What Are Some Examples of Unified Communications?

Every company requires an effective and efficient communication and collaboration tool that streamlines its workflows. Companies often use various communication tools, but they don’t always integrate with one another, leading to obstructed communication and decreased productivity.

So what’s the solution? UCaaS or Unified Communications as a Service. It’s a cloud-based teach stack that fosters efficient cross-company collaboration, whether you’re in an office premise or working remotely.

This guide will look at examples of unified communications and how they benefit businesses across sectors and industries.

What is UCaaS?

UCaaS, short for Unified Communication as a Service, is a cloud-based software that integrates all business communication channels and third-party apps into one unified platform.

UCaaS solutions synchronize and sync business communication channels to enable seamless real-time collaboration. With all communication channels in one place, there is no need to switch between applications to access two or more at once.

Here are a few examples of communication tools that UCaaS platforms integrate:

• Voice calling (fixed line, mobile, VoIP)
• Voicemail
• Business SMS text messaging
• Live chat messaging/ Instant messaging
• Audio or Video Conferencing
• Web Conferencing
• Email
• Online faxing
• Social Media Messaging
• Screen sharing
• Audio transcription
• Calendars, scheduling, and other personal assistant functions
• Enterprise social networking and collaboration platforms.

The unified platform can also provide better insight into the customer journey, customer satisfaction, employee productivity, and more.

How Does UCaaS Work?

However, UCaaS goes beyond just unifying communication channels. To understand UCaaS better, let’s focus on the “as a service part” of UCaaS solutions.

Given below are the main features of UCaaS services.

CRM Integration

UCaaS solutions integrate contact center software with CRM tools to streamline internal and external communication.

Subscription-Based Model

Since UCaaS is deployed on the cloud, businesses can access unified communication capabilities on a subscription basis. This means you only need to pay for the service you use.

There is no need to purchase bulky hardware and set up your communication system from scratch.

Easy-to-Use Platform

UCaaS platforms are user-friendly. You do not need to have knowledge of software development to use them. The UCaaS providers handle backend setup, data center, functionality, and security.

With this kind of tech support, there is no requirement for an in-house IT team.

Central File Storage

Another valuable feature of UCaaS is that they provide businesses with a central data repository to store all their files. This way, your team never has to hunt for the information as they are readily available at all times.

The team can also co-edit documents in real time.

Unified Communications Examples and Use Cases

It is not difficult to see how UCaaS solutions pave the way for effortless business processes and drive a modern workforce. Here are some UCaaS examples and use cases on how they impact several industries.

UCaaS Use Case for Retail Businesses

Quality Customer Interaction

Contextual customer interaction is the key to customer satisfaction, and UCaaS paves the way. Integrating all customer support tools into one platform lets you get better insight into the customer’s journey.

You readily have previous chat history and call transcripts, giving you a better context of the customer’s issue or need. It enables you to quickly guide them in the right direction, resulting in faster resolution.

Reduced Technology Cost

This use case is especially beneficial for start-ups and emerging businesses. With onsite systems, companies must pay for the setup and maintenance of the servers. It doesn’t come cheap.

On the other hand, UCaaS makes communication tools available on the cloud, making it highly affordable. You can use multiple solutions but pay only one bill to a single provider as per your usage.

Support a Remote Workforce

With work from home becoming the new norm, it serves companies better to have their communication and collaboration functionality in the cloud. This way, employees will have access to tools no matter where they work from.

It empowers a remote workforce and allows you to hire people from beyond your office location.

Reliable Communication Channels

Dropped calls and service interruptions due to poor server performance affect your customer and reputation. If reliability is your concern, moving to UCaaS can be your solution.

Look for a service provider offering high uptime in their service level agreement. They will ensure that your servers operate even during a power outage or natural disaster so that you can carry out operations without any interruptions.

UCaaS Use Cases for Public Sector Enterprises

Maintaining Business Continuity

Public sector enterprises can benefit from flexible unified communication tools in a cloud environment. The setup allows them the agility to adapt to changing citizen requirements and unexpected industry developments.

Public enterprises can scale ceaselessly with UCaaS and continue running despite external disturbances. Thanks to UCaaS, most critical public departments were up and running even during the pandemic.

Paves Way for Rapid Innovation

UCaaS solutions can help public organizations adapt to new and innovative technology faster by making them accessible on the cloud. They can quickly add or reduce capabilities based on demand cost-effectively.

Further, facilities like automation tools, chatbots, and AI analytics pave the way for the rapid evolution of the public sector.

Improve Team Productivity

Inefficiencies in government agencies have repercussions beyond revenue. It’s also a matter of public safety and security. Hence, they need solutions like UCaaS to provide an all-in-one environment for communication and collaboration.

