What is UCaaS and How Can it Benefit Your Business?

We’re very sorry to do this to you, but we have another acronym to add to your boardroom bingo — but wait — this is one that will actually have some very real impacts on the way your business (and every other business) communicates. It’s called UCaaS, which stands for Unified Communications as a Service, and while the general idea has been around for a while, it’s now matured to be the next big thing in business communications. So what is UCaaS, and how does it benefit your organisation?

What is UCaaS?

In the most basic terms, UCaaS is a type of business communication service that consolidates all of your organization’s methods of communication into a single platform. This can include everything from traditional voice calls and video conferencing to instant messaging, file sharing, and email. By bringing all these different modes of communication into a single platform, UCaaS makes it much easier for employees to stay connected and collaborate with each other, no matter where they are. The current heavy hitters in UCaaS are players like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and RingCentral, but many more are fighting for market share in a growing sector.

As a certain pandemic fundamentally shifted the corporate communication paradigm, the importance of UCaaS has only become more apparent. With so many employees now working remotely, businesses need to find ways to enable them to stay connected and productive no matter where they are. That’s where UCaaS comes in, but there are benefits no matter how your staff work.

What are the features of UCaaS?

Being an all-encompassing way for organisations to communicate, UCaaS is an all-star team of features:

Enterprise telephony

This is the most essential function of UCaaS and includes features like voicemail, auto-attendants, call groups, and extensions.

Unified messaging

This includes features like voicemail-to-text, SMS integration, and instant message archiving, all unified into a single interface.

Instant messaging and presence

This feature allows users to see whether their colleagues are available to chat in real-time, making it easy to connect with the right person at the right time.

Meetings

Video, audio, and web conferencing provide collaborative meeting experiences for employees and partners no matter where they are.

Mobility

UCaaS allows for a mobile experience that is on par or better than the traditional “non-mobile” experience, with features like single number reach, call forwarding, and visual voicemail.

Security

With UCaaS, businesses can rest assured knowing that their communications are secure with features like encryption, user and group permissions, and activity logging.

What are the benefits of UCaaS?

As they say, sell the benefits, not the features — here are some of the key benefits that businesses can expect to see by adopting UCaaS:

Increased productivity

By consolidating all communication methods into a single platform, UCaaS makes it much easier for employees to stay connected and collaborate with each other. This aids employee productivity and can ultimately lead to increased profitability for the business.

Improved customer service

Another important benefit of UCaaS is that it can help businesses to improve their customer service. By having all communication channels in one place, businesses can have a unified hub of knowledge which can be communicated to customers. To aid in time to resolution, screen sharing technology allows issues to be resolved quickly and easily, all while making the customer feel involved in the process.

Increased flexibility

UCaaS also provides businesses with increased flexibility, as it can be easily scaled up or down to meet the changing needs of the business. This is essential for businesses that are growing or experiencing fluctuations in demand.

Improved security

As UCaaS consolidates all communication channels into a single platform, it also makes it easier to manage security and compliance. With features like encryption, user and group permissions, and activity logging, businesses can have peace of mind knowing that their communications are secure.

Reduced costs

Another big benefit of UCaaS is that it can help businesses to reduce their overall communication costs. By consolidating all communication channels into a single platform, businesses can save on the costs of maintaining multiple systems. In addition, UCaaS is often priced on a per-user basis, which can further help businesses to save money.

Greater sense of connectedness and teamwork within the organisation

By bringing all communication channels into a single platform, businesses can bring people together in ways not before possible. This is particularly beneficial for businesses with remote employees or multiple locations, but it also has obvious benefits even for entirely in-house teams.

Being in control of an ever-changing work environment

In today’s fast-changing business world, it’s essential for businesses to be in control of their communications. UCaaS provides businesses with the flexibility and scalability they need to stay in control of an ever-changing work environment.

Is UCaaS here to stay?

COVID-19 obviously threw more than a few curve balls for both operations and communications, and whether the “new normal” is a return to the office, a hybrid arrangement, or full remote work, will vary business by business.

Whatever the future holds though, UCaaS has fundamental benefits for every working model. Whether one worker stays at home or another comes into the office, UCaaS lets both use the same unified system from any location. This allows all employees to be more productive, more collaborative, and improve customer service no matter where they are.

The pandemic has forced businesses of all sizes to reassess how they operate, and for many, UCaaS has provided the agility and flexibility they need to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape.
Perhaps the best way to think of UCaaS is not as a “new normal” but as an evolution of how we communicate. The pandemic simply expedited this transition for many businesses, and there’s no turning back.

If you’d like to learn more about how UCaaS can help your organisation, please contact us — we’d be more than happy to help you find out how UCaaS can be tailored precisely for your needs. To find out more, have a look at our page on Microsoft Teams, and how it can be integrated into your organisation.