Cloud Telephony adoption in BFSI industry: Myths and misconceptions

By Shivakumar Ganesan

The BFSI sector is moving towards adopting cloud technology. They are not just competing with other institutions in the same sector, but also with tech-driven businesses that are putting the customer first.

The belief that cloud telephony is a thing of the future is in itself a misconception, for starters. The adoption is here and on the rise, but there is still not complete awareness about what cloud telephony is and how it can help the BFSI sector. With an increasing number of applications moving to the cloud, companies are looking to replace legacy systems with new technologies. This comes with the need of a cloud telephony solution which can integrate seamlessly across the tech layer in an enterprise and cater to all future requirements.

Recently, a survey was conducted with the IT heads in some of the top BFSI organizations in the country to understand the gaps in the adoption. Some of the top misconceptions about cloud telephony that came up during the survey are outlined below.

Myth 1 – Customer communication will remain old school in financial institutions

The customer comes first in any business. It is only fair that they are served with the best possible experience. Traditional telephony service providers are unable to provide the functionality or the flexibility that a modern BFSI institution expects from their telephony systems.

Moving to the cloud for customer communication not only offers BFSIs the stability, security, and scale that is essential, but also provides the best customer experience possible. 90% of the IT heads surveyed agreed that cloud telephony is critical for the success of their organisation.

Myth 2 – Cloud telephony is not secure

Cloud telephony platforms today have moved beyond basic security measures and offer enterprise-grade security. Constant monitoring, vulnerability management, secure data processing, periodic backups & data encryption– all the requisite features that make for a secure platform are provided by most cloud telephony platforms. Sensitive data like call recordings and customer data are encrypted. Businesses can have stringent controls in place to ensure hierarchy in the information that is shared thereby ensuring data theft is minimized.

Myth 3 – Cost efficiency is the only advantage of cloud telephony

Sure, cloud telephony is cost-efficient when compared to traditional EPABX systems. But is that all? The top advantage of cloud telephony that the survey participants picked was superior customer experience.

Customer experience is the reason why cloud telephony is the default option for a lot of industries including cab aggregators, Ecommerce companies, market places, BFSIs, etc. Dynamic personalization and communication automation are helpful in ensuring customers always hang up the call with a smile on their face. Shorter implementation times ensures adoption is real-time and results are visible from day one, which is significant for customer facing teams working to improve the customer experience.

Myth 4 – Cloud telephony helps only with customer call center communication

While cloud telephony can help massively improve the customer experience in a call center, there are many other areas in which it could prove even more helpful. Companies have begun to realise the ability of cloud telephony to solve process level challenges in the customer journey so they are looking beyond just IVR and SMS reminders and are working with the telephony provider to co-create processes.
Automated reminders, tracking and managing conversations that happen outside the call center, including those with field agents and relationship managers are some of the most useful implementations of cloud telephony.

More than a third of the businesses in the world have moved towards cloud telephony to offer their customers the best of experience. Moving customer and business communication to a cloud telephony platform ensures a significant leap forward in terms of ensuring data security and meeting regulatory compliance, making these myths a thing of the past for the cloud adopters in the BFSI industry.

(The author is the Co-Founder & CEO of Exotel)