Unified Communications as a Service offers a valuable solution to companies in search of flexible, versatile technology. Used correctly, UCaaS combines all of the dispersed channels in your business environment into a single, aligned platform, while still giving you the freedom to adapt, grow, and evolve as your business changes.
As the communications landscape continues to grow more complex, with the addition of everything from new privacy and security technology, to instant messaging, mobile workforces, and artificial intelligence, UCaaS is rapidly evolving.
Here at UC Today, we’re always keen to stay on the cutting edge of the marketplace, and we believe that the best way to do that, is with input from some of the biggest leaders in the industry.
We reached out to representatives from Mitel, LogMeIn, Cisco, and RingCentral for this latest round table, to answer some of your most pressing questions about the future of UCaaS.
What Are The Biggest Issues Facing Those Considering UCaaS Implementation in 2020?
When you consider the many benefits of Unified Communications as a Service, from its advanced scalability, to its cost efficiency, it seems as though embracing this tool is a no-brainer. Yet, though many companies are rapidly making the move to cloud solutions as part of their digital transformation process, there are still a lot of brands that are struggling to evolve.
We asked our UCaaS experts what kind of roadblocks they’re seeing when it comes to implementation in the UCaaS space. Here are the challenges that our experts believe today’s companies need to overcome:
Mark Straton, Senior Director of Calling and Contact Center Product Marketing at Cisco:
Cisco’s Mark Straton told us that all companies encounter different problems depending on their size, their portfolio, and their goals. For a lot of small businesses and greenfield locations, UCaaS makes a lot of sense as the most innovative and scalable solution. UCaaS provides better scalability and security at a fantastic price point while reducing IT and management burdens.
“For multi-site medium and large enterprises, a top concern is how UCaaS solutions will integrate with their existing business applications and investments. These customers often require hybrid deployment and management solutions that maximise their in-place investment life, add innovative cloud services and offer flexible migration paths.”
At the same time, without fully-integrated suites that offer calling, messaging, meeting, and dozens of other crucial capabilities, customers lose their productivity levels, along with TCO and management advantages.
Mark Strassman, SVP and GM of Unified Communications & Collaboration at LogMeIn:
The GM and SVP of UC&C for LogMeIn, Mark Strassman said that UCaaS is an often disjointed experience, despite having “unified” in the title.
“One product might have a few great features but lack other key tools, causing employees to use multiple platforms for various tasks throughout their day”
Strassman believes that this strains productivity and makes it harder to address technical issues when and if they arise. Businesses looking into UCaaS solutions therefore need to find intuitive platforms that can consolidate UC tasks and streamline as many tasks as possible. “This means simplified integrations, consistent support, better user experience and increased productivity from using just one platform, and, importantly, cost savings.”
Mark also noted that tech leaders will also be searching for tools that use the latest cutting-edge technology to manage and automate mundane tasks, like note-taking and transcription. This will allow human beings to have more time for issues that require a compassionate touch.
Rami Houbby, Vice President of UCaaS Cloud Sales at Mitel:
Mitel’s Rami Houbby, the VP of UCaaS Cloud Sales, told us that a primary issue facing customers in the UK is simply navigating the vast selection of choices available. There are currently dozens of UCaaS providers out there, and some of them aren’t delivering the full UCaaS experience.
“True UCaaS should include a whole package of collaboration, conferencing, chat, and customer experience features. It’s not simply a case of combining dial-tone with a portal. It’s important for customers to understand what they’re buying – very often the cheapest providers are compromising in other areas such as quality of service, uptime, and features.”
Rami noted that many organisations may need to continue to support their existing PBX hardware, while still gaining access to cloud-based solutions.
