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These are the top trends impacting tech providers in 2024

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Generative AI (GenAI) is dominating the technical and product agenda of nearly every tech provider, but ESG and buyer pessimism are also high on the agenda.

Eric Hunter, Managing Vice President at Gartner, said: “[GenAI] technology reshapes a tech provider from its growth and product strategy down to the everyday tools used by its associates. Despite the potential for GenAI to reshape providers, it is not the only influence facing technology leaders. There are new points of friction in growth plans, new points of fusion in marketing and sales, and new relationships opening up to technology and service providers (TSPs).”

The immediate and long-term implications of these issues require product leaders to balance between short-term opportunity and long-term advantage and strategies based on economic recovery or recession. Gartner’s top trends for 2024 reflect these dualities (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: 2024 Gartner Tech Provider Top Trends

Note: The bubble size for each trend conveys the relative magnitude of disruption for a given trend, relative to the other top trends. Source: Gartner (February 2024)

Efficient Growth for High Tech

Significant growth in IT spending over the last decade benefited high-tech companies. Capturing that growth led high-tech firms to pursue growth without a full measure of the costs. This is a “growth at all costs” strategy. High-tech firms anchored their product, organization and employment plans on a hypothesis of continued strong growth.

As macroeconomic conditions create uncertainty among buyers and increasing costs of capital shift investor focus to margin growth, Gartner analysts see a trend toward tech providers focusing on efficient growth. Efficient growth strategies recognize the value in growing in ways that strengthen current margins and future revenue opportunities.

New Enterprise IT-Provider Relationships

Increased business and technical demands require enterprise IT to cover more ground at a deeper level and a faster pace, eroding enterprise IT’s capacity and capabilities. This creates a trend for product leaders at tech providers to create new relationships and revenue opportunities across the enterprise, including expanded provider roles within enterprise IT and the business, outcome-centric provider-enterprise relationships and enterprise-wide tier-1 relationships.

Sustainable Business Grows Up

Sustainability efforts and managing the ESG impact have been unilaterally focused on mitigating internal risk and ensuring compliance. Product leaders must evolve by embracing double materiality and holistic leverage of emerging technologies to meet sustainability objectives.

AI Safety 

Responsible AI and AI safety are not new concepts, but the unprecedented rapid development of GenAI technologies has fueled the discussion around risk management and how to address growing issues such as content provenance and hallucination. Product leaders must build solutions that incorporate safety principles with a focus on model transparency, traceability, interpretability and explainability aspects. Preempting regulatory and compliance issues will be critical to staying competitive in this vibrant GenAI market by creating trust.

Rising Buyer Pessimism 

Over the past three years, tech providers have increasingly observed negative sales pipeline effects due to new buyer behaviors that are colliding with outdated go-to-market (GTM) models. Without adapting sales and marketing approaches to detect and respond to buyer pessimism, technology providers will see their own GTM operations decline in both internal and external perspectives.

Vertical Generative AI Models

While general-purpose models perform well across a broad set of GenAI applications, they can be impractical for many enterprise use cases that require domain-specific data. Tech providers must explore industry-focused models that can be adapted to specific user requirements using available resources more efficiently. Those failing to do so will face increased costs and complexity in the creation and leverage of models.

Personalized Marketplace Experiences  

Specialized, niche, digital marketplaces are emerging to help buyers navigate the complexity of procuring, implementing and integrating solutions. Product leaders who do not offer their services through personalized digital marketplaces limit their findability for their target customers. Gartner predicts that

80% of sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels by 2025.

Industry Cloud Delivers Growth

Service providers, hyperscalers, ISVs and SaaS providers are turning to vertical solutions to deliver the customer outcomes that will drive provider growth. By 2027, Gartner predicts that more than 50% of tech providers will use industry cloud platforms to deliver business outcomes, up from less than 5% in 2023.

PLG and Value Converge for Hybrid GTM

Product-led-growth (PLG) focuses on showing value to product users, creating intent signals that go-to-market (GTM) teams can use with prospective buyers. But most companies using a PLG GTM have begun to realize that, in most cases, a 100% self-serve GTM motion isn’t tenable. At some point, sellers must be involved to convert deals. Buyer needs for business value and outcome justification — for new or expansion business — will meld PLG tactics with value management and realization initiatives in hybrid GTM strategies.

