Is the hype around UCaaS making you wonder if your business is missing out on something big?

Professionals no longer follow the linear communication path. That is emails, boardroom meetings, and telephone calls.

Businesses have shifted to instant messaging platforms and virtual meetings. For this, they rely on unified communications.

So don’t get left behind in the unified communication future trends.

You must first understand what UCaaS (short for Unified Communications as a Service) is. 

This blog discusses unified communications, its future, and the challenges of UCaaS. And tells you how it’s beneficial for your business.

Let’s begin.

What is UCaaS? 

UCaaS is a cloud-based model and one of the fastest-growing markets in the world right now. It is critical for most businesses across the globe. 

Wondering why Unified Communications is getting so popular? 

The answer is simple. UCaaS minimises the use of many communication channels. Thus, making communication easy for businesses.

Here’s how it works. 

It unifies all your communication needs on a single platform. It includes meetings, instant messaging, and other business communication needs. 

UCaaS combines the power of: 

• Audio
• Video 
• Chat
• VoIP/voice features

Want to know the best part? 

All these features are available on a single-unified communication app through cloud technology. 

 

The future of unified communications indeed looks very bright. Telebu, Zoom, Webex, and Dialpad are some of the popular UCaaS platforms in the market. 

Any business can unify its many communication channels.

Here’s an example. An app such as TelebuPing allows you to form various groups with internal teams or customers. 

But that’s not all.

You can make calls for the same app. 

Need to solve a customer complaint? Hop on a Ping audio call. 

Is there a video conference call with a stakeholder? TelebuPing has got you covered. 

Thinking about sharing files? You can exchange voice notes, images, documents, and other files on the same app. 

UCaaS vs CPaaS – What’s the difference?

 

Unified communication sounds like a solution to all your communication problems. But is UCaaS your only option? 

Here is where CPaaS comes in.

CPaaS, short for Communication Platform as a Service, is a cloud-based model. It lets developers add their communication features to cloud technology. With CPaaS, you can cherry-pick only the features that your business needs. 

Have you ever had a chat box popup as you navigate a website? That’s a CPaaS feature. Other common CPaaS features include: 

• Video conferencing 
• SMS/MMS 
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) 
• Inbound call routing 
• Outbound voice calls 

CPaaS allows you to choose selective features using APIs and SDKs. Whereas UCaaS offers a bundle of communication tools and products on one platform. 

So are the features and benefits of these technologies for your business? Let’s get an overview before we look at it in detail.

Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/illustration-of-woman-analyzing-financial-line-graphic-6289065/ 

	UCaaS	CPaaS
Cost involved	Requires no extra hardware or investment apart from the UcaaS platform costs.	Requires investing in extra stack and technology for customising solutions.
Productivity	UCaaS offers users general solutions for seamless connection on any device.	CPaaS are quick and easy solutions. You don’t need an expert in charge of the system.
Features	UCaaS comes with fixed features, which users may or may not need.	CPaaS offers the flexibility to integrate custom features and use the available ones.

 

UCaaS vs CCaaS – What’s the difference? 

Apart from UCaaS and CPaaS, there is another software model called CCaaS. 

CCaaS is short for Contact Center as a Service. It is a software model that offers your customers a personalised experience. 

It provides your business with a cloud-based infrastructure on an easy pay-as-you-go model. 

With CCaaS, you only pay for what you need. 

You get to enjoy reduced costs because the provider handles CCaaS technology. 

UCaaS and CCaaS have similar features. But if you know your stuff, you should be able to differentiate between the two. 

Here’s an overview of the differences between the two:

	UCaaS	CCaaS
Cost involved	Requires no extra hardware or investment apart from the UCaaS platform costs.	Pay-as-you-go. No upfront costs.
Productivity	UCaaS offers users general solutions for seamless connection on any device.	CCaaS integrates into your business with ease due to its scalability and flexibility.
Features	UCaaS comes with fixed features, which users may or may not need.	Contact centers provide omnichannel customer service. These services include SMS, social media, video conferencing, and live chat.

Designed for external communication, CCaaS includes the following features:

• Customer support
• Call routing
• SMS text messaging
• Live chat 
• Voicemail 
• Real-time analytics 
• Social media messaging 
• Custom greetings 

So what’s the major difference between UCaaS and CCaaS? 

The big difference is that UCaaS aims to organise internal team communications. Whereas CCaaS aims to ease communication between customers and your internal team. That is your sales reps and customer support. 

How does UCaaS work?

