Mo Katibeh, RingCentral COO, highlights how business communications tools are pivotal to the success of modern companies.
Good business communications are at the heart of every company's growth. Productive exchanges include employee-to-employee conversations and manager-and-team member interactions. As the circle expands outward, clients and/or vendors may become engaged. At every touchpoint, streamlined communications deliver benefits for all parties involved.
Key Benefits of Good Company Communications
Inside the company, streamlined internal communications enable better employee productivity. Readily available information also sets the stage for valuable knowledge sharing between managers and their team members.
Maintaining seamless communications with remote workers leads to more efficient operations and less likelihood of workplace errors. In addition, virtual workers who are kept in the loop are more likely to feel like they're "part of the team."
Employers who effectively communicate with their employees will be more successful in turning the workers into "brand ambassadors." These enthusiastic company advocates can play a positive role in the business' sales and marketing programs. Influential brand ambassadors can also help to attract top-tier job candidates.
Finally, businesses that prioritize open, transparent communications foster a more positive work environment. In turn, the firm's employees will be more apt to excel at customer service and retention.
RingCentral's COO Mo Katibeh Highlights Business Communications Trends and Opportunities
One accomplished business communications leader has his finger on the pulse of 21st-century companies' needs. Mo Katibeh, RingCentral's President and Chief Operating Officer, guides many aspects of the firm's growth.
A recognized technology expert, Mo Katibeh is transforming RingCentral into an increasingly agile business. As such, the company is better equipped to help customers adopt cloud-based business communications. Success in this arena positions RingCentral for profitable growth.
Mo Katibeh combines high-level technological expertise with a superb ability to relate to diverse business customers' communications needs. Here, he details how RingCentral successfully meets these complex challenges.
Communications Systems' Flexibility and Innovation are Key
Mo Katibeh remarks that a cloud-based communications platform provides a company with the flexibility to conduct business from anywhere, on any device. He contrasts this adaptable infrastructure with earlier onsite communications systems that greatly limited a business' options.
"Early on, the market relied on on-prem legacy solutions - on-premise is extremely limiting. It doesn't support multiple modes of communications, it's tethered to a single device, and a single location...Embracing cloud-based business communications gives you the flexibility and freedom to work in any mode, on any device, anywhere," Katibeh emphasizes.
With an eye on the marketplace, Mo Katibeh says forward-thinking companies can turn innovative communications technology (such as cloud-based systems) into a competitive advantage. "But the flip side of that is understanding that businesses can make communications a competitive advantage to move faster, be more efficient, and enhance customers' engagement," he explains.
Effects of Working with Subpar Business Communications Tools
Companies that avoid investing in cloud-based communications tools will find it difficult to optimize their business operations. Mo Katibeh outlines five key areas that are often impacted.
It reduces efficiency: No matter how well-thought-out and effective your processes are, miscommunication can significantly slow down your work.
It affects productivity: Related to challenges with efficiencies and collaboration, productivity also suffers when we fail to communicate effectively.
It impacts trust: Communication creates greater transparency and allows for the flow of information. Without it, there are gaps and blockages which erode trust.
It limits innovation: When communication doesn't flow, innovation and the sense of teamwork stagnates.
It reduces reliability: When communication platforms, systems, or equipment aren't guaranteed to work, companies lose trust, they lose revenue, and they lose employee morale.
How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Business Communications
The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly realigned the way United States companies operate. Months of mandatory business closures meant employees in many industries switched to remote work. The pandemic also changed the way team members communicated with each other and with customers. Mo Katibeh says four major pandemic-era communications trends are here to stay.
Mobile Platforms and Hybrid Workplaces
First, Mo Katibeh says team members prefer (and need) to interact on mobile work platforms rather than being tied to a desk. Many companies have also adopted a hybrid work infrastructure in which employees divide their time between onsite and remote work. Mo Katibeh says RingCentral has led this hybrid workplace adoption.
"If we look back at all that we've been through, the growth in hybrid work over the last ten years and then how businesses survived the pandemic, the Great Resignation, then post-pandemic ... accelerating hybrid work - we've been there along the way and made it easy for businesses to transition.
"RingCentral enabled the hybrid workplace before there was such a thing as hybrid work. I would say that's a good example of staying ahead of the changing nature of work," he explains.