Precision Marketing and Sales

Rapidly evolving technology advances, such as GenAI, digital buying and the metaverse, are changing how tech providers market and sell technology. Tech providers failing to adopt new approaches will see the erosion of overall deal quality combined with the loss of relevance and limited growth within established accounts.

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Navigating recessionary budget pressures on IT departments

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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In today’s challenging economic landscape, budgetary pressures have become a reality across every department. None more so than IT. In spite of the promise of increased productivity and performance, advanced technologies such as AI, faster storage, and more secure data inevitably cost more and take longer to deliver than today’s budgets can afford.

IT directors are grappling with the need to accomplish their initiatives, while operating within shrinking financial constraints. The good news is that some of the largest and blue-chip businesses are already using a viable solution, and despite recessionary budget pressures, many companies still have the resources to invest for productivity and growth. Steve Hollingsworth, Director, Covenco, explores further…

Economy induced budget cuts

During an economic downturn, organisations face various challenges regarding funding and executing their IT projects. Budgets are often reduced, and IT departments find themselves forced to accomplish more with fewer resources. In addition, the increasing cost of borrowing has significant implications for organisations’ ability to invest in IT equipment, which can hinder productivity and growth.

As the cost of borrowing rises, organisations face higher interest rates on loans, making it more expensive to finance capital expenditures, including investments in IT equipment. This limits their ability to allocate funds towards technological advancements that drive innovation and growth. Additionally, higher borrowing costs often lead organisations to defer or scale back their technology upgrade plans. This results in maintaining outdated IT infrastructure, impeding productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness in an increasingly digital marketplace.

Tackling inflation head on

Organisations must make informed decisions about prioritising technology initiatives by recognising the potential impact of borrowing costs on IT investments. Collaborating with specialist IT brokers who offer cost-effective alternatives for acquiring IT equipment becomes crucial in navigating budget constraints while still investing in the technology necessary for growth and innovation.

It’s no secret that a good broker can deliver remarkable cost savings when replacing defective equipment – or expanding an existing system. And now, many larger organisations are also discovering that implementing previous-generation IT equipment can benefit them in other ways, including:

– Matched system opportunities

Supplementing existing infrastructure with matching servers, storage, and networking equipment is far easier, cheaper and more efficient. There is no need to rip and replace a functional environment, with all the associated upheaval of introducing new software versions, licences, and training.

– Opportunity for competitive advantage

When competitors face investment challenges due to increased borrowing costs, organisations that can navigate these constraints can gain a competitive advantage. Businesses can streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and differentiate themselves in the market by strategically investing in IT equipment and leveraging advanced technologies.

– A catalyst for innovation and growth: 

By embracing digital transformation initiatives and adopting cutting-edge IT solutions, organisations can optimise processes, automate workflows, and unlock new opportunities. This positions them to respond more effectively to market dynamics, improve decision-making, and adapt swiftly to changing customer demands.

– Long-term cost savings: 

Although the initial investment in IT equipment may seem challenging due to borrowing costs, it is important to consider the long-term cost savings associated with enhanced efficiency and productivity. Modern IT infrastructure can streamline workflows, reduce downtime, and improve overall operational effectiveness, leading to significant cost savings over time.

– Improved sustainability:

IT Brokerage companies are vital in helping today’s leading organisations achieve their sustainability goals. By partnering with an accredited broker, businesses can effectively manage their IT assets throughout their lifecycle, contributing to a more sustainable and environmentally conscious approach. Specialist brokers will also offer aspects of an IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) solution to ensure that all data-carrying assets are wholly sanitised for data security.

Those who overcome these obstacles can gain a competitive advantage by leveraging technology to drive innovation, enhance productivity, and differentiate themselves in the marketplace. Strategic investment in IT, even in the face of higher borrowing costs, can lead to long-term growth, cost savings, and improved operational efficiency.

IT projects no longer have to be restricted by recessionary budget pressures. By embracing the cost-effective solutions specialist IT brokerage companies provide, IT directors can achieve their objectives while maximising limited resources. And so by employing refurbished hardware from major manufacturers, many organisations are already maintaining performance, reducing costs, and contributing to sustainable practices while improving their productivity and delivering growth.

Image by Kevin Morison from Pixabay

Democratisation of technology among the top trends impacting providers and buyers

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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The top trends that will impact technology providers  and buyers through 2025 will be driven by businesses increasing their reliance on technology, new opportunities emerging through technology and the impact of external macro forces.

