What Is a UCaaS Platform & How Can It Help Your Organization?

What Is a UCaaS Platform & How Can It Help Your Organization?

Is your organization seeking more advanced business communication capabilities to better serve remote and hybrid work environments? Are you looking for a way to consolidate providers and streamline your technology? Then you’ll be interested in the answer to what a UCaaS platform is and why it matters.

By 2030, more than 75% of companies will leverage UCaaS for their business communications. With Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), companies no longer have to deal with software from multiple providers. There are no longer numerous licensing agreements, multiple update schedules, and separate support plans for each. Businesses don’t have to simply accept features or software they don’t need or want to get better pricing. 

How is this and so much more possible?  It is simple, with advanced cloud technology and a best-in-class communication services platform. Without further ado, let’s dive into what a UCaaS platform is so you can see how it can benefit your organization.

What Is a UCaaS Platform?

UCaaS is a unified model that integrates company communications — such as text messaging, instant messages, calls, meetings, voice, and video conferencing, screen and file sharing, and more — into one package, delivering it safely through the cloud where even the worst natural disasters cannot disrupt business. 

Other features organizations need within a UCaaS platform include:

  • Virtual Fax
  • Video Conferencing
  • Call Center and CCaaS
  • Business SMS
  • Voip
  • SIP Trunking
  • Microsoft Teams Connector
  • QoS Monitor
  • Softphones

In the simplest terms, a UCaaS platform is the most effective and complete business communications platform available. It’s the features that are what make it such an essential part of a successful business. 

At the heart of a good UCAAS platform is a powerful tool – UC Client.

Designed to work seamlessly with the UCaaS platform. It empowers you & your emplyees to maintain strong connections with your clients and team members by centralizing a complete suite of essential features.  

What Is a UCaaS Platform & How Can It Help Your Organization?

That’s why it’s so important you keep it distinct from similar but noticeably different services, such as communications platform as a service (CPaaS), which are providers who offer parts of UCaaS that are developed to accomplish specific types of communications actions. 

UCaaS Versus Older, Traditional Methods of Communication

Traditional methods of communication are no longer enough if businesses want to keep up with the latest in technology and compete in today’s highly technological and competitive environment. Gone are the days of calling the phone company to install landlines to connect brick-and-mortar businesses to the outside world. Companies no longer have to invest in expensive private branch exchange (PBX) systems or hire and train someone to route incoming calls all day. The world has moved on.

It’s been many years since mobile telephony allowed individuals the freedom to be untethered from landlines. Still, it took a while for businesses to catch up and incorporate similar flexibility for their workforce. They started piecemeal, using cell phones to connect with workers in the field and adopting software that allowed access to critical documents or systems from outside the office as a supplement, not a replacement, of traditional communication systems.

However, with each advance, companies had to take considerable time to ensure security measures were in place, train their employees on every new platform, and maintain a schedule for monitoring and maintenance on each, in addition to their ongoing upkeep and costs for landlines and PBX systems. That is until the introduction of cloud technology and the ability to consolidate all the functionality businesses need in one place at a monthly subscription cost. 

The high-level benefits of UCaaS include, but are far from limited to:

  • All-in-one platform — Access all of your communications in one place compared to several different applications that offer various forms of communication. 
  • Enhanced communications — Older methods of communication limited the speed and efficiency of staying connected with internal teams to make crucial decisions, access valuable data, and collaborate on projects. In contrast, UCaaS allows your staff to complete these tasks through various forms of communication without switching from app to app to find who they’re looking for. 
  • Remote and hybrid-friendly — The functionality of traditional premise-based PBX systems is no longer relevant to today’s work environment because, unlike UCaaS, they are not remote and hybrid-friendly. Most companies have already moved remote or implemented a hybrid model into their environment, making this an essential transition in today’s market. 

How Does UCaaS Work?

According to Harvard Business Review, most businesses fail to adapt to innovations swiftly because of resistance. This resistance is typically fueled by what is often referred to as FUD: fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It is heavily influenced by anxiety about the unknown — not knowing enough about what it is and how it works. Our goal is to give you the information you need to counteract FUD and reassure your clients by answering their questions about what a UCaaS platform is. 

As a full-featured communications platform, UCaaS takes all of its services to the internet and integrates the communication tools and services your clients’ staff will need to keep in touch throughout different locations — whether they’re just working from home or thousands of miles away. This software integration is accessible throughout all devices to boost employee collaboration, connection, and file sharing. 

Its cloud-based technology allows clients to easily add members to the platform and make necessary modifications with just a button click. Since business needs are ever-changing as the market evolves and the business grows, UCaaS’s flexibility and scalability allow for more client-specific customizations and changes.

