Sometimes it’s good to get back to basics. Well, let’s start with what UCaaS actually stands for – Unified Communications as a Service. UCaaS is a cloud based communications solution that furnishes businesses with a number of collaboration tools – text chat, voice, video and file sharing. It is an agile, responsive and more cost-effective way for businesses of all shapes and sizes to enable effective, seamless communication across all manner of devices and geographical locations. Because UCaaS is cloud based, it removes the need for on-premises, self-managed hardware – wiping out maintenance costs and the headache of upgrades. This benefits businesses by allowing them to focus more on doing what they should be doing – delivering for their customers.
How does UCaaS work?
It works for you – a business like yours will pass on the management of the system to a service provider (such as Gamma) who will host, maintain and secure the platform and tailor it to your specific needs. We deal with it so you don’t have to.
The main components of UCaaS are:
- VoIP technology, which enables real-time voice communication via the internet.
- Instant messaging – pretty self explanatory!
- Video conferencing – enhancing collaboration between all users.
- File sharing – users can work on the same documents in real time.
- Integration with other business applications – such as CRM.
- What are the benefits of Ucaas?
It improves productivity
This is due in part to ease of use: since everything is integrated into one platform, users can jump from video to voice (or both) to messaging without having to change programs, apps or devices. This streamlining not only improves employee satisfaction (by reducing frustration and driving efficiency and the ‘feel good’ factor of being more easily able to do their job). Samsung reported a 34% improvement in employee productivity, and according to Evolve IP, another selection of businesses saw a whopping 72% improvement in the same.
It improves collaboration
You can’t collaborate with your colleagues if you can’t communicate with each other, no matter where you are located. And if you can’t communicate well, your collaboration has a benefit ceiling. Say goodbye to limits with UCaaS – it’s not just about what workers are doing, it’s about what they’re feeling. What does this mean? Well, if employees believe they can collaborate more easily, they will find it easier to achieve optimal performance. A number of studies have shown anywhere from 10 to 25% increases in productivity from the implementation of UCaaS solutions. Implementing UCaaS collaboration tools leverages this confidence in your employees, leading to the requisite improvement.
It’s scalable
Businesses don’t want to stagnate – they want to grow. And when they grow, they want to be able to scale up easily. Scaling problems are one of the biggest issues businesses face as they grow. UCaaS is as much about growth as communication: you can add new users and features as your business grows without the headache of implementing all-new complex systems. The ‘plug and play’ platform as a service bolt-on nature of unified communications is absolutely the future when it comes to businesses growing and evolving with time. Forbes Magazine mentions scalability as one of the key advantages of UCaaS.
It increases flexibility
The future of the modern workforce is flexibility. GoTo recently said that ‘flexibility is integral’ to how businesses should operate. Not only is it better for businesses financially, but employees are expecting it now. Since every tool available via UCaaS solutions is hosted in the cloud, it makes implementing flexible working so much easier. Unified communications is your vehicle to providing your employees with a seamless and flexible experience – while also reduces overheads from operating ‘in person’ premises 100% of the time.
It’s more secure
Working flexibly initially gives businesses headaches around security. How, indeed, could a business ensure security with staff working offsite and – in some cases – using their own devices or phones? Well, unified communications also helps negate that problem. By unifying all internal interactions under the same umbrella, it allows all communications to fall under the same cyber security protocols – essential to ensure the integrity of your secure information systems. If you want an idea of how integral security is to UCaaS, follow the money: the security segment of UCaaS will have a global CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 18.3% until the end of 2024 – growing to a whopping $2.73 billion.
It’s a cost saving
As we enter into a period of increasing costs, and financial uncertainty, many businesses are looking at ways they can reduce costs and be more efficient. How can UCaaS help with this? Fundamentally, UCaaS helps efficiency: it tightens processes, improves workflow and it eliminates the need to manage on premises systems – according to Frost & Sullivan, 62% of businesses surveyed said that UCaaS led to a cost saving for their cloud environment. It’s not just this, though – many of the benefits we’ll speak about further in the article also lead to cost efficiencies for businesses.
So what are the benefits of UCaaS? It could save you money, it improves productivity and collaboration, it’s scalable, can help improve customer experience, flexibility and is secure. In almost every way UCaaS is a solution that will help propel your business through the next stages of growth with ease. And if things need to scale down, it’s built for that too. UCaaS is more than wires and protocols and technical terms – it’s a solution that underpins the very nature of a modern workforce and into the future. Agile, adaptive, cost effective and responsive to the needs of customers and employees alike – this is what Gamma is all about.