That’s according to a study from Gartner, which asserts that as the march of digitalisation continues even amidst disruption, technology providers have a leading role to play.

Rajesh Kandaswamy, Distinguished VP Analyst and Gartner Fellow, said: “In 2023, product leaders and technology executives must balance short-term planning with long-term strategy to stay ahead of the immediate shocks to the economy and the underlying ‘permacrisis’ forces shaping business.”

Here are the trends Gartner identified that will impact technology customers, buyers, products, ecosystems, business models and operating models worldwide for at least the next three years:

Democratisation of Technology

The democratization of technology empowers non-IT workers to seek out, select, implement and custom fit their own technology. This trend offers opportunities to meet the needs of a new set of citizen developers and business technologists. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 55% of all successful emerging technology solutions will be delivered to “nontraditional” buyers – for example, outside IT – within enterprises, enabling vendors to expand into new markets and forge new customer relationships.

Federated Enterprise Technology Buying

In a federated buying process, buying decisions are made by representatives across the business. Driven by the democratization of technology, federated enterprise technology buying is accelerating, with just 26% of technology buyers in a recent Gartner survey reporting that purchases are funded solely by IT.

“Federated buying creates opportunities for product leaders as it enables a focus on more value-added services for business customers,” said Emil Berthelsen, VP Analyst at Gartner. “However, it also adds complexity, forcing changes to go-to-market models and demanding a greater focus on value scenarios and outcomes.”

Product-Led Growth

Product-led growth (PLG) is a go-to-market strategy in which users experience value through free product offers or interactive or automated demonstrations. Then, users are either converted directly to paid accounts or their advocacy and influence helps to drive purchases. By 2025, 95% of software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers will employ a form of self-service PLG for new customer acquisition.

“PLG is hitting its stride in B2B after much acclaim in the B2C technology world,” said Kandaswamy. “It can reduce cost to acquire customers and shorter sales cycles relative to traditional buyer-oriented, top-down marketing and sales strategies.”

Co-Innovation Ecosystems

The co-innovation ecosystem approach is an emerging practice that enables the convergence of internal, external, collaborative and co-creative ideas to create new value. Businesses are actively using technology to differentiate and succeed, so they are increasingly co-innovating with tech providers.

“With a co-innovation partner ecosystem, technology providers can meet pressing customer needs through use of shared skills, technology expertise, investment and incentives,” said Kandaswamy.

Digital Marketplaces

Technology buyers are embracing digital marketplaces to easily find, procure, implement and integrate technology solutions. Non-tech buyers are also increasingly looking to marketplaces to meet their requirements for composable and easily consumable technology solutions.

“Technology and service providers are increasing their investment in marketplace channels as they seek growth opportunities and competitive advantage,” said Kandaswamy. “A digital marketplace accelerates time to market, extends outreach to target segments, expands partner ecosystems and speeds up the sales cycle.”

Intelligent Applications

Intelligent applications will create value and disrupt markets by learning, adapting and generating new ideas and outcomes. For example, generative artificial intelligence (AI) is an emerging technology quickly gaining traction for commercial use within intelligent applications. Generative AI can produce novel media content (including text, image, video and audio), synthetic data and models of physical objects.

“Product leaders should expect generative AI features that empower workforces with augmented and creative capabilities to be a new competitive front in intelligent applications,” said Kandaswamy.

Metaverse Technologies for Marketing and Customer Experience (CX)

Metaverse technologies are rapidly gaining traction in marketing for creating unique experiences, impactful interactions and novel engagement. By 2027, over 40% of large organizations worldwide will be using a combination of Web3, spatial computing and digital twins in metaverse-based projects aimed at increasing revenue.

“B2B marketers have an opportunity to apply metaverse technologies and the immersive experiences they provide to expand customer reach and engagement and improve CX,” said Kandaswamy. “Early adopters are using metaverse technologies to host events in virtual spaces, conduct internal and external sales meetings, showcase products and more.”

Sustainable Business

“Sustainable business has transformed into a ‘must have’ rather than a ‘nice to have,’” said Kandaswamy. “In an increasingly technology-driven world, sustainable business is underpinned by sustainable technology.”