Superiority of Cloud-based Platforms
Next, Mo Katibeh emphasizes that today's mobile-oriented workforce will achieve greater efficiencies with cloud-based data storage platforms. On-premises legacy options simply don't meet the needs of these innovation-minded business owners and their team members.
Completely Interconnected Employees
Employees will be connected to other team members in multiple ways, all with the goal of better meeting customers' needs. Mo Katibeh refers to these interactions as "unified intelligent and connected experiences (or UC + CC interactions)."
Platforms that Integrate APIs and Integrations
Finally, Mo Katibeh says 21st-century businesses require connected communications platforms that utilize APIs and integrations that mesh workflows with preferred apps. With this infrastructure, developers can select RingCentral's "no code, low code, and pro code" APIs and SDKs. This open platform serves developers and business owners alike.
3 Less-Obvious Business Communications Changes
During the pandemic, video calls were the "go to" medium for conducting internal meetings and knowledge worker driven customer interactions. While acknowledging the method's wide use, Mo Katibeh says video fatigue was a common phenomenon.
In a 2022 RingCentral survey, the company found that 90 percent of respondents listed phones as an often-used communications tool. Although smaller businesses are most likely to list phones as their most-used tool, over half of enterprise-level firms conduct most communications via phone.
Finally, SMS text messages are seeing increasingly wide business use. In fact, more than 95 percent of companies (especially larger firms) say they use SMS messaging in one or more ways.
5 Enduring Business Communications Changes
Looking ahead, Mo Katibeh says five business communications trends will have staying power. RingCentral believes these changes will apply across diverse business types and sizes.
One Central Conversation Hub (the MVP approach)
Effortless Communications on Any Device from Any Location
Communications Solutions Should First Be Mobile
One Provider Can Handle and Support Multinational Communications
Intelligent, Connected Experiences (or ICE)
Intelligent: AI technology is thoroughly integrated into communications
Connected: Complete elimination of communications silos
Experiences: Dynamic, adaptive, and personalized experiences
The Future of Work and Workplaces
During the pandemic, customers enjoyed seamless online shopping experiences that provided almost instant gratification. These satisfying interactions have conditioned customers to expect the same superb service from every brand or company.
In a similar vein, Mo Katibeh says the pandemic magnified the need for business customers' intelligent, connected experiences. "The new 'connected' experience is about greater intelligence, seamless linkage across all channels and platforms, and ensuring the rest of an organization is in lock-step and unified to better serve customers."
Mo Katibeh emphasizes that sales and customer service agents no longer bear complete responsibility for delivering optimal customer experiences. Instead, companies should take steps to facilitate improved employee experiences across the board.
Once employees are better equipped for success, enhanced customer experiences will naturally occur. "Better overall employee experiences deliver better customer experiences," Mo Katibeh emphasizes. Not surprisingly, this "win-win" dynamic helps the business to stand out in the marketplace.
RingCentral Offers a Unified "All in One" Platform
In today's technology-driven marketplace, "platform" can refer to a diverse collection of digital products. In fact, Mo Katibeh emphasizes that some companies have turned "platform" into a generic term. To illustrate, he says other firms offer separate services, service numbers, and APIs that are not available via a single access point.
In contrast, Mo Katibeh stresses that RingCentral's one-stop platform offers multiple services accessible through a central conduit. He says this infrastructure reflects the company's desire to greatly streamline business communications.
"Our single driving purpose for RingCentral is to simplify business communications-in any mode, on any device, anywhere...RingCentral is the only truly unified UCaaS + CCaaS platform with voice, SMS, fax, and video," he remarks.
RingCentral Leads in the Apps and APIs Categories
For perspective, RingCentral has created over 8,500 individual apps and offers approximately 500 APIs, the most of any provider. Building on this success, API World named RingCentral the "Best Communications API" for three of the past five years.
Looking at the bigger picture, RingCentral is one of the most awarded developer communications platforms during the past five-year period. With an entire ecosystem of available use-cases, customers of all stripes are likely to find one with similar goals and needs.
Mo Katibeh's Leadership Drives RingCentral Forward
Mo Katibeh's proven business communications technology expertise, and his innate understanding of business customers' needs, position him to promote innovation and positive change. From this perspective, he brings RingCentral's unified platform advantages to an ever-widening circle of customers.
