Communications and the Web
2016 will embrace the world of web communications. WebRTC is an emerging technology that enables developers to easily embed communications features and functions into websites and web apps, without the need for plug-ins, hardware or proprietary technology. HTML, JavaScript and broad browser support of WebRTC, etc. are all tools developers will use to accelerate the adoption of web communications. It's predicted that by 2019, six billion devices on the market will support WebRTC. This advancement will enable all of those devices to become an integral part of a company's communications infrastructure without involving the user.
Windham included WebRTC on his list of predictions last year, but incorporated it into the bigger trend of integrating communications features and functions into virtually every aspect of a business. For this conversation, he wants to mention it within the context of how businesses can utilize the technology and the potential growth it represents in the year ahead.
Companies that don't have the expertise to build bridges between web presence and communications infrastructure (or simply don't want to do it themselves) can utilize communications platform as a service. Companies that offer this service are intended to do the heavy lifting so that web developers don't have to know a lot about communications in order to enable it through websites and web apps. For companies that have already built these bridges, the next steps will include building things that have never been built before, as Amazon did with the Kindle Fire mayday button. The possibilities WebRTC offers are endless, and many are looking forward to seeing how industries utilize this technology in the future.
2016 Business Communications: Changing the Way We Work
2016 Business Communications: Changing the Way We Work
For 2015, Danny Windham, CEO at Digium, predicted that it would be the year of mobility, integration of communications and user experience. In reviewing last year's predictions, versus what actually happened, some were dead on while others were slower to develop. Many of the same trends of 2015 are shaping up to be continued influencers on business communications and work styles in 2016, while additional trends emerge.
Mobility certainly took a giant leap forward over the past year – and shows no signs of slowing down. The prediction of the ”integration of communications into every aspect of how we run our businesses,” while still one of his core predictions, will be a multi-year evolution. It only began to develop some momentum during the past year, but the desire for integration of communications into and across core business functions continues to drive conversations within organizations of all sizes. Businesses are adopting cloud solutions at a rapid pace, as anticipated, and the use of SIP trunks is still growing. In fact, a recent Infonetics survey found that over three-fourths of North American businesses plan to use SIP trunking by 2016. These previously predicted trends are still big players in the business communications world, but for the purpose of this slideshow, Windham would like to focus on some concepts that are gaining real momentum.
The responsibilities of IT are shifting, workforces are distributing, and exciting things are on the way in the area of communications, enabling business processes through the use of innovations such as Application Program Interface (APIs) and Web Real Time Communications (WebRTC). The way we work is changing and the way we interact with our customers is changing, as 2016 is set to bring another wave of innovation.