Technology providers must improve the sustainability of their products that enable sustainable business outcomes. A recent Gartner survey found that 42% of leaders are currently leveraging sustainability activities to drive innovation, differentiation and enterprise growth through sustainable products. Gartner predicts that by 2025, tech providers that can quantify their offering’s positive contribution to customers’ sustainability objectives will increase their win rate by 20%.

Techno-nationalism

A trend away from globalization and into mercantilism is causing global markets to become increasingly local, impacting global technology ecosystems. Policy decisions are driving countries to implement of digital sovereignty regulations, causing a divergence of technology stacks. In response to this trend, product leaders must balance meeting specific country-level localization needs and product profitability.

CEOs ‘need technology in their DNA’ to ensure success

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CEOs and executive leadership positions should be filled by people with technology career backgrounds, such as app or software development, if businesses are to be more successful, say the majority (69%) of business leaders in the UK.

Research conducted by VMware has found international recognition that elevating technology team members into leadership roles drives significant value for the entire organisation.

When identifying specific benefits, over one in four (42%) business leaders highlight improved efficiency across the whole organisation, a third (33%) recognise increased business performance and greater innovation potential, and more than a third (39%) better customer experiences.

Vanson Bourne, commissioned by VMware, interviewed 2,250 respondents in EMEA (including 450 from the UK) during March and April 2020. This consisted of 750 business decision makers, 750 IT decision makers and 750 app developers. All respondents were from organisations with at least 500 employees, across all private and public sectors, including, but not limited to IT, financial services, retail and wholesale, healthcare, education and government.

VMware says the findings sit against a backdrop of seismic disruption, where digital transformation – the way technology transforms or enhances business models – has been validated in helping leaders and their organisations adapt to fast-changing market dynamics, changing business models and employee mobilization.

During the pandemic, UK businesses highlight the benefits of modernised applications, for example, to enhance their performance and resilience. More than half (58% ) of respondents highlighted the role of modernised apps to enable employees to work remotely, and just under a third referenced their ability to continuously push updates in response to the changing landscape (31%), and ensure reliable uptime (35%). 

In fact, more than three quarters (81%) of app developers and technology leaders in the UK believe that without successfully modernising applications, organisations will not be able to deliver a best-in-class customer experience. This is echoed by the global executive community; more than 80% of whom believe that enhancing application portfolios will improve the customer experience, which is directly tied to revenue growth.

“Business leaders have never been at the helm of so much change, so those with an inherent knowledge of technology and an understanding of how applications can help them adapt to any market conditions and shape their future performance and resiliency have a real advantage. Indeed, three quarters of the world’s business leaders agree that a ‘technology inside’ leadership skillset will bring success,” said Ed Hoppitt, Director of Apps and Cloud Native Platforms VMware, EMEA. “From the tens of millions of people and students now working and educating from home, to banks being able to scale to provide significant revenue streams, to businesses and retailers looking at digital platform options almost overnight, this pandemic has driven a decade of digital transformation in a few months. 

“It is the ability to get these defining, business apps – that deliver information and services into the hands of users, where needed – that creates success and genuinely drives customer engagement.  Leadership with technology in its DNA combined with a software-enabled digital foundation to serve up these digital services is a winning combination.”

Ursula Dolton, CTO at British Heart Foundation, said: “Businesses risk missing a trick by not appointing C-suite execs with backgrounds in technology. It is no longer enough to simply invest in technologies, since their benefits to organisations go well beyond implementation. In order to get the most from these investments, it’s vital to deliver cultural change and strategic direction, a role best suited for leaders with an understanding of these platforms and the power to both respond to demand and enforce real change.” 

A competitive advantage, born out of the continuous development and delivery of new applications and services, is also reinforced by the findings – which reveal that high-performing companies in EMEA have a more efficient and effective development rate of applications. Two thirds (66%) of new applications make it through to production in high-performing companies***, compared to 41% within underperforming organisations, while 70% of application efforts make it to production in the planned timeframe in high-performing organisations, compared with just 41% in underperforming.

UK’s manufacturing sector facing COVID-19 cyber threats

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Manufacturing is now the most attacked sector representing almost a third of all cyber attacks in the UK & Ireland, while Technology was the most attacked sector globally.

That’s according to the 2020 Global Threat Intelligence Report (GTIR) from NTT, which says that despite efforts to layer up defences, many organisations are unable to stay ahead of attackers, while others are struggling to do the basics like patching old vulnerabilities. 

