From the first modern telephone developed by Alexander Bell to the modern digital communication ecosystem, the backbone of business collaboration, says Doug Morrison, VP of Modern Workplace at Braintree.
In 2025, company communication is no longer dictated by wires, desks or handsets. Digital-first has become the preferred method of collaboration as tools such as Microsoft Teams and Operator Connect gain traction within the business. This is reflected by market growth, with the global cloud-based communications market expected to exceed $47 billion by 2030, according to Mordor Intelligence. The technologies evolving around cloud collaboration are enhancing productivity, lowering costs, and improving business agility and customer service.
According to IDC, cloud-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) deployments, including unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solutions, are replacing on-premises deployments globally. UCaaS solutions accounted for 89% of market revenue worldwide, said IDC, with Microsoft remaining in the lead in the UC&C market with 44.7% market share. Companies are leaning into solutions that allow them to use integrated voice, video and chat systems which enhance their decision-making and collaboration capabilities. It is a move that makes strategic and budget sense.
It is also light years away from when Alexander Graham Bell made the first call in 1876. For decades, business communication has relied on switchboards, physical wires and hardware-bound systems. The mid-20th century office was dominated by PBX hardware and vast racks of circuitry tying workers to static locations and systems. Companies were connected to customers by a length of wire, tethered to their desks as receptionists manually routed calls and lost calls were just that, lost conversations.
In the 1960s, PBX systems began to automate switchboard tasks but they still cost a lot of money to install and maintain. Fast-forward to the 1990s, and voice over IP (VoIP) was the game changing technology which broke physical barriers by transmitting calls over the internet. However, even VoIP had its limitations with clunky interfaces, complex installations and limited integration with other business tools.
The true inflection point arrived with the cloud.
The Forrester Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Teams Calling Solutions report found that small to medium companies were achieving up to 45% on total cost of ownership (TCO) savings over three years and enterprise customers were seeing a 17% TCO saving. Both also saw impressive return on investment (ROI) with SMBs experiencing 185% over three years and enterprises 132%. Companies were adopting the technology before 2020, but it was the pandemic that accelerated the shift to the cloud. Before companies were reluctant to use Teams as their primary communication tool, now it’s become their backbone.
Operator Connect, Microsoft’s fully integrated voice service, is a case study in the future of telephony. It allows companies to turn Teams into a complete telephony solution without having to invest in a PBX or a third-party dialler. Calls are routed through any one of Microsoft’s certified telecom partners directly into Teams, effectively bypassing the need for hardware, cables or wires. Everything sits in the cloud and on the device.
It’s a leapfrog moment, taking telephony away from its reliance on hardware and the costs that come with it, such as upgrades and maintenance, and instead putting it into the cloud. Cloud also brings with it the added layer of security which means rapid patch deployment, encrypted communications and granular access controls, minimising the risk of unexpected vulnerabilities.
Mobility is also changing. Employees can use any device with connectivity to make and receive calls from any location. The technology has removed the need for traditional network operators – bringing the corporate reliance on telecom providers under scrutiny – and simplified remote and hybrid working. Companies also create a communication platform that can be enhanced with additional technologies, such as AI. The technology can detect stress and agitation in a caller’s voice in real-time and use this data to prompt support staff to de-escalate the situation, record and transcribe calls to improve training and compliance, and offers a variety of intelligent capabilities that include workflow automation, keyword tracking and reporting.
Where just a few years ago, evolution meant switching boxes or pulling new lines, today communication is AI, online, and intelligent. And in the next five years? Expect more AI, more integration with omnichannel platforms like WhatsApp and Linkedin, and more control over call data, costs and outcomes.
