How to supercharge employee experience with NTT DATA’s cloud communications

Happy, productive employees have never been more valuable: employee experience (EX) is now a top C-suite priority, with 94% of CEOs agreeing that improvements in EX will directly affect their bottom line.  

This is according to NTT DATA’s 2023 Global Employee Experience Trends Report, based on interviews with more than 1,400 customer experience (CX) and EX decision-makers and influencers in 25 countries.

The report finds that the EX narrative is now about the technologies that enable and empower employees and help them work more efficiently in any location, with a focus on collaboration and mobility tools. Organizations are also prioritizing cloud and AI as an enabler of dynamic EX, supported by strong security.

The C-suite is investing in these technologies to improve productivity and employee satisfaction; business agility, flexibility and speed; employee retention; and automation, according to the report.

The right technology leads to excellent EX

Because satisfied and engaged employees deliver exceptional customer service, there is a critical need for strategic alignment of EX and CX communications, facilitated by cloud-native collaboration and communications tools, including cloud voice.

Our clients have a growing interest in better understanding their voice and collaboration estates in terms of spending and activity. This comes as many vendors discontinue fixed and legacy mobile voice technologies, and regulated termination rates drop (the charges that one telecommunications operator levies on another for terminating a call on their network). At the same time, CIOs want to reduce operational costs and deploy cloud collaboration tools for on-premises and hybrid workers.

Here’s an example of this type of strategy in action:

A multinational organization is looking for cost efficiencies and process optimization across their business – including in communications. So, they apply the principles of communications lifecycle management (CLM), also known as technology expense management, to analyze their existing communications technology, determine their current spending and identify areas for potential savings.

They find that the cloud offers many of the benefits they need, so they decide to replace their traditional phone systems across their global offices with platform-based collaboration and cloud voice services, allowing employees to make and receive calls and collaborate through the internet and without the need for on-premises private branch exchange (PBX) systems. They integrate these services with mobile devices and computers, making it easy for their employees to communicate and collaborate regardless of their location.

Then, the organization works with a provider of managed EX services to oversee the deployment of these cloud-based platforms and cloud voice systems and offer ongoing managed services. All employees are trained on the new systems, and fit-for-purpose monitoring proactively identifies incidents affecting EX, with engineers intervening where required. This helps to maintain high levels of user satisfaction and productivity. Managed EX services aim to make all technological interactions by employees streamlined, user-friendly and effective.

One partnership, many benefits

The benefit of working with an experienced global service provider like NTT DATA is that you have one-stop access to everything your organization needs to improve EX with integrated technologies to keep a hybrid workforce connected.

By moving to our managed cloud-voice services from legacy infrastructure, organizations have saved up to 70% on their collaboration costs.

NTT DATA’s Cloud Communications division integrates communications capabilities, tools and platform services. Key among these components are our EX Voice Services and our Cloud Voice for CX offering. 

As a start, we assess your network and cloud-voice readiness before we roll out a cloud-voice pilot project, which also includes AI features, to demonstrate how these advanced features and functions will benefit your organization. Using the power of AI, we can maximize EX and CX for the modern workplace.

Our Communications Lifecycle Management services use a combination of software tools and management resources that can analyze your environment to determine voice usage spending (including telephony infrastructure), the number of active users and their consumption patterns.

Also relevant is setting out the predictive billing model for your cloud voice services, which comprises usage analysis, calling-plan optimization, monitoring, reviews and more. Getting this right leads to a more manageable and cost-effective solution.

The next step is going beyond the technology itself to implement the solution with a focus on compliance and sustainable outcomes and to guarantee optimal EX while minimizing incidents and disruptions.

Peace of mind through a managed EX service

Our EX Managed Services enable quality cloud communications and collaboration by supporting the day-to-day operation of your EX platform with an integrated suite of endpoint, on-premises and cloud tools – and a unified view of the ecosystem via the NTT DATA Services Portal.

You don’t need to procure, build or integrate your own costly third-party solutions and automation to manage the environment. Our certified technology experts monitor and manage your communications estate, leaving you free to focus on your organization’s core competencies instead.

And, to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability across your EX ecosystem, our delivery processes are compliant with the ITIL V3 framework and ISO/IEC 27001 governance.

What’s the value of managed EX to your organization?

• You become more operationally efficient by streamlining your telecommunications and workplace operations through a single provider.
• We identify and resolve issues before they affect your users.
• We deliver performance analytics and insights with a unified view of your workplace ecosystem.
• Our service extends to on-site meeting rooms, analog devices, endpoints and more.
• Built-in automation leads to simplified user management, faster service provisioning, lower costs and more agility.
• We include the management of your productivity suite and CX solutions in the same service framework.

Getting the full picture

Beyond cloud collaboration and cloud voice, CLM includes the ongoing management and improvement of your entire communications ecosystem and lifecycle. For example:

• Detailed analytics and reports help you to understand your customers’ and employees’ likes and dislikes and transform how they interact with you. These insights can make your interactions more responsive and personalized.
• For your employees, CLM facilitates better adoption of and engagement with your communication tools and platforms. It helps you to use your organization’s resources more efficiently by improving communication technologies and eliminating unnecessary costs.
• It improves communications in line with your broader business objectives. This strategic alignment is important for business growth and staying competitive.

Our Communications Lifecycle Management services include the auditing of fixed and mobile data and voice services, licensing and technology expense management.

On average, we reduce our clients’ communication expenses by 10% to 30% after service implementation, and by an additional 15% on an ongoing basis thereafter.

We achieve this by using our integrated platform to streamline your data processing and performance, as well as your cost management – for example, by minimizing deployment costs and conducting regular audits to pinpoint wasteful expenses and optimize budget allocation.

Step into the future of collaboration

As your organization navigates the digital landscape, the lessons are clear: there’s a growing need to align your communication strategies with your core business goals. Invest in technologies that streamline processes and interactions, and always keep the human element at the forefront of your operations.

With these principles in mind, you can transform the chaos of disparate communications into a well-orchestrated environment where every employee feels valued, connected and engaged. This is the future of business communications.

• ALSO READ → Technology strengthens CX and EX strategies in a new era of work