NTT asserts that manufacturing increasingly faces financially motivated data breaches, global supply chain risks and risks from unpatched vulnerabilities. The UK was the only country (apart from Hong Kong) this year where Manufacturing topped the list of most attacked sectors, representing 29% of all attacks, with Technology (19%) second and Business and Professional Services (17%) third. Government and Finance made up the other two sectors in the top five. 

Reconnaissance attacks accounted for half of all hostile activity in the UK and Ireland, with web application the next most common form of attack (22%). Reconnaissance activity (60%) was also the most common attack type against manufacturers followed by web application attacks (36%).

Rory Duncan, Security Go-to-Market Leader, NTT, said: “UK manufacturing has become a major target for attackers in recent years as a result of the increased risks brought about from the convergence of IT and Operational Technology (OT). The biggest worry is that security has lagged behind in this sector, potentially exposing systems and processes to attack. Poor OT security is a legacy issue; many systems were designed with efficiency, throughput and regulatory compliance in mind rather than security. In the past, OT also relied on a form of ‘security through obscurity’. The protocols, formats and interfaces in these systems were often complex and proprietary and different from those in IT systems, so it was difficult for attackers to mount a successful attack. As more and more systems come online, hackers are innovating and see these systems as ripe for attack.

“Now more than ever, it’s critical for all organisations, regardless of sector or region, to pay attention to the security that enables their business; making sure they are cyber-resilient and secure-by-design, which means embedding privacy and security into the fabric of their enterprise architecture and organisational culture. The current global pandemic and the flow of trusted and untrusted information used to mask the activities of cyber criminals has shown us that they will take advantage of any situation. Organisations must be ready to respond to these and other threats in a constantly evolving landscape.”

The 2020 Global Threat Intelligence Report calls last year the ‘year of enforcement’ with the number of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) initiatives growing, creating a challenging global regulatory landscape. Several acts and laws now influence how organisations handle data and privacy, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which has set a high standard for the rest of the world. The report provides organisations with recommendations to help navigate compliance complexity, including identifying acceptable risk levels, building cyber-resilience capabilities and implementing solutions that are secure-by-design.

The 2020 GTIR – the eigth annual report – analyses and summarises trends based on log, event, attack, incident and vulnerability data from trillions of logs and billions of attacks. To learn more about how this year’s GTIR offers organisations a robust framework to address today’s cyber threat landscape, and to learn more about the emerging trends across different industries and regions, including the Americas, APAC and EMEA, follow the link to download the NTT Ltd. 2020 GTIR. 

Global Highlights: 2020 Global Threat Intelligence Report:

  • Most common attack types accounted for 88% of attacks: Application-specific (33%), web application (22%), reconnaissance (14%), DoS/DDoS (14%) and network manipulation (5%) attacks.
  • Weaponisation of IoT: Botnets like Mirai, IoTroop and Echobot have advanced in automation, improving propagation capabilities. Mirai and IoTroop are also known for spreading through IoT attacks, then propagating through scanning and subsequent infection from identified hosts.
  • Old vulnerabilities remain an active target: Attackers leveraged those that are several years old, but have not been patched by organisations, such as HeartBleed, which helped make OpenSSL the second most targeted software with 19% of attacks globally. A total of 258 new vulnerabilities were identified in Apache frameworks and software over the past two years, making Apache the third most targeted in 2019, accounting for over 15% of all attacks observed.
  • Attacks on Content Management Systems (CMS) accounted for about 20% of all attacks: Targeting popular CMS platforms like WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, and noneCMS, cyber criminals used them as a route into businesses to steal valuable data and launch additional attacks. Additionally, more than 28% targeted technologies (like ColdFusion and Apache Struts) support websites.

Top 5 business telecoms trends for 2020

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By Laura Health, Head of Product Development at TSG

As with several business technologies, the 2010s saw huge advancements in telecommunications. Whilst VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephony had been around long before this decade, this is when it really took off as a viable, modern and futureproof solution for businesses around the world.

A lot of businesses saw it as an opportunity to realise savings from new internet connections or to move their voice services to new providers; but many didn’t really look at the benefits beyond that. 

High-quality internet became far more accessible in the 2010s; leased line internet services became more affordable, with many being able to benefit from 100Mbps and upwards connections; all for the same price of previous 10Mbps services. The internet evolved into an essential tool for any business with the shift towards cloud-based services.

