In their quest for success, businesses implement solutions to help them grow and scale. And with the surge of remote work lifestyles and cultures, businesses must adapt to the needs of the modern worker like never before.
This challenge has helped to drive the growth of the UCaaS market to record heights. Just last year Gartnerreported that the North American UCaaS market for midsize enterprises was almost $1.5 billion in 2017 and is poised to reach $2.8 billion by 2021. Transparency Market Research estimates a much higher number, with their projections of the UCaaS market hitting $79 billion by 2024.
UCaaS (or unified communications as a service) refers to the mix of different cloud-based communication functionalities within a single platform. It’s all about making it easier for people to communicate and collaborate more efficiently.
But growing remote workforces are not the only drivers of UCaaS prosperity. Factors including the expansion of BYOD programs and increase in cloud spending have also played major parts. In any case, the surge in UCaaS adoption has brought to light the need for this new form of communication to integrate with other systems of productivity already adopted by businesses. This means seamless integration with email, CRM, and more. In fact, a study conducted by Diamond VoIP in 2019 found that 65% of UCaaS users rate the importance of their phone systems integrating with their other systems of productivity as very important.
Even with the ease provided by UCaaS, the scope of projects can change as deployment begins. Our same study found that an alarmingly high number of UCaaS users, 63%, actually rate the ease of deploying and provisioning users of their phone system as very low. In addition, our study found that the most commonly cited pain points of UCaaS users unsatisfied with their current providers, reflected pains thought to be associated with legacy solutions—like call quality, cost, and reporting.
Nevertheless, the future of work communication is the cloud. And as UCaaS evolves, so do the technical capabilities to help offset lingering issues. The proliferation of AI, for example, is hitting its stride. Our study found that 71% of UCaaS users believe AI will be important or very important for productivity as it relates to business communications. Features like AI sales coach, real-time sentiment analysis, post call automation, and call analytics are super-charging business effectiveness.
However, not all modern UCaaS solutions are created equal. Diamond VoIP found that 41% of today’s UCaaS users aren’t confident that their current solution will support their future needs. If you fall into this bucket, ask yourself these questions:
Is your current UCaaS solution:
- Easy to deploy and provision new users?
- Compatible with your current email and CRM system?
- Reliable, without sacrificing call quality?
- Transparent about pricing?
- Equipped with a consumer-like interface?
- Providing you with the reporting you need to better run your business?
- Loved and embraced by your entire workforce?
