Colleges Migrating to Cloud Communications

The cloud era is upon us. What does that mean? Change. Yes, we are in the midst of a communications renaissance, with cloud driving innovation of the next generation of communications solutions. From titans of industry, to colleges and universities worldwide, the effects of this revolution are real and rejuvenating to collaboration.

This week, members of higher education IT departments will come together during EDUCAUSE 2017 to explore advances in higher education IT. Dialpad is stealing some of the spotlight, as it is showcasing why colleges and universities are moving away from legacy solutions, and investing in cloud communications.

"The college freshman of today was born in 1999," noted Craig Walker, CEO of Dialpad. "Their entire life from the time they were handed their first mobile phone was organized using text, not voice. Today, modern education communication is mirroring that, so educational institutions need to be equipped to communicate and engage with the students the way they already are behaving," concluded Walker.

Communication is changing, as these institutions of higher learning leveraging a more modern approach find that in the past, emails and voicemails were ignored, whereas today, text messaging is a far more effective means of communication.

Not only will students respond more rapidly, and marked improvement in communication, these colleges and universities are cutting cost, while adding functionality and an overall enhanced service by adopting Google’s G-Suite. As businesses moved toward unified communications systems, it is now higher education’s turn.

Walker offers Denison University as an example, as by migrating from its legacy hardware, no longer are administrators, professors and the like chained to communicating from a desk. And, with the move to cloud communications, comes choice – i.e. laptop, desktop, tablet or mobile phone as your tool of preference; and, by integrating G Suite with Dialpad visibility into conversational context is greatly improved.

Walker, who happens to be the father of a college freshman knows firsthand how the future of our nation communicates – and it’s text messaging. "It's all about the educator reaching and developing the 18 and 19 year olds on a mobile phone as the student, who typically don't use the phone for anything other than texting… Young adults have grown up digital. They stream Netflix, communicate using WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Facebook. They may use email for longer form communications, but most of all they have also eliminated the use of the dorm phone. Add in younger assistant professors, resident life leaders, and other staff, and we're finding that they all want to communicate the way their students do."

The cloud revolution is touching all points of technology. When it comes to cloud communications, the surface is just being scratched, and with each generation of user comes another evolution in technology.

How does that song go, “I believe the children are our future,”?

Edited by Mandi Nowitz