Selecting the best UCaaS solution supplier might be challenging. The features and service choices start to sound the same as you go through the providers. One supplier gives the best deal, but another provides alternatives you have yet to think about. Although one firm has received excellent evaluations, its platform needs to be more transparent and more accessible to use.
UCaaS stands for Unified Communications as a Service, which is a cloud-based communication solution that integrates various communication tools such as voice, video, messaging, and collaboration into a single platform.
UCaaS providers offer a range of services and features, and it is essential to ask the right questions to ensure that you choose the right provider for your business needs. In this article, we will explore what UCaaS is and what are the 8 important questions to ask UCaaS providersto make an informed decision.
What Is UCaaS?
A unified communications platform (UCaaS) combines contemporary tools like email, instant messaging, video calls, and even AI-powered automation with classic office telephony features like call routing, hold, and transfer. Businesses may avoid juggling various services by using UCaaS suppliers, who consolidate these functionalities into a single cloud-based software.
The ease and efficiency with which these instruments facilitate communication makes them indispensable for today's enterprises. Clients may need to pay more attention to the expense and complexity of deploying on-site infrastructure. At the same time, users have access to the full range of functionality across many locations and devices.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), cloud computing, and cloud storage, as opposed to on-premises hardware, make all of this possible. People may collaborate in real-time, wherever they are, using these and other features that are part of UCaaS systems.
These tools may be used to enhance business operations by integrating them with other business applications. Furthermore, UCaaS solutions may be expanded to accommodate additional users and new features as a firm expands.
What’s Included In A Ucaas Solution?
Many different communication technologies are housed under UCaaS systems everything from email, file sharing, and video conferencing to phone calls and audio conferences. For optimal productivity and organization, your UCaaS solution should provide a complete and all-encompassing combination of business tools inside an intuitive UI.
You may take advantage of embedded communications, phone, video, chat, and contact center integration with 8x8. Thus, you may bid your disjointed systems farewell and welcome to a completely unified, user-friendly platform.
Phone System (Telephony)
Of course, a top-notch phone system is a must for any contemporary communications solution. The phone service and related services are the main components of any UCaaS system. UCaaS systems usually provide many functionalities.
UCaaS providers use VoIP and cloud PBX to allow organizations to place and receive phone calls online. Intelligent AI will be mobilized by more sophisticated solutions, enabling deeper data insights and increased productivity.
Video Conferencing / Web Conferencing
In recent years, video conferencing has become the standard for corporate interactions. Fortunately, web conferencing is a fundamental feature of 8x8 and other UCaaS platforms.
One-to-one and multi-person phone calls, as well as video calls that may support office meetings, client chats, presentations, webinars, seminars, and more, should be possible with reasonable UCaaS solutions. Whether your teams are collaborating in the same room or different countries, this facilitates natural collaboration.
Instant Messaging & Email
Teams may communicate in real-time from a distance via instant messaging. Ideal for briefings and last-minute reminders, as well as an efficient way to keep in touch all day. But communications sent by SMS and MMS aren't limited to internal teams.
Using messaging to enhance customer experience and offer customer assistance is a terrific idea! Text-based communication is becoming more and more popular with clients due to its practical, efficient, and non-intrusive uses.
Collaboration Tools
UCaaS solutions come with a variety of collaboration tools in addition to these fundamental features that are intended to improve teamwork and communication even further.
Features of collaboration tools include things like:
- Fast scheduling.
- Management of projects, workers, and customers.
- File and screen sharing.
- Both online and offline visibility.
- Both recording and coaching.
Cloud & Client-Based
Not to mention, UCaaS solutions are hosted on the cloud. This implies that everything you require, including cloud phone, video, and more, is housed online via the safe data center of your service provider.
The most excellent part about this is that you may use your preferred program from whichever device you're using to work at the time, be it a desktop computer, mobile app, business phone (or softphone), or browser. You may reach someone at home, at work, or while traveling. Not a beat is skipped.
Questions To Ask Of A Global Ucaas Provider
Where Is The Infrastructure?
At least a dozen points of presence (POPs) dispersed around the globe characterize the perfect cloud provider. Because of this redundancy, local disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes won't disrupt your UCaaS services.
Because it increases the likelihood that your location is close to one or more of its POPs, geographic diversity also improves the quality of service (QoS) of latency-sensitive services. The provider's international data centers, which house the data and apps for your company, are subject to the same cautions.
What Types Of Service-Level Agreements Do You Offer?
SLAs assist in preventing availability and dependability trade-offs while migrating to the cloud. Often, some contracts outline the provider's responsibilities for customer service, quality of work, and other areas, and often include financial and other consequences for non-performance.
SLAs also emphasize the need to have an extensive network infrastructure, several foreign POPS and data centers, and MPLS, all of which assist the provider in meeting its SLA.
Are You Truly A Global Provider?
As technology advances and makes cross-regional commercial transactions more accessible and more convenient than ever, the globe continues to become smaller. Your cloud communications provider needs to be international if your company is.
Customer privacy and security are jeopardized when data is stored, and these issues are made worse when data is transferred over national borders.
Your UCaaS supplier needs to provide compliant solutions that meet international legal standards, such as GDPR, and keep up with the always-changing compliance scene.
In order to communicate and cooperate with clients abroad efficiently, your ideal UCaaS provider makes it simple for businesses to grow operations, offices, and personnel outside national boundaries and develop a local presence overseas.
Are You Able To Abide By My Industry Compliance Standards?
Various compliance rules apply to various industries based on the region and kind of firm. Depending on your industry, they may include HIPPA, HiTrust, PCI, SOC, and many more. You should ask the vendor what security levels the solution satisfies if they are relevant to you.
