Benefits of Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS)
Enterprise adoption of UCaaS is increasing. The market is growing at almost 29% per year. UCaaS offers companies many benefits, both direct and indirect.
1. Cost control and resource utilization
Most UCaaS systems are built so customers pay for what is used. Companies are not required to bear the cost of empty seats or unused features or capacity. The enterprise is not responsible for capital expenses, like purchasing hardware, servers, and other equipment.
In the UCaaS model, the provider is responsible for maintenance and upgrades. A company’s internal technical resources can be used on higher-level objectives and innovation. According to recent estimates, businesses can save up to 65% when they switch to cloud-based communications.²
2. Remote access and collaboration
UCaaS ensures that workers have access to tools, solutions, and data, regardless of physical location. As the recent global pandemic demonstrated, businesses must be agile in their ability to support a distributed workforce, both in the short- and the long-term. A cloud-based, globally-enabled UCaaS solution means your company can respond to changes in the business environment with agility, maintaining continuity and meeting challenges without missing a step.
UCaaS supports collaboration across the organization, by centralizing and standardizing communication tools and improving network reliability.
3. Streamlining and efficiency
Like other as-a-service solutions, UCaaS streamlines internal IT resources. The UCaaS vendor is responsible for the operations, maintenance and updates of all company communications. The IT team can focus on core competencies and higher-level, strategic objectives.
UCaaS brings all communications channels under a single umbrella, for a single provider. This reduces vendor sprawl – the difficult-to-manage, expensive, time-intensive work associated with managing multiple vendors and contracts.
4. Scale for growth
When a company grows, it must invest in the resources and systems to support that growth. Traditional, disjointed communications are difficult to scale because they require capital investment. In addition to the capital investment, they require an investment of time and resources to get systems up and running.
A UCaaS system, is cloud-based and virtual, which means that capacity can be easily added when needed. Instead of coordinating a bunch of different vendors, all communications channels can be scaled through one vendor contact.
5. Privacy and security
Much of the workforce remains distributed, even as businesses begin to emerge from the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has resulted in an increased concern with the security and privacy of sensitive business communications.
It is easier to manage privacy and security with a consolidated system. When a business is dealing with communications vendor sprawl, they must stay on top of potential vulnerabilities across all channels. With UCaaS, not only do enterprises have a single vendor, but the UCaaS vendor is responsible for managing security and privacy for the system.
UCaaS systems also offer advanced security features, such as end-to-end encryption, advanced permissions and role-based access, and regulatory reporting and compliance activities.
Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) vs. Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)
While UCaaS and CCaaS are both related to communications as a service, they are not interchangeable. The primary difference is that UCaaS is related to internal communications for the enterprise. CCaaS is Contact Center as a Service: focused on communications with customers, potential customers, and other people outside the organization.
The Future of Communications
The UCaaS market is growing at a rate of over 25% per year. Therefore, one in four companies are either adopting or planning to adopt UCaaS systems. While adoption was initially fastest among small systems and startups as part of their cloud-forward strategy, large enterprises are focused on transitioning to UCaaS solutions too. This is more complicated because a large enterprise cannot just adopt UCaaS systems outright – they must transition from legacy systems to UCaaS.
In a large enterprise, they must strategize, investigate, evaluate, and select the right UCaaS solution; then manage user adoption and change throughout the organization. This can be incredibly complicated and difficult, requiring strategic thinking, project mobilization, and generating buy-in from key stakeholders across the organization.
If you are interested in rethinking communications at your organization, ACLIVITI can help. Our vendor-agnostic approach and unbiased expertise can help you find the correct solution for your business requirements, current and future.
