The Advantages of Unified Communications as a Service [UCaaS]

In Collaboration by Lisa RemoLeave a Comment

The Advantages of Unified Communications as a Service [UCaaS]

The idea of what makes an office is changing, thanks in huge part to the transformative power of cloud computing, bringing with it new ways to video conference, screen share, and collaborate. As “the office” moves away from the concrete notion of cubicles and fluorescents, business leaders must ensure that employees have streamlined tools in place to allow them to communicate and collaborate seamlessly and easily, which leads to happy, productive teams, and satisfied customers.

Moreover, as the workplace continues to diversify and specialize and the office becomes a more nebulous concept, having state-of-the-art, easy-to-use collaborative technology is increasingly important not only as it relates to the ability to attract and retain top talent, it’s essential for companies to keep pace with their competition.

But does it have to be a massive undertaking? Of course not! That’s why so many companies these days explore the concept of Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). By working with a trusted vendor partner to deliver UCaaS, companies get unparalleled security, peace of mind, and help whenever they need it, and the ability to pay only for the services they need. There are countless benefits to adopting UCaaS in an age of rapidly-advancing collaborative technology, let’s take a look at a few and how they might benefit your business.

Scalability

The idea of outsourcing the management of your organization’s communications suite might sound daunting at the outset, but being able to choose only the services your business needs helps cut down some of the confusion. Instead of cobbling together a workable conferencing or file-sharing system with different platforms, you can put together a collaborative communication suite a la carte that works together seamlessly in an intuitive, all-in-one interface.

The flexibility of deploying a cloud-based service that specializes in unifying and streamlining all varieties of collaborative communication services means that you won’t pay for things you don’t use, but you still get the skill and support of a specialized management service. Whether your business is five hundred people utilizing a variety of optional services, or a small office of 5 to 50 that needs an efficient way to track progress and share files and ideas, an intuitive, customizable interface will afford maximum engagement for your employees.

The scalability of UCaaS outsourcing will also allow your vendor partner to work with you to build a roadmap for future growth, so that nothing can catch you off-guard. Aside from the peace of mind provided by 24/7 support, moving your communication management off-site also gives you a low-cost way to grow and adjust your communication needs without having to upgrade any onsite equipment.

Global Accessibility

Regardless of your industry, having the flexibility for your employees to contribute to projects from anywhere puts you ahead of the competition. As mentioned, the office as the center of business is a thing of the past. Focusing solely on the physical space of an office not only adds to your maintenance overhead, but might even be keeping you from attracting top talent to work for your company.

As your business grows, not only will your communications needs change, but your personnel might need to develop special skillsets in order to grow the way you want to grow. Adapting your communication strategy to allow global accessibility, especially on mobile devices, opens your talent pool massively while maintaining a low overhead – allowing you to attract the most talented people on a global basis, while offering the flexibility for them to work from anywhere.

Disaster Recovery And Business Continuity

If 2016 taught the world anything, it’s that data security is the number one concern for every business, in every vertical. With our physical world becoming increasingly dependent on digital networks, the threat of total shutdown based on either a system breach or a natural disaster of some kind presents serious ramifications for businesses.

In the event of an emergency, not only will it be important for you to protect sensitive data, but you should bear in mind the importance of being able to keep your teams in contact even when a central location can’t be reached. Your ability to bounce back from a storm— whether literal or digital— will depend on your employees’ ability to communicate through your DR or crisis plan.

That’s yet another reason to consider UCaaS, as it can be an integral part of your disaster recovery and business continuity plan.

Provider Accountability

Any good MSP should act as an on-call, 24/7/365 resource available whenever your team is working, and investing in UCaaS should carry the same promise of support. No matter your individual needs, a reliable provider will be able to stand behind their product when you need them the most—and that’s a whole lot of peace of mind.

Mobility

The ability to work anytime, anywhere is an appealing part of any job description, and sometimes it’s a requirement. The global reach of businesses today means you might need to trade emails or texts with clients or co-workers spread across a dozen time zones. Instead of anchoring your people to their computers, when you opt for UCaaS, you can have a unified communications system that’s as easy to use as a ubiquitous social app.

As current work trends overwhelmingly move away from desk-based and into global connectivity, it’s invaluable to have collaborative tools as easily accessible as a song on Spotify. Agility in the market will require companies to give their employees the ability to react and collaborate immediately, and not let themselves be held back by a clunky, desktop-based interface.

Customizing your ideal interface might require integrating some open-source platforms, and working with a UCaaS vendor partner, you can accomplish that and also ensure adapting is a quick and easy process for your employees. After all, if a solution isn’t easy for today’s savvy mobile users to adopt, they’ll opt instead for programs they’re already familiar with.

Getting ahead of your managed services needs by adopting UCaaS offers a myriad of benefits for a business. These include cost savings, reduced stress on your IT team, enhanced talent recruitment and retention abilities, protection in the form of disaster recovery and business continuity peace of mind, increased productivity for your staff, and improved collaboration capabilities across the organization. There’s not much about that that doesn’t represent a wise business investment, and an investment in your future, no matter how you look at it.

HB offers scalable hybrid and cloud based solutions including Microsoft Skype for Business and Cisco Spark that meet all of your collaboration requirements. If UCaaS is something you’re considering, we’d love to talk more about what our team at HB Communications has to offer and how we can help.

Photo Credit: S2Publicom Flickr via Compfight cc

This article was first published on HB Communication.

Lisa is the marketing manager at HB Communications, among the largest and most innovative Audiovisual System Integrators in North America. HB designs, builds, and supports audiovisual communication environments for organizations around the world.

Leave a Comment