“This is often the case for larger SMBs and upwards. We are seeing significant uptake of hybrid solutions, and this will continue. We recommend that customers consider their needs to clearly define the right solution for their future”
Sunny Dhami, Senior Director of Product Marketing and GTM at RingCentral:
RingCentral’s Sunny Dhami said that as many companies are reaching the end-of-life stages with their PBX systems, the market is beginning to accept UCaaS as the future for business communications. While the journey to cloud might have started in the storage landscape, it kickstarted a much broader evolution.
“Businesses are looking for multi-modal, global, device-agnostic communications solutions that can bring together messaging, calling, meeting and employee engagement. With such an immense cultural shift, the opportunity is huge—in fact, there is over 400 million seats in the market.”
Dhami said that the major challenge for many companies making this shift is realising that it’s a kind of business transformation process – requiring a complete cultural overhaul. “Creating a digital workplace consists of three key elements: workspace, culture and technology. UCaaS, and these digital transformation projects, touch every single person within the business—they transform how a person works and interacts. UCaaS will change working practices, processes, and behaviours, and with such a huge impact, businesses need to ensure they are measuring success at every level.”
Sunny said that if businesses want to succeed in the UCaaS landscape in 2020, they need to think about culture first, and deploy the technology that will help their teams.
What Workplace Trends Have You Seen in the Last Year, and What Do You See Coming in 2020?
The trends in UCaaS are constantly evolving, driven not just by the rapid transformation of disruptive technology in the marketplace, but by the changing needs of users too. Increasingly, companies are beginning to accommodate to the idea of having more of the cloud in their communications landscape. This means that users expect more freedom and flexibility than ever before.
We asked our experts to share their insights on the trends that have changed the UCaaS space in 2019, and what they expect to see as we continue through 2020:
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Mark Straton[/caption]
For Cisco’s Senior Director of Calling and Contact Center marketing, Mark Straton, a big trend right now is workplace transformation. If you haven’t focused on this concept yet, Straton says that 2020 is the year to catch up. Cisco has already gone through a huge transformation itself, and the company recommends that other brands should be doing the same.
In 2019, Cisco noticed four key workplace trends that it believes will accelerate throughout 2020. “First, 2019 was truly the year of the huddle space. Huddle spaces rapidly became a vital part of business life. Second, AI and machine learning started to bring tremendous automation in the workspace allowing easier communication while providing deeper insights into the people involved.”
Mark noted that machine learning was the third trend leading the way for workplaces, helping to produce better user and customer experiences, as well as advanced analytics into the collaboration process, and real-estate usage.
“And fourth, voice and virtual assistants have started to take hold in the enterprise. Think of this as Siri optimised for business collaboration enabling voice commands for working with meeting and rooms systems"
"It also automatically pairs video, cell and PC devices with desktop and room devices automatically. This means that these systems automatically have access to your calendar allowing you to join meetings with one button from any paired device.”
Mark Strassman of LogMeIn also agreed that the workplace is changing drastically, with transformations happening in virtually all sectors. He noted that flexible work is one area that’s quickly evolving and gaining popularity for people around the world.
“This is perhaps best evidenced in last year with the success of Microsoft Japan’s famous four-day work week policy."
"Additionally, recent illnesses cutting down on travel and in-person meetings, and companies are realising the incredible potential of nontraditional workplace arrangements”
Strassman told us that in 2020, he expects to see more companies adopting flexible policies. This could mean allowing more team members to work how and when it suits them to improve productivity and morale.
“A recent GoToMeeting study highlighted just how much employees appreciate remote work: 42% of office workers said their lives would be negatively impacted if they no longer had the option to work remotely, 60% said they would be more likely to take a job offering remote work and 41% said remote work is “very important” to the future of business. In order to attract top talent, this is the key trend employers need to watch.”
According to Mitel’s Rami Houbby, there’s been a significant increase in collaborative working between people from geographically diverse locations recently. Additionally, there’s a growing reliance on bringing freelancers and contractors into the workplace, while supporting home and remote working strategies.
Sunny Dhami[/caption]
Mark Strassman[/caption]
Rami Houbby[/caption]
