Next-generation business continuity with UCaaS
Communication and collaboration are what make business happen. From internal interactions to customer service, how your team communicates defines your business.
Even more than that, how clients expect customer service to be carried out is changing, with 57% of customers saying they would rather contact companies via digital media according to Ameyo.
Today, communication is carried out in more ways than ever before. Modern communications happen with phone, fax, email, messaging, video conferencing, and file sharing. But how can you manage all of these different communication methods on separate platforms?
You shouldn’t. And you don’t need to with unified communications as a service (UCaaS).
Your Communications Hub
Unified communications as a service, or UCaaS for short, is an all-in-one solution for your business’ communication needs. It brings together all of your communication standards into a single platform on the cloud. This means that not only are all of your communications connected and easily accessible from one central UI, but you can bring them with you wherever you go.
By being hosted on cloud infrastructure, UCaaS makes your communications a core part of your overall business continuity. Whether in the office, traveling, or working from home, your team can seamlessly take their work with them.
Also, UCaaS can be tailored to your specific needs. Your business doesn’t use fax? This can simply be excluded from your communication solution.
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Enterprise Benefits for Any Business
Creating a ground-up hardware solution to the communication requirements of your business used to be an expensive proposition. So expensive that many SMBs were simply priced out of the option.
Today, the cloud has made the powerful technologies formerly available only to enterprises available to every business at a low, predictable monthly cost — with more regular updates to boot.
Don’t Leave Anything Out
UCaaS does more than ordinary business phones could ever do. Every way that a business communicates, from phone calls and voice mail to instant messaging and file-sharing can be carried out on a UCaaS solution.
Better than that, the defining feature of UCaaS is its ability to truly connect all communication methods within one pane of glass.
Have you ever been frustrated trying to find where that important conversation with a peer happened? Rapidly scrubbing your email inbox trying to find it, only to see it happened in a text or phone call. With UCaaS, all of these conversations can be connected, making finding the right information an easy search.
UCaaS also enables your business to meet evolving collaboration expectations. Goremotely.com reports that more than 60% of Generation X and Millenials collaborate more through visual means. With UCaaS, video conferencing can be baked right into the platform.
On-Premise or in the Cloud
Your UCaaS solution can be implemented in one of two ways: on-premise or the cloud.
The cloud is the most common, and accessible, iteration of UCaaS. Companies like Google and Microsoft run their most popular services on a cloud infrastructure. It’s known for the small amount of customization but the overall reliability, speed of updates, and rich features.
Big unified communications players have effective, simple-to-deploy and use platforms ready to use for any business. But they don’t necessarily grant the most customizable options, and if your business is security conscious or heavily regulated, this option may not be able to meet your needs.
An on-premise UCaaS solution is owned by your business. This implementation covers a variety of options from simple hardphones to full network infrastructure. With this approach, you gain the customization afforded by ownership. You decide how your solutions are deployed and maintain complete visibility of usage and security protocols.
Each implementation has its pros and cons. So it’s probably best to just give you a list:
| Benefits of on-premise UCaaS: – Completely custom implementation options – Used only by your company – Complete control over functionality and access settings – Matches your security requirements – Downtime planned by you | Cons of on-premise UCaaS: – Hardware can be expensive – Updates may be less frequent or more expensive – More management/co-location costs – Less user-friendly or access to fewer features – May not have mobile applications |
| Pros of the cloud: – Lower overall cost – Access to industry-leading technologies – Constantly updated – Growing features – Optimized mobile and desktop applications | Cons of the cloud: – Unexpected or unplanned downtime – Not highly customizable – Cannot control the physical servers – Access to fewer manual controls – Security defined by the provider |
Great UCaaS Depends on the Right Partner
UCaaS is a complicated business solution that requires the right knowledge and experience to implement correctly. Your business needs a solution they can rely on day in and day out, so it’s important to have someone you can trust from planning to implementation.
At CTSI, we specialize in providing an array of communication solutions to businesses like yours. No two businesses are the same, so you shouldn’t waste time trying to fit your business to the wrong solution.
We have the experience to help assess different UCaaS options to suit your needs and help guide you to the one that matches your budget and requirements. We also have the skilled technical staff to implement and support that solution for its whole lifespan.
Not only do you need UCaaS that checks all the right boxes; you also need someone there to fix problems when they crop up. With CTSI, you have a partner that is ready to give your business the guidance and support you need.
