Industry Cloud Solutions: Enhancing Data Security, Analytics, and Scalability for Your Business

Organizations across various sectors are turning to industry clouds to address their unique challenges and requirements. Unlike traditional cloud platforms, industry clouds provide tailored solutions and templates designed specifically for sectors like finance, healthcare, and retail.

We sat down with LiveVox CTO Patrick Summe to do a deep-dive on industry clouds, their benefits, how to get started with them, finding the right fit for your business, potential drawbacks, and the importance of a unified data model. 

Get ready to unlock the potential of industry clouds and take your business to new heights of efficiency, security, and innovation with Patrick’s insights below.

1. How would you define an industry cloud?

Industry clouds are public cloud platforms designed for a particular sector, like financial services, healthcare, or retail. Industry clouds aren’t one-size-fits-all like traditional cloud platforms. Instead, they offer pre-built solutions and templates tailored to industry specific needs, such as data security and privacy regulations. 

Industry clouds also offer services like analytics and storage, along with specialized cloud-based services, such as Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), which are purpose-built for specific business segments like contact centers, customer care, telemarketing, collections agencies, BPOs, and more. Having everything in one place makes building and deploying apps easier, reducing time to market and keeping businesses competitive.

2. What’s the benefit of using an industry cloud?

More companies are worried about data privacy and cybersecurity risks these days, so having built-in security controls that are relevant to your industry and business is one of the biggest advantages of industry cloud solutions.

In addition to ensuring data security, industry cloud platforms enable easier access to data by consolidating data from all disparate sources into one place in a standardized format. This provides the unifying layer for AI and advanced analytics. Providing seamless access to comprehensive insights, advanced analytics, and predictive models helps companies make more informed decisions.

Finally, the public cloud offers greater agility, scalability, and cost savings. This allows customer-facing functions like contact centers, customer care, or teleservices that have fluctuating demand to quickly scale up or down while only paying for the resources they use.

3. What’s the best way to get started with an industry cloud?

Consider your organization’s specific needs before investing in an industry cloud solution. Start by gathering input from key departments about their needs. Identifying your organization’s challenges, requirements, and objectives will help you prioritize features and functionalities. 

It’s also important to research the market. Focus on providers who can customize cloud solutions to fit your business. Ask about their approach, solutions, track record, and client testimonials.

Plan for a phased implementation, beginning with a pilot program or a subset of your company. Likewise, you want a solution provider who can get you started with just the essential applications, and then expand your capabilities as you grow. Gather user feedback and make adjustments before rolling out to the rest of your operation. Provide training and support to ensure your team gets the most out of the platform’s solutions, tools, and features.  

Finally, monitor the industry cloud solution’s performance and measure its impact on key success metrics, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and costs. Then keep fine-tuning your strategy and solution.

4. What’s the best way to find an industry cloud that most matches your business’ needs?

Choose a cloud provider with relevant industry knowledge and experience. Look for:

• A flexible, modular platform capable of integrating with your business’s solutions or those of a preferred partner. Seamless integration capabilities and customization options allow companies to easily incorporate new features and tools into their existing infrastructure without disrupting their workflows.
• A comprehensive set of features and functionalities to address your organization’s requirements. The basics: data storage, computing power, security, and analytics tools. Make sure the platform offers a wide variety of tools, applications, and solutions. Look for providers that offer scalable solutions so you can expand and adapt without huge infrastructure costs. 
• A robust partnership ecosystem boosts innovation, efficiency, and adaptability, promoting success through collaboration and shared expertise.
• Flexible pricing plans allow you to choose the features, functionality, and support you need without breaking your budget. 

It’s important to thoroughly evaluate the different options available when choosing a business platform. Request demos to gain insight into each cloud platform’s capabilities and features, and consult with sales representatives for further information. Also, consider factors such as integration capabilities, scalability, customer support, and user experience. Doing your research will ensure you choose the right platform to achieve successful outcomes in today’s digital landscape.

5. What’s the biggest drawback to using an industry cloud?

Industry cloud platforms face the same challenges as general cloud platforms: overcoming fears about long implementation, poor security, integration difficulties, lack of data control, long time to ROI, and vendor lock-in. 

You have to do your due diligence to find providers who can handle these challenges. Then narrow the list by letting potential providers know what your concerns are and asking how they’ll resolve them. 

For example, at LiveVox, we address many of these concerns with our SmartStart implementation program — a preconfigured portal with industry best practices that gives contact centers out-of-the-box value and access to essential applications and processes to deliver ROI three times faster.

6. How can an industry cloud provide the most value?

Industry cloud platforms provide the greatest value when businesses have a unified data model. By standardizing how data is stored, organized, and accessed across different applications, services, and functions, companies can ensure smoother, more personalized conversations with customers, better team collaboration, and quicker insight for informed decision-making. Plus, a uniform approach allows businesses to quickly integrate new tools into their systems to adapt and evolve in a dynamic business landscape.

LiveVox industry cloud contact center in action

OTD Americas, a leading provider of teleservices and collections solutions, recently selected LiveVox’s cloud contact center platform to enhance customer engagement and minimize risk. LiveVox’s cloud-native, next generation contact center platform offers advanced features such as blended inbound and outbound calling, omnichannel capabilities, and compliance tools, ensuring a seamless customer experience while adhering to regulatory requirements. OTD Americas will leverage LiveVox’s scalable and flexible solution to optimize their contact center operations, increase productivity, and drive business growth. This partnership highlights the value of LiveVox’s technology in empowering companies to deliver exceptional customer service while managing risk effectively. Learn more in the press release.