UCaaS is the opportunity of a lifetime for businesses to keep up with all the latest in technology without the hassle of relearning about new advancements after just a few years of relevance. Failing to adapt to essential innovations won’t be a concern with UCaaS since it is regularly updated with the latest software and technology, limiting the upkeep and research that most businesses pour their budgets into to ensure they stay current. 

Why Does UCaaS Matter?

A digital workforce is not a fad but a fact of modern life. As of early 2023, remote work accounts for one-fourth of full-time paid workdays in the United States. This shift necessitates leaders to rethink what communication means for their businesses and how to implement the solutions best. 

Each industry and the product or service providers within those industries will have diverse and sometimes complex needs. They may require similar or vastly different technologies, systems, and features. However, despite the disparate requirements, one overriding constant is the demand for efficient, effective communication that connects people and facilitates productivity. Today’s businesses must integrate their communication applications into one package that handles all calls, texts, web meetings, video conferences, and accompanying features.

Why is it imperative that companies consolidate their communications into one platform? Because the siloed mentality of any service, particularly with internal communication, can be the downfall of productivity in any business. That makes sense, considering that the purpose of communication is to break down barriers.

Let’s look at some obstacles that can be overcome by implementing a UCaaS platform. 

Lack of Vision and Awareness

An efficient machine has all the parts working in alignment. Each contributes effectively to the expected outcome. When dealing with humans in different locations performing different functions, they quickly lose sight of how their contributions fit the company’s goals and objectives. A UCaaS platform keeps your workforce in lockstep by providing higher visibility and access to information. 

Limited Interaction

When individuals, departments, or offices have limited interaction, it creates isolation and disrupts productivity. It makes collaboration much more difficult. Providing a single, unified platform that gives your client’s workforce everything they need, from voice calling to video conferencing, instant messaging, and collaboration software, helps keep teams connected, cohesive, and productive. 

Difficulty Integrating Disparate Systems

Before cloud technology and software as a service were readily available, companies had no choice but to invest in the individual applications or systems they needed. That put the expense and responsibility on them to ensure that each new addition to their enterprise technology could work with the existing ones. UCaaS takes that burden off businesses and gives them the tools to concentrate on their core competencies. 

Inability to Scale Easily or Efficiently

In the days of analog phone systems, scaling up required a call to the phone company to order the installation of new phone lines and investing in expensive and unwieldy PBX systems to manage calls. Even as telephony has advanced to provide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as an alternative, having multiple, disparate systems made it harder to grow. UCaaS removes all those obstacles and provides scaling at the click of a button. 

Poor Maintenance or Support

A business that relies on constantly changing technology must be ready to keep up with frequent monitoring, updates, and support. A unified, all-in-one cloud communications solution moves that responsibility to the provider and ensures that clients always get the most current and secure functionality.

How Does This Benefit You and Your Clients?

Having a reliable UCaaS platform benefits you by providing your company with a platform allowing staff to be productive and efficient while offering the latest technological advancement. This means better customer relationships and more clients.

As for your staff, they’ll benefit from a UCaaS Platform in the following ways:

  • Working from home is easier than ever – No special equipment is required for staff to increase productivity. UCaaS benefits all working models and assists with communication limitations in industries with many staff traveling for business. 
  • Save on costs – Your staff can stop paying extra for meeting apps, SMS messaging, team messaging software, etc. By switching to cloud-delivered technology, businesses can save as much as 15% on IT costs alone. 
  • Communication tools and billing are streamlined  – All your services are managed in one place. 
  • Enhanced collaboration – Unified communication touchpoints allow different departments to easily stay in touch and work on projects regardless of location.  
  • Scalability and flexibility – UCaaS provides solutions that adapt to your organizations growing and changing needs.
  • Enhanced security – UCaaS providers are serious about security. They recognize that protecting customer information is vital for internal and external communication. The peace of mind that their data is safeguarded gives companies a better experience.

 

The only way to unlock growth in today’s market is to prioritize innovation. For your business, this means adapting to the shifting needs of your employees. 

Finding the Perfect Business Communication Solutions for Your Organization

Optimizing communications and navigating an evolving world with an integrated, all-in-one, cloud-delivered technology expands your capabilities, strengthens your brand, and allows your organization to streamline its operations.

Learn More About The Most In-Demand Solution to a Hybrid Workforce?

Now that you’ve learned what a UCaaS platform is and why it is relevant, the question isn’t whether you should start implementing the platform, but when to get started.

Call us today for a free demo: 484-753-7200.