UCaaS will help teams be as aligned as possible and deliver efficient, high-quality service to the public. Staff can remain up-to-date with the latest information, whether they’re in the office, in the field, or working remotely.

Better Compliance and Privacy

Public sector companies must maintain compliance and privacy requirements set by the government. The vast amount of data they collect and deal with and the multiple data entry points make them vulnerable to leakages. It would also be complicated for IT teams and professionals to identify security breaches.

A unified communication system is a solution to all these problems. With it, you can have a single control center to provide employees with the right access and security strategies.

You can also employ a data sovereignty setting to ensure data storage compliance.

UCaaS Use Cases for Financial Service Enterprises

Personalizing Client Experience

Financial service is one sector where personalization and customer experience matter most. Clients require easy communication with service providers, and unified communication platforms can provide the way.

UCaaS systems, with their AI capabilities, can also provide better insights into clients’ requirements and budgets so service providers can tailor their products and services and make them attractive to clients.

Compliance and Security

Financial organizations are heavily regulated and under a lot of scrutiny. So they must handle customer information sensibly.

A unified communications platform makes implementing policies and tracking compliance easier while lowering failure points.

Many UCaaS platforms have built-in security features designed explicitly for financial sector companies. They also ensure that financial teams can document information as required for auditing purposes.

Competitive Advantage

The only way to stay ahead of the competitive financial sector is by utilizing data insights. Unified Cx platforms provide access to intelligent analytical tools that enable data collection at speed.

Companies can use the data to understand customer sentiments and mold decisions accordingly. Not just customers, you can also collect employee data to get insights into their performance and engagement.

UCaaS Use Cases for Global Businesses

Multinational Companies

Many businesses expand national boundaries and establish their presence in foreign countries. In such a scenario, choosing a simple communication system may create communication gaps and make it challenging to manage offshore businesses.

A global UCaaS solution, on the other hand, bridges all geographical boundaries, allowing your team at different locations easily communicate with each other via call, message, or video conference.

All your offices can work together using a unified communication platform.

Expanding into New Regions

When you expand your branches into new locations, you want your office to be ready as soon as possible. But setting up independent communication channels can take time.

A quick solution is to go for cloud-based unified communications to simplify all aspects of communication in the new region. You can take the unified extensions wherever you expand and quickly have your branch up and running.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions are common ways for businesses to expand into new territories. However, unifying two companies with distinct processes and solutions can be challenging.

The best way to bring them together is to create a unified solution. It will make unifying processes and the workforce effortless while ensuring everyone is on the same page.

Top UCaaS Plat

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Now that you’ve learned the use cases of UCaaS, you’re probably wondering what the best UCaaS platforms are. The best UCaaS solution meets all your unique business needs while ensuring robust security.

Below are some unified communication platform examples to help you make the right choice.

JustCall

JustCall is a great choice for an affordable unified contact center platform. The platform offers all the important call center functionality (call, message, calendar, etc.) in a single, easy-to-use platform.

The VoIP business phone system has an in-built conversation intelligence platform that provides real-time call analytics and virtual agent support capability. Its unified multichannel routing and unified windows for the Cc agents can save contact center agents a lot of time and effort.

Microsoft

After adding the unified call features, Microsoft Team has become one of the largest UCaaS provider platforms.

The platform unifies chats, meetings, calls, files, and collaboration tools in one common application. Further, users can customize the platform with third-party add-ins.

Zoom

Zoom is the one platform that is familiar to businesses across sectors. Starting with simple video conferencing, Zoom now includes a host of UCaaS features, such as unified messaging, a unified phone system, and other collaboration tools.

It is one of the most accessible UCaaS platforms for hybrid businesses.

Skype

Skype for business is another powerful, reliable, secure, and scalable UCaaS platform. It offers a variety of UCaaS features, the major ones being a unified Cx platform, queue-based routing, unified real-time reports, etc.

Skype has been mainly serving customers in industries such as IT services and computer software.

IBM

IBM entered the UCaas market in 2006. It has released a unified communication middleware platform called IBM Lotus Sametime as several related products and services such as IBM Global Technology Services, IBM Websphere unified messaging, etc.

It offers optimal, scalable, and security-rich solutions for virtual connectivity for a remote workforce.

UCaaS: The Future of Business Communication

Hopefully, the abovementioned UCaaS examples and use cases have provided a glimpse into the benefits UCaaS can provide for several industries. It is the key to reliable, secure, mobile, and flexible communication for all businesses, big or small.

Consider cloud-based unified communications for seamless technology-based business communication at the most affordable cost.