Unified Communications as a Service: UCaaS
Enabling effective team collaboration
WHAT IS UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS?
Unified communications simply means helping your team function as a unit and bringing all communication—internally and externally—into one pane of glass.
It enables your team to communicate with co-workers and customers in a single, cohesive user interface, and can include a wide range of functions, including voice, instant messaging, video conferencing, desktop sharing, and presence.
In short, unified communications is all about enabling effective collaboration—between team members, between employees and customers, between partners and suppliers. The result is higher productivity, more efficient operations and improved customer satisfaction.
Packet Fusion recognizes that Unified Communications looks different for each company, so we take a customized approach with our services. As we work with you to better understand your business, we’ll find the right tools to bring unified communications and collaboration to your company.
THE BENEFITS OF UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS
Unified communications is about meshing your separate worksites, applications, and communication tools so your business operations are efficient and seamless. For example, an employee could use an application to answer a call from his cell phone while another uses the same application to answer a call from her desktop.
Unified Communications also ensures that when customers contact your business, the employee responding from a satellite office has the same communication tools as an employee located at company headquarters.
Two main benefits of Unified Communications are:
- Lower costs, higher productivity
- Automated workflow and streamlined technology saves IT costs by reducing the time it takes administrators to manage and make changes, moves, or adds.
- No need for companies to purchase phones or tablets for employees when they can use their own devices
- Facilitates collaboration between mobile and remote workers based in satellite offices or at home
- Eliminates long-distance fees
- Better Collaboration
- Integrates with customer relationship management and contact center solutions for improved communication
Unified Communications as a Service
Commonly called UCaas, Unified Communications as a service takes the features of unified communications such as voice, video and email and delivers them in a single service through a cloud provider. Contact center can also be integrated into the solution.
These increasingly complex solutions are managed by an experienced service provider, making it easier for businesses to manage and add new technologies or provision new locations. UCaaS enables companies to start small and grow as they are ready in a predictable, pay-as-you-consume model, without purchasing expensive equipment or hiring extra IT personnel. Also, UCaas is more secure because service providers stay on top of the latest security threats—something that can be difficult for in-house IT staff to do.
3 WAYS TO CONSUME UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS
Premise-Based
Locating your telecommunications on your company’s premise may be ideal for your business when you have a phone system with very specific integration requirements. If your company has a large IT department and the desire is to directly manage your telecommunications, premise-based UC will provide you greater control and flexibility over your telephony system.
Cloud-Based
Placing your communications in the cloud helps you cut costs while enabling scalability. Moving your telephony system to the cloud may be your best option if your business staffs a smaller IT department and has offices located remotely. Not only does the cloud reduce expenditures for hardware, but it also provides regular software upgrades across locations. If your company experiences seasonal peaks in business, the cloud offers the flexibility to integrate remote locations and a worker force as needed. Finally, the cloud provides your company important security features, such as secure data storage and redundancy for increased reliability if technical problems occur.
Hybrid-Based
What Does a Unified Communications Solution Include?
Unified communications brings together a wide range of technologies into a single solution.
- Voice (audio conferencing, telephony, voice mail)
- Collaboration (messaging, calendaring, file sharing)
- Presence (real-time status of colleagues to see if they are available or not)
- Web conferencing (interactive whiteboards, virtual meeting rooms)
- Text (email, chat)
- Video (video conferencing, broadcasting)
Here’s a closer look at four components of Unified communications:
Instant messaging (IM) provides quick and instant communication between your team. Even when your workers are countries apart, this collaborative technology instantly connects them in real time, securely, allowing them to communicate using almost any device. IM can eliminate unnecessary emails, phone calls, and office visits and puts the power of connectivity into the hands of your team.
People do business with people, and nothing bridges the distance gap like video. Use video conferencing to expand the reach of your team meetings. Digital imaging can help collaboration on important projects and allow your team to meet new clients face-to-face or deliver company-wide presentations.
Desktop sharing helps your employees look at the same document, file, or other communication in real time, giving you a handy tool for formal and informal business meetings. Enable employees to instantaneously view information and discuss it, lessening the need for follow-up communication. You’ll also decrease the gap between send and receive as desktop sharing encourages consuming shared data immediately and making real-time updates to any document.
Ever wonder if a colleague is available? Presence tools allow you to quickly see who is available, at a glance. This is especially powerful for managers with team members scattered across the country or for direct reports in branch offices. Presence promotes efficiency by quickly viewing who is available—you’ll decrease unnecessary communication and avoid interrupting workflow.
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