When it comes to communication, the provider should be knowledgeable in implementing UCaaS solutions that adhere to your industry standards. This is crucial because you can exchange or discuss sensitive information over the platform.
What Happens When Something Goes Wrong Or Needs To Be Updated Down The Road?
Asking a supplier this question at the vetting stage might be one of the most crucial ones. Will the supplier help you even after the job is finished? Will they help your staff become acquainted with the new feature from day one? What about specific manufacturers' warranties on hardware?
Since technology is constantly changing and will require upkeep, be sure the supplier you select will be your long-term partner. You'll want to know what upgrades and software maintenance entail if you go with a cloud-based option. Select a partner who will stick with you in the future rather than someone only interested in taking your money and recommending you to others.
Does The New Ucaas Integrate With My Existing Technologies?
It's fantastic to have additional features and capabilities. Still, in terms of efficiency, they could become more of a problem than a solution if they don't interact with your current CRM, ERP, ticketing system, etc. In order for a supplier to focus their suggestions throughout the discovery process, you should constantly bring up your current technological setup.
When you reach the late stages of installation or negotiation, the last thing you want is to find out that a critical piece of technology at your business cannot be integrated with the new tool. Increasing efficiency is the aim, not producing complications in your workflow.
What Happens To Your Long-Term Agreements?
Although some cloud communication providers offer month-to-month contracts, your present provider could demand an annual commitment. Hardware and Capital Expenses can be taken into account.
Will the terms of your Service Level Agreements (SLAs) stay the same? SLAs are essential to unified communications and contact center business-critical systems. In the event that your platform disappears, all of these agreements might be altered.
How Good Is The User Experience?
Usability needs to be the primary concern, according to 70% of CEOs in enterprise organizations. Your business must find a way to afford to offer a service that is different from what clients or staff are expecting.
A good UCaaS provider will guarantee that features work together flawlessly and recognize how important the user experience is. For instance, this implies that users may establish a VoIP connection to talk about the specifics of a project, send data fast, and find out how another employee is doing.
By giving users access to a platform that consolidates all of their messages into one place, the goal is to simplify communications. Search for a UCaaS supplier whose solutions are made to empower your company and facilitate more accessible communication and collaboration without requiring you to move between apps constantly.
Factors To Consider When Choosing Between Top UCaaS Providers
Pay attention if you're prepared to join the numerous companies that have already used UCaaS solutions for their communication requirements. The most crucial thing at this point is to choose the best UCaaS provider for your company's requirements. Make sure you give the following crucial characteristics and functionalities top priority when looking at UCaaS options.
Technical Quality & Reliability
Seek out a service plan with excellent technical quality and dependability. That entails competitive uptime assurances, HD calling, and excellent video quality.
Ultimately, you want to avoid having to deal with technological issues in the future. The majority of providers provide a service level agreement with uptime guarantee terms, and many will give you an idea of the quality of their services.
Consolidations
Next, look for those crucial integration options. Make sure your UCaaS solution ultimately interacts with all of your preferred business and communication tools if you want to get the most out of it.
Seek a solution that offers a large selection of suitable integrations and API support (consider products that rank highly in Gartner Magic Quadrants, such as Google Workspace applications).
For maximum streamlined efficiency, integrations improve user experience and expand the number of tools and functions that can be accessed from one location.
Compliance & Security
Security is of utmost importance. Whatever you do, be careful to verify the security and compliance credentials of your selected service provider before committing to a transaction. Verify that the service provider satisfies your local regulations and that client and business data will be secure from fraud.
Verify the supplier's security credentials. Verify that they are interacting with a security incident program, utilizing an authorized voice platform, and encrypting calls using TLS/SRTP.
To ensure that you are always safe, secure, and compliant, 8x8 complies with rules and has been certified by independent third parties. In addition to adhering to HIPAA regulations, 8x8 is certified by several security organizations, including FISMA, CPNI, the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), GDPR, and others.
Analytical
Lastly, confirm that you can leverage analytics for data-rich insights with your preferred UCaaS solution. The top platforms have administrative tools and dedicated dashboards that let you produce unique reports and modify your company plan with precision and data.
Utilizing the information gathered from each discussion that occurs inside your organization, 8x8's analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities enable you to make more informed decisions.
With the help of voice analytics, your virtual customer support agent, rapid artificial intelligence deployment, data aggregation, and modeling, you will be able to leverage data from every transaction.
Frequently Asked Question
Who Are The Key Players In Ucaas?
The key players in UCaaS include Cisco, Microsoft, RingCentral, Zoom, 8x8, and Vonage.
What Is The Trend In The Ucaas Market?
The UCaaS market is expanding rapidly, with an expected growth rate above 25% over the next five years.
What Are The Benefits Of A Ucaas Platform?
The benefits of a UCaaS platform include enhancing communication and collaboration, transforming customers’ communication and collaboration experience, and offering the most flexible options possible to receive the greatest return for both your business and your customers.
Final Words
Choosing the right UCaaS provider is a multifaceted decision that requires careful consideration of various critical aspects. The provider's infrastructure needs to be robust and well-distributed to ensure consistent service quality. Service-level agreements must be clear, offering guarantees on service reliability.
Compliance with both international and industry-specific standards is crucial for ensuring data security and adherence to legal requirements. The ability to integrate seamlessly with existing technologies and the provision of long-term support is essential for a smooth and sustainable partnership. You can get the best UCaaS by just asking the 8 important questions to ask UCaaS providers.
Additionally, prioritizing user experience is critical to ensuring that the communication platform is efficient and user-friendly. By thoroughly evaluating these factors, businesses can make an informed decision that aligns with their communication needs and supports their long-term objectives.