With higher adoption of hybrid and remote work continues to increase in the modern world and customer expectations evolve, companies are rapidly looking for ways for seamless transition & at the same time boost efficiency and productivity.
Building effective business operations starts with implementing a communication environment capable of optimising, supporting, and aligning teams. Switching from a legacy environment to a scalable environment on the cloud has become a business priority.
With UCaaS solutions, business leaders can synchronise their workforce globally, accessing flexible tools for collaboration, day-to-day interactions, and growth. However, to truly make the most of a UCaaS investment, brands must know how to optimise their deployment.
In highly regulated industries, from healthcare to finance, implementing the best UCaaS solutions means creating a comprehensive plan, involving detail assessment, migration, integrating multiple technologies & vendors, monitoring & adoption, for digital transformation without compromising compliance. Vivek Kar AVP, Product Management, UCaaS, Enterprise, and Wholesale Voice, Tata Communications explains how teams in tightly regulated sectors can optimise UCaaS.
Step 1: Evaluate Specific UCaaS Needs
The shift to UCaaS has become increasingly commonplace in today’s digital world. At present, the market is growing at a phenomenal rate, set to reach a value of $70 billion by 2028. However, while virtually every company can benefit from Unified Communications as a Service, each organisation’s exact features and services may vary.
In highly regulated industries, companies have specific challenges, from data sovereignty requirements when operating on a global scale to how they migrate safely from legacy tools. Business leaders and stakeholders must think carefully about their expectations, goals, and unique needs before they begin implementing UCaaS tools.
The right UCaaS vendor can often help with this process, working closely with the executive team to support requirement gathering, gap analyses, and more. With a UCaaS vendor, business leaders can assess network infrastructure and bandwidth capacity to ensure they’re implementing the right plan for UCaaS deployment.
Step 2: Identify Key Challenges
As mentioned above, highly regulated industries face unique challenges when implementing new technology. Healthcare companies embracing UCaaS in the US must ensure data is managed and collected according to HIPAA standards. Financial groups will need to think about PCI compliance when managing transactions.
One common challenge facing many regulated organisations entering the UCaaS world is figuring out how to transition from legacy systems into global cloud-based platforms. To ensure exceptional performance and continued compliance, business leaders may need to consider specific regional complexities and consolidate different platforms and vendors.
Step 3: Address Security Requirements
All companies embracing a new UCaaS implementation should consider security, privacy, and data compliance. However, these concerns are often far more pressing for tightly regulated organisations. It will be crucial for business leaders, and IT teams to ensure the UCaaS offering they choose is equipped with the correct tools to minimise threats.
For instance, a UCaaS ecosystem with high levels of visibility will allow business leaders to monitor their environment more effectively globally. Leading UCaaS providers can implement automated alerts and notification tools to inform IT teams of issues. It’s also worth looking into solutions available within the UCaaS platform to assist with fraud prevention.
A UCaaS platform with fraud management tools and security solutions can offer peace of mind to companies concerned about compliance. For instance, some systems have access to AI-based fraud management solutions capable of scanning conversations and recognising potential risks before issues occur.
Step 4: Work with the Vendor on Implementation
Working closely with a UCaaS vendor on implementation and integration is essential to ensuring you can access a fully optimised communications environment. The right provider will be able to deliver a managed, end-to-end UC solution capable of scaling and adapting to suit different industry needs.
The best UCaaS vendors can work with tightly regulated companies to strategise, plan, and implement platform solutions, integrating existing tools where necessary. These companies can also assist with scaling the UC environment across a global environment, adjusting the performance of specific tools to suit geographical regulatory requirements.
The correct UCaaS vendor can also maximise service adoption and boost change management through training powered by data-driven insights. Providing employees with clear guidance on using collaboration and communication tools effectively can reduce the risk of human error. An ideal UCaaS implementation will also provide monitoring tools to assist with tracking the progress of team members who need to develop new technical skills.
Step 5: Constantly Monitor the UC Environment
To fully optimise a UCaaS solution in a tightly regulated industry, companies need complete visibility of how their system works. This means leveraging the monitoring and analytics tools available within the platform to track crucial metrics and insights.
The best UCaaS platforms on the market come equipped with a range of tools for analytics, capable of exposing critical business insights and informing data-driven decisions throughout the landscape. Businesses can use custom reports, standard health and performance reports, and intelligent AI-driven insights.
Some UCaaS innovations even come with access to functional and regression testing tools, which allow companies to simulate and examine the performance of different network paths and cloud environments before deployment in new locations. These features, combined with immersive troubleshooting tools, and exceptional customer support, will keep the risk of security and compliance issues to a minimum.
Make the Most of Modern UCaaS
The right UCaaS solution has the power to transform business operations in any industry. However, for tightly regulated companies, ensuring the right strategy is in place so you can make the most out of your investment is crucial. Follow the steps above and ensure you’re working with the right UCaaS vendor to maximise ROI.