As you know, UCaaS combines all your communication needs into one solution. This package includes chat capabilities and video conferencing call solutions. 

Want to reap the full benefits? Then you must understand the future of unified communications. And know how it works. 

One of the best things about UCaaS is that you don’t need extra hardware or security functionalities. All you need is the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) service, and you’re all set. 

How does this work? 

The key role of VoIP is to convert sound into data. This data then transmits to the cloud phone service. And this is where your UCaaS service provider comes in. 

A good UCaaS provider extracts VoIP capabilities without any configuration hassle. 

UCaaS provider uses VoIP functionality to unify text, audio, video, and chat capabilities. This allows you to scale whenever necessary. 

It means you won’t experience challenges with UCaaS despite your organisation’s size.

And there’s more. You can manage both internal and external communication without worrying about the infrastructure. The infrastructure gets managed on the cloud. 

UCaaS systems work even in bad weather conditions and power outages. So your remote teams can work using any device without any hiccups.

What are the benefits of UCaaS? 

Still unsure whether your business needs UCaaS? Then these benefits will clear things up for you. Here are some of the advantages of UCaaS: 

Save money

Calculate how much money you pay for individual services. It includes chatbots or dedicated contact services. 

What if you could combine all these services and pay for them at one flat rate? This is possible on a unified communication platform.

You will save lots of resources, time, and money. No need for individual contracts, service hardware/software, asset management, and other utilities.

 

Expand your global footprint

With UCaaS, you can manage your remote team working from around the world.

You can also have customers worldwide and manage their needs on the cloud with UCaaS. Bring all your communication to one place to address your customers’ needs.

Overcome communication complexities 

Unified communication helps you bring all your communication channels together. You can deal with customers, stakeholders, employees, and managers all on one platform. 

It ensures minimal communication gaps, and your challenges get resolved with ease. No need to rely on email threads. Resolve matters over the instant messaging service provided by your UCaaS provider.

Grow your business

Business productivity suffers when your employees engage in activities other than their jobs. 

With a unified communication app, team collaboration in dedicated groups makes communication faster. Here you can chat, audio or video call, and share files on the go.

Enhance your customer experience services 

What’s the priority for your business? Satisfying your customer and resolving their issues. 

What does unified communication offer? Communication channels on a single platform to engage your customers. 

It ensures faster customer resolution, engagement, and long-term customer loyalty. 

That is why most businesses create surveys to understand where they are lacking. Then they use this information to enhance their services. 

What are the challenges of UCaaS? 

UCaaS sounds like the answer to all your communication problems.

But, there are some cons attached to it. 

Before you make your final decision, take a look at some of the common UCaaS challenges: 

• There is a steeper learning curve with unified communication. Your less tech-savvy employees might struggle with the new system. 
• Unified communications might not be compatible with your existing system. You might need to perform a system upgrade if this happens. 
• UCaaS works best with a strong internet connection. Users with a slow internet connection might not enjoy the benefits. 
• The service levels need to be consistent. UCaaS needs to offer real-time communication solutions,  

What is the UCaaS market’s growth potential? 

The UCaaS market will likely grow from $28.96 billion in 2021 to almost $70 billion in 2028. Gartner also projects over 14% growth in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions. 

Many organisations are moving from telephonic communication to cloud technology. 

It means that there is a larger need for virtual customer communication. And, of course, the need for applications to build these strong virtual relationships. 

So how can CRM software help your business? 

Do you wish you had something to preserve your customer database? A software that can offer insights and improve sales and productivity. 

This is what CRM software does because it understands customer behaviour. 

UCaaS and CRM solutions have seen significant growth. And we’ll tell you why. 

Every industry loves the seamless adaptation of cloud-based communication infrastructure. And we mean every industry, from education to tele-health and even cooperate setups.  

Small and mid-sized enterprises continue to rise in numbers. It means there will always be the need to streamline business communication. Bottom line? You can expect more unified communication trends in the future.

Which product segment will grab the lion’s share?  

 

More and more businesses are moving to cloud-based solutions. Thus, we predict that UCaaS will continue to dominate the industry. This is most likely due to its mega cost-saving benefits. 

And there’s more. Businesses such as yours can enjoy customised infrastructure for their business communications.

Isn’t that something you’d like for your business? 

We can help you get started. 

TelebuPing is an enterprise communication and collaboration platform. It provides unified voice or video conferencing, integrated chat, and file-sharing options.  Learn more about how TelebuPing can help you push the boundaries of communication. Our team of experts at Telebu is always available to offer you a free demo and answer all your queries.