UCaaS, or “Unified Communications as a Service”, is a communications model whereby a business’ full range of communication channels are combined into a central cloud-based system that’s offered as a service by a provider. UCaaS makes it easy for organizations to easily adapt their business communications around the needs of their business, while giving their employees the freedom to communicate (and work) remotely—across laptops, desktops, and mobile devices.
In this informative post, we’ll unpack exactly what UCaas is and how it works, and explain how this new unified-communications model can benefit your business.
What is UCaaS?
Just like how you source your electricity or internet from different providers, Unified Communications as a Service refers to the idea of purchasing all of your business’ communication systems—including your phone system, video conferencing software, and your instant-messaging applications, among others—from one vendor.
Moreover, just like “software as a service” models—whereby customers subscribe to a service—UCaaS provides all of these channels on a subscription basis—enabling low-commitment transactions, paired with regular support and consistent software updates. By being hosted on and managed by a second-party provider, UCaaS reduces overhead and increases efficiency, saving organizations time and making the communications platform exponentially scalable.
How does UCaaS Work?
UCaaS brings together a wide variety of communication channels into a unified, cloud-based software application. This includes:
- voice communication & telephony
- video conferencing
- instant messaging
- call recording
Messages are transmitted using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which uses the internet to send and receive audio, video, and text-based communication data, so that users can easily communicate from anywhere. The entire application runs on the cloud—powered by servers provided by the vendor—ensuring that communications are available on any device that has internet access. Finally, because UCaaS is provided via a subscription model, all maintenance and upkeep is provided by the vendor, with upgrades provided regularly and pushed remotely.
Why UCaaS is Essential for the Modern Workplace?
Consistent Uptime
As organizations continue to navigate the modern workplace, many of them are realizing first-hand the importance of consistent uptime. Employees need to be able to reliably and quickly communicate to compete in an interconnected, always-on world. Whereas traditional models required permanent staff to maintain and preserve consistent uptime, UCaaS has redundancy built-in, and provides internal communications solutions that are easy to use and consistently reliable.
Omni-channel Communications
In a digital marketplace, businesses also need to communicate with their customers as well. And, as more customers turn to web chat and social media messaging to reach out about questions or concerns, businesses’ communications are becoming ever more omni-channel. By providing all the communication channels that a business needs in one package, UCaaS minimizes app-jumping and makes it possible to unify sales and customer service operations into a single application.
Scalable Operations
Finally, because the cloud is available from anywhere on any device—computer, tablet, or smartphone—UCaaS is infinitely scalable, even as a business grows. It won’t increase in complexity or decrease in efficiency just because there are more people on staff. And, because everyone is using the same system, onboarding new employees is much easier. This makes UCaaS solutions a great investment for companies of any size, whether they’re a nascent startup or a large organization.
Upgrade to A UCaaS Solution For Your Business
Ready to take advantage of the many benefits that the UCaaS model can provide your business?
TC Tech Systems is an Austin-based telecommunications and security systems company that’s been providing Austin-locals with top-quality business phone systems, and managed IT services for over two decades. We can provide a custom solution for your business, based on your needs and goals, to ensure a seamless transition to a pre-vetted UCaaS provider. Give us a call today to learn more about the UCaaS model and what it can do for your business.