the digitalized working environment can easily establish a workflow of their own to be able to solely concentrate for a greater working performance.
Securing business flexibility and agility
When changes happen in unpredictable ways corporations of today must be able to allocate their available resources rationally and accordingly to the circumstances. By utilizing UC, the initial investment for a communications solution can be optimized and become an agile and flexible way to change one’s working environment by promptly restructuring its business communication infrastructure accordingly to the fickle demands constantly changing by the market or targeted customer segment. Moreover the bill for calling, IT management, business traveling and those of related business costs can be visibly saved with UC solutions which gives new opportunities to invest on other core areas of the business.
Corporate efficiency and collaboration capacity enhancement
By installing and using UC, the work process can be built on a new logical and efficient way which will promote better team project results. All employees in the corporation will be able to benefit from the various collaboration tools for easier, real-time communications. Multi-lateral conference by voice or video, group chatting, file sharing. All the various means of collaboration promotes a faster and clearer information sharing for precise decision making. Especially for virtual organizations where flexible working can now be a viable option in the modern days where mobility is emphasized. These are realistic solutions and are becoming a fashion through the use of UC operation that are directly connected to the corporate performance.
Incremental Customer Experience improvement
Dramatically increase and improve your customers’ experience, within the organization, from the moment customer requests are received, by allocating the best fit agent for each call through real-time presence and with the relevant past performance and records. The corporate grade infrastructure will be available to fully support the situation on site that can elevate the qualities of the customer service. The viable options can be optimized for your business process. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, for an example, can be integrated to the communications platform for a smoother and greater quality in providing the best services for the customer experience.
Ericsson-LG Enterprise will be your trusted partner for your digital transformation journey. Click here for more detail on iPECS communications solution.
In today’s interconnected world, successful partnerships are at the core of Ericsson-LG Enterprise and our journey as leaders in global unified communications and collaboration. Our partnerships with industry leaders, technology innovators, and channel partners enable us to deliver innovative solutions and personalized service to customers around the world.
In response to the fast-changing environment, many companies are deploying Unified Communications.
The modern business environment is changing at an unprecedented pace and likewise many companies are still catching up to the pace for their sustainable survivability by actively searching for new business opportunities. In order to successfully do so, corporations are looking for ways to improve organizational structure to be more flexible and effective. As a result of such endeavors, Unified Communications (UC) are notably being deployed by the companies to enhance corporate communications.
UC simplifies the strategy for corporate communication and strengthens connectivity among employees in the organization. UC is operated in a single platform with coherent management tools to provide multiple applications including phone calls, e-mails, messaging, voice and voice conferencing, to enhance the level of the business process across all applications. Hence, many companies deploy UC for responsive adaptation to the dynamic changes in the business and technological environment to ultimately improve customer satisfaction and increase the company profit.
What’s the difference between On-premise UC and Cloud UC?
When searching for a UC platform upgrade or searching for a new solution deployment, companies can now choose from either On-Premise UC or Cloud UC. But what differences does it make by choosing one over the other?
- On-Premise UC
On-premise UC is generally for individual companies which have their own UC platform or other IT related investments made up of an existing infrastructure and in-house operations and management. The companies with an in-house IT infrastructure will be responsible for the cost of the capital investment as well as the operation and maintenance associated with this. However, the UC operation can be optimized for their own business needs.
On-premise UC has the below characteristics in general.
- Investments in platform unique hardware are often needed.
- Initial investment cost could be expensive in order to establish the needed infrastructure platform.
- Capacity expansion and options are based on the system manufacturer and commonly will require additional hardware investments such as new processors, boards etc.
- Commonly in-house IT staff will operate and manage the platform.
- The platform can easily be optimized and customized for the company’s unique business needs.
- IT security can be maintained from exclusively taking control of the system providing a higher level as required.
- Cloud UC
Cloud UC commonly referred to as “UCaaS” (Unified Communications as a Service) which provides phone call, video conference, messaging, e-mail as a UC service on a cloud environment. Individual companies rarely run their own cloud platforms. In general, this is a service provided by UC service providers with a monthly subscription model.
Cloud UC has below characteristics.
- Minimize the upfront investment for setting up a complete infrastructure.
- Pay monthly only for the capacity used.
- Flexible changes of organizational scale with ‘pay as you grow’ model.
- IT responsive in-house manpower can be minimized since the service providers will take over the operation and maintenance for you.
- Through periodic updates and upgrades, the solution will be up-to-date and in-line with latest technology trends.
- Individual companies may find it difficult to get a fully customized UC solution for their unique business needs.
Your choice will become easier if you are with Ericsson-LG Enterprise.
Yes, there is no superior choice between choosing on-premise or Cloud UC. Each business’s needs, whether resource availability, currently deployed communications platform, availability of in-house IT staff etc. there’s many aspects to consider for which choice is best for one’s case that my differ from another companies’ scenario. It’s commonly seen recently that companies go with the latest trend without much consideration. This may fail to maximize the benefit from UC deployment that could have surely elevated your company’s efficiency and productivity.
The market research institution, Gartner predicts 2.1% of average annual growth in the UC market by 2023. Cloud UC and collaboration applications are expected to be at the center of the growth*. When Cloud UC and on-premise UC market are adjusted for each market proportion, Cloud UC is forecasted to be at 12.2% growth whereas on-premise UC has been declining nearly 10% every year.
