Enterprises are switching from on-premise unified communications (UC) products to cloud-based unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solutions, in which all hardware, troubleshooting, and maintenance is handled by the provider. Its benefits are well-known, including cost savings, scalability, flexibility, and ease of management.
The true value of UCaaS is its ability to offer uninterrupted collaboration between teams and workers across dispersed geographic locations through video conferencing, messaging, and shared workspaces. As mobility becomes centrally important to business strategies, the role of UCaaS in providing a vehicle for improving productivity and enabling faster decision-making evolves into a more vital element for businesses.
Another major benefit provided by UCaaS is the inherent redundancy in the solution. Cloud backup provides the protection enterprises need against downtime. In addition, monitoring for threats and potential vulnerabilities helps protect the enterprise systems.
Choosing the Right Solution: Choosing a UCaaS solution can be challenging, because enterprises may be torn between a comprehensive application versus opting for best-in-class components of communication and collaboration.
It’s important for enterprises to examine the background of any given UCaaS tool. Whether it had its roots in customer relationship management (CRM) or a call center solution, these considerations can help determine whether it’s a good fit for your organization. It also helps to talk with the provider about their experiences with businesses similar to yours in terms of size and scope, as well as their broader experience within your industry.
Tenancy Considerations: Another area to carefully examine is whether you’ll take a single-tenancy, multi-tenancy, or a hybrid approach to your solution. A single-tenant solution connects to your on-site systems and applications, providing a more customized UCaaS option. While it is the most costly option, it offers the highest level of security among the three because it keeps your data isolated. By contrast, a multi-tenancy solution uses a single instance of the application among multiple customers. The advantages include lower cost, better support, and improved reliability, but this route often offers little in terms of customization.
Many enterprises find that a hybrid solution is most advantageous, offering the security and customization they want for some aspects of their UCaaS solution while also keeping costs reasonable.
Before Implementation: Early in the process, carefully document the requirements for your UCaaS system from both directions. What performance and bandwidth specifications will a UCaaS solution require, and will you need to make any infrastructure changes to support the volume of data that UCaaS accesses? From the enterprise perspective, determine what goals you have related to your UCaaS implementation as far as productivity, collaboration, and business processes are concerned. Create timelines for when you can expect a return on investment, but make sure you allow ample time for a learning curve. While UCaaS is quick and easy to deploy, plan on your employees requiring some time to adjust.
If you’re considering a communications upgrade, contact us at Cloud Source. We can help you evaluate the variety of options for UCaaS to leverage the best solution for your enterprise.