As the decade progressed and many organisations got to grips with flexible working (an option afforded to us by this move to cloud services), consumers benefitted from better internet services. The fibre broadband rollout gained pace, and now an estimated 96% of the UK can access internet speeds in excess of 24Mbps download. It’s an added bonus for avid streamers, from Netflix binges to the festive football fixtures available on Amazon Prime.

What will telephony and telecommunications look like in the 2020s?

Now that we’ve taken a quick whistle-stop tour of the advancements in telephony in the 2010s, let’s look ahead. With the changing way we’re using the internet to consume more services, both personally and professionally, this decade is really exciting.

Hosted telephony is becoming the norm

In a business context, the shift to the cloud continues at an incredible pace. Many businesses, having completed their migration, are now adopting a cloud-first approach, utilising services like Office 365, Dynamics 365 and hosted voice services – all of which need great telecommunications infrastructure.

This is particularly important as businesses are changing how they want to consume their voice services. Typically, organisations are looking to remove the need for physical equipment (in the form of a PBX system – the key aim is to move to a softphone-only environment) and benefit from the advantages a hosted voice platform provides, namely:

  • Disaster recovery capabilities – traditionally, this was only afforded to organisations with a lot of money to spend
  • Flexibility – giving staff the ability to work from any location whilst still being part of the corporate system
  • Preparing for the ISDN switch-off – read more about this further down
  • Cost-savings – these can easily be achieved through consolidation; reduced call spend and typically a low capital expenditure when implementing a new system

Kick-started by the ISDN switch-off, thousands of UK businesses are replacing legacy phone systems – some of which are older than this millennium! Additionally, the rate of change in the hosted voice market continued to increase last year with the announcement from Microsoft about full voice services coming to its Teams platform, provided to organisations via Office 365.

Microsoft shakes up the hosted voice market with Microsoft 365 Business Voice

Microsoft 365 Business Voice could revolutionise how we approach voice services here in the UK. If you add to this the perfect storm of the death of ISDN in 2025 and many users already utilising Office 365, the next decade could see Teams providing an entry to hosted voice services to the many at just a small additional cost on top of their existing O365 subscriptions. 

One exciting innovation is the exploration of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into voice services, particularly in the call centre space. This is likely to play a huge part during the next decade, providing efficiencies to call flow and improving customer service. Imagine being presented with all the information required by your device without having to type?

The ISDN switch-off – act now before it’s too late

ISDN voice services will be coming to their inevitable end in 2025, with Openreach making the announcement a few years ago. This will see the way in which we all consume our voice services change. It also means those business clinging on to the ageing traditional systems because “they don’t cost anything to run” will find that they need to upgrade or risk losing their voice services entirely.

Consumers will also be boosted again in the coming decade. Many will still require the copper cable, but this will be more for the provision of the broadband, not voice services. As networks are upgraded, Openreach has now adopted a fibre-first approach. In short, any new buildings or upgrades that it carries out will see superfast fibre FTTP (fibre to the premise) deployed instead of the FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) technology of the last decade. This will provide speeds of up to 1Gbps. Just imagine the streaming on that… 8K anyone?

Providers are upping their game

The introduction of Microsoft 365 Business Voice means providers need to adapt in order to keep up with the times and offer robust services. We’re already seeing this with Gamma’s introduction of its mobile convergence offering (Gamma Connect), giving you phone system functionality on your mobile phone without the need for a softphone. This technology is great for any business who has a very mobile workforce.

5G will give us endless mobile possibilities

The last area to touch on is the introduction of 5G. This is great news not only for consumers, but for businesses invested in mobile voice services. When on the go and not hooked up to WiFi, this means your mobile workforce will still be available and able to use voice services. There are also interesting implications for the IoT (Internet of Things) and AI. 

A final word

So, over the next decade we can expect businesses to move to IP telephony in their droves as they jump ship from ISDN before the costs become unmanageable and, in turn, reap a host of additional benefits. The Microsoft Teams telephony solution will give the market a much-needed shake-up and provides an entry-point into hosted voice for small to medium businesses.

TSG is a managed IT support company in London, offering expertise across a range of areas including Office 365, Dynamics 365, document management and business intelligence. 

Image by Ahmad Ardity from Pixabay