The UCaaS market is evolving at an incredible pace.
Driven by the demand for the flexibility, scalability, and versatility of the cloud, the UCaaS industry is set to reach a value of $79.3 billion by the end of 2024 – and the number keeps growing.
Unified Communications as a Service takes the benefits of a fully-aligned communication environment, complete with everything from cloud PBX, to recording and analytics, and places it into a flexible cloud environment that can grow and adapt at a rate that suits you.
As the way that we communicate and collaborate continues to evolve, UCaaS is also emerging as a far more advanced concept, with opportunities to combine your fundamental communication tools like voice and recording, with video, quality analytics, team collaboration tools, and even CCaaS (Contact Centre as a Service).
Making the Migration into the Cloud
For years, companies have been discussing the potential of migrating into the cloud. It’s fast, efficient, and incredibly scalable. What’s more, cloud technology allows business leaders to adapt their expenses, by switching from a CapEX model with a lot of up-front investment, to an OpEx model.
UCaaS gives companies the option to access flexible and low-cost solutions for all of their communication services. According to Nemertes Research, a significant number of companies (at least 19.1%) are already using UCaaS for their calling needs.
Of course, switching from an on-premise environment into the cloud can be a complex process, particularly for bigger businesses that have a lot of investments into pre-existing tools. Because of this, many vendors and resellers are offering phased migration strategies that allow end-users to move to the cloud one step at a time, often starting with a hybrid environment.
It’s not just businesses that are having to consider their migration to the cloud carefully either. Vendors and partners are also seeing changes in their relationship. Some resellers are beginning to explore concepts like the master agent models, where vendors handle provisioning, and partners focus more heavily on marketing and sales.
SD-WAN in the UCaaS Environment
One major trend in the UCaaS landscape, is the rising demand for SD-WAN capabilities. With SD-WAN, communication providers can more efficiently evaluate and improve quality of service. Essentially, SD-WAN allows for the application of technical parameters that allow connections to be delivered using priority bandwidth – enhancing the experience for communication users.
With the right SD-WAN solutions, vendors can actively monitor the communication landscape, seeking out the best possible paths for real-time communications. This ensures a stronger and more reliable quality of service. At the same time, SD-WAN solutions come with fantastic failover strategies built-in, allowing users to pick from a selection of advanced networks.
Organizations experiencing issues with standard WAN connections can use SD-WAN to temporarily switch to different lines to help improve the communication experience. SD-WAN even offers greater flexibility and ease-of-use through things like zero-touch provisioning, automated patching, and follow-ups.
AI in Unified Communications
Another significant trend powering the rise of UCaaS in 2020, is the rise of artificial intelligence and smart solutions. The growing access that businesses have to things like APIs, SDKs, and CPaaS means that resellers and service partners can easily implement intelligent tools into a service stack. Machine learning and artificial intelligence features can implement into every aspect of your UCaaS environment, providing access to everything from intelligent chatbots, to predictive analysis.
Intelligent integrations in the UCaaS landscape have the potential to make both internal and external communication more effective. With AI, companies can assess huge amounts of data in their communication strategy and use intelligent insights to make important decisions about everything from communication quality, to customer experience.
What’s more, virtual assistants in the UC stack makes everything from recording conversations with a voice command, to filtering through crucial recordings a lot easier. Voice assistants and chatbots will increasingly be able to takeover more repetitive and mundane tasks for employees, allowing human team members to accomplish more in their day-to-day work lives.
