Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) was a buzzword even before the Coronavirus pandemic hit. With lockdowns and the changing nature of where and how we work, chances are your communications digital transformation strategy has become a main priority.
There are still some organisations that are hesitant to adopt unified communications. In this blog, we look at how adopting unified communications can help future-proof your company and how to choose the right provider.
Why choose a unified communications solution?
Companies at the forefront of digital transformation report higher revenue growth and greater customer satisfaction. The right digital technologies allow you to gain operational efficiencies, become more responsive to your customer needs and enhance your overall value to them. Investing in digital technology boosts revenue growth rates – according to Frost & Sullivan, nearly half of businesses who achieve high (greater than 30%) revenue growth report investing 66% more in their IT budgets than their peers.
Ensuring you have the right digital technologies is especially important now in difficult economic times and with a dispersed workforce. Customers and businesses want to make changes, but with fewer financial resources and growing demands from end-users.
Benefits of a unified communications solution
Amongst their benefits, unified communication (UC) tools allow your users to be more innovative, speed up decision making and more effectively respond to your customers’ needs. However, the greatest impact of the correct UC solution identified is increased productivity.
UC solutions offer things like real-time presence information, chat, meetings and voice and video calling. To maximise your return on investment and user adoption, look for solutions that offer these all within the same application like:
Adopting a unified communications solution
Adopting unified communication solutions as part of a digital transformation strategy can be daunting – it requires resources with specific expertise in lots of different areas. Implementing a cloud-based solution (and turning UC into UCaaS) addresses this whilst providing other benefits like:
- Flexible deployment models
- Reduced upfront costs
- Predictable monthly bills
- Scalability – flexible capacity adjustments
- Automatic upgrades – reduces the risk of your chosen solution becoming obsolete
- Greater business continuity
UC services easily migrate to the cloud and are amongst the main software workloads making that transition. Frost & Sullivan expects the global UCaaS user base to expand at a double-digit compound annual growth rate until at least 2025.
As your business comms are mission-critical, any investment in a UCaaS solution needs to fit your current prerequisites as well as evolve to meet any future requirements. One size definitely does not fit all when it comes to choosing a UCaaS solution. Offerings range anything from basic IP telephony to comprehensive suites.
According to Frost & Sullivan, visionary organisations are focusing on video-first UCaaS solutions to ensure their investment is future-proof. The global pandemic has caused video to become one of the world’s most important communication tools. The adoption of cloud video solutions, like Teams and Zoom, has increased by more than 30% globally in 2020 alone.
Choosing the right unified communications partner
Working with the right UCaaS partner is critical to making your UCaaS implementation a success. The number one selection criteria when choosing a UCaaS provider is reliability; price comes in as the third-least important factor.
At Blackstar, we’re extremely proud to be rated Excellent on Trustpilot. We have market-leading expertise in real-time cloud communications. We pay keen attention to your business objectives and firmly believe your users’ experience will increase organisational ROI.
Key Takeaways
Businesses need to act now with UCaaS strategies or get left behind. Actively pursue a solution designed with the performance requirements of high-quality video conferencing. The future is video and this will help meet the growing demand for visual communications, particularly among younger workforces. And ensure your chosen UCaaS partner is just that – a collaborative member of the team who is focused on your UCaaS goals and helping you achieve them.
Interested in adopting a unified communications solution?
Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss your requirements and available solutions.