* Gartner Forecast Analysis: Unified Communications, Worldwide (Jan. 2020)
The study done by Gartner shows the trend for Cloud UC is indisputable. However, one must not underestimate the fact that most of the UC market is still on-premise UC and this ratio is forecasted for many years onwards. So, when choosing between cloud UC and on-premise UC, there’s no need for blindly purchase and go for what’s popular. If your company is not ready for cloud UC or there are multiple reasons that are more beneficial by deploying on-premise UC, don’t doubt your analysis. Cloud UC is not superior over on-premise UC.
So, it’s now simple to answer the question of which choice is the best to make.
With Ericsson-LG Enterprise, you are concern-free with simple solutions. Unlike other manufacturers, Ericsson-LG Enterprise has both on-premise and Cloud UC. Therefore, we are able to suggest and design the best possible infrastructure optimized for your business environment. If you are ready for Cloud technologies, then go for iPECS Cloud UC solution if not go for on-premise UC, iPECS UC platform which has various options to fit your needs. Terminals and some hardware used for iPECS UC platform can still be applicable on iPECS Cloud platform. Minimize your investment cost when going to cloud from on-premise UC, with the iPECS UC platforms. We support both platform’s use simultaneously (on-premise and cloud UC) to maximize the system’s usability and improve customer experience.
Now when you need to deploy or upgrade your UC solution, look for iPECS from Ericsson-LG Enterprise. Any option with iPECS is absolutely up-to-date, for the future.
Three pillars to explain the latest consumer trends – ‘cost effectiveness’, ‘sharing economy’ and ‘pursuit of convenience’.
The consumer buying trends are keeping pace to the fast-changing market environment and drastically advancing technologies. Cyclic rise and fall of world economies, evolutionary technology and science development, and the corresponding consumerism keeps reshaping new trends. Especially, internet, smart phones and the likes are leading digital cultures to have raised the recent natural adaptors for so-called millennials who are in the center of the changing trend, increasingly becoming the majority of this society.
With a few years or even decades of consumer trends, we can’t miss out or over emphasis the term, cost-effectiveness or value for money. As an active response from consumers to the ongoing economic recession, ‘cost-effectiveness’ simply demonstrates the consumer’s search for products with superior functionality and performance at a reasonable price. These smart consumers are no longer loyal to manufacturers or distributors, but seek reasonable consumption, which is driven by a variety of digital devices and social networks that closely compare the price and value of their products.
Consumers are now beginning to focus more on services or product utility than on the satisfaction of ownership. They find something cheaper and more satisfying or choose a more convenient or high-quality service if the price is similar. What’s being highlighted in this trend is the shared economy, which has already begun to deepen our lives in many areas, including Uber (vehicle sharing), Airbnb (lodging sharing), and We Work (office sharing). It is safe to say that businesses and consumers are now at a crossroads between owning and sharing, especially with the advent of a hyper-connected era based on everyday IT technologies such as 5G, AI, and big data.
The last trend that needs to be pointed is ‘the pursuit of convenience’. Much to do and less time is what we all confront in the modern days. Time saving means a lot now. The convenience is the new premium. Now it’s time to reduce the time and effort that goes into useless or relatively less important things and use them for more important work or various experiences.
Implication of the three trends gets down to ‘Pay as You Go’
The trend of ‘cost effectiveness’, ‘sharing economy’ and ’pursuit of convenience’ from modern consumerism does not only belong in a specific field or market. The trend is also visible in the business communications solution market. PAYG (Pay as You Go), the concept of paying only for what you have used is one of the greatest examples that the trend’s existence is now indisputable.
In the past, a product or a solution had a characteristic of solidness or the inability to be flexible so that a solution architect or a buyer should analyze the business forecast. Thus, not only was the initial investment cost high, but some of the systems invested could be unnecessary if the company’s growth went in a different direction than planned, and sometimes the communication system could not keep up with the speed of the company’s growth, which hampered the business.
Nevertheless physical or systematical limits still exist in adopting perfect flexibility, recent development methodologies of a communications platform are now with greater flexibility, especially when the cloud solution which needs no ownership of any expensive hardware but rather paying for subscription model for various solution services are incorporated.
PAYG model benefits the customers for below reasons.
– Initial or upfront investment is minimal, and they can gradually purchase add-ons as they grow.
– No costly forecast analysis is needed.
– You pay for what you’ve used so you can be assured that there are no unnecessary expenses.
– Corporations needs and structure change constantly, but PAYG is super elastic to adjust accordingly.
In short, PAYG model is used to optimize a company’s investment for a communications system, which enables resource concentration on the core business, thereby conveniently and efficiently optimizing the use of limited resources.
Ericsson-LG Enterprise already provides ’Pay As You Go’ model in every communications platform.
Differentiating from other manufactures, Ericsson-LG Enterprise has both a conventional ‘On-Premise’ communications solution as well as ‘Cloud’ solutions that the customer’s business needs, and environment can be provided with for the optimum fit.
On-Premise type of communication platforms such as iPECS UCM, iPECS UCP and iPECS eMG features simple yet rich functionality to minimize customer upfront investment and is designed to scale systems flexibly as businesses grow with minimal hardware additions and smart licensing, even when expansion is needed.
‘Pay as You Go’ model is based on the cloud communications solution, ‘iPECS Cloud’. iPECS Cloud enables immediate adjustments to the capabilities and the number of users required by the software licensing scheme, enabling you to quickly and conveniently create an optimal unified communications environment. In particular, the service provider can provide support from initial consulting to maintenance so that businesses can focus on their own business without the burden of managing the communication platform.
Click here to find more information about the various solutions from Ericsson-LG Enterprise providing the best convenient and economic but premium solutions to our customers.
