As-a-Service is increasingly becoming the default rather than a nice-to-have in the unified communications world. A study by IDG found that companies overwhelmingly choose Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) as a staple in their business stack. They also view network performance, security, and technology integration as key deployment capabilities, indicating the long-term vision for this space.
In this environment, it is no surprise that industry giants like Microsoft are pivoting to an as-a-Service stance, leaving behind its age-old perpetual licensing model.
So, does the Microsoft Teams platform count as an UCaaS offering?
The short answer is yes – absolutely.
Microsoft Teams fulfils all the traits that you can expect from a UCaaS solution, making it a competitive player in this industry. And Teams is only the tip of the iceberg. Going by early market indicators, Microsoft might be pushing for the “aaS” model across nearly all its offerings, with some backward compatibility for legacy perpetual licenses.
What is UCaaS?
The definition of Unified Communications as a Service has two parts. First, it has to bring unified communications capabilities, i.e., communication, collaboration, messaging, meetings, telephony, mobility, whiteboarding, workflow configurations, video, audio, and all the other necessary bells and whistles in a single solution/landscape.
Second, it should be available as a service, i.e., via a subscription model on the cloud.
You could have discrete systems for internal business telephony, hardware peripherals management, video communications, remote collaboration, and contact centres, tying them together through API, SDK, or native integrations. This gives you a traditional UC landscape that is functional but not seamless.
Next, on the maturity curve is the UC platform, which is a one-stop solution that can be implemented out of the box. Interoperability isn’t a problem, and you spend time on customisation/configuration, and not on functional integrations.
Finally, UCaaS relies heavily on the cloud to provide data connectivity, visual consistency, and predictable downtime across all your UC components. It even plays nice with hardware peripherals, giving you a consolidated platform for device setup, management, migration, and upgrades.
Microsoft Teams falls squarely in that last category.
Does Microsoft Teams Qualify as UCaaS?
As a group conferencing, 1-on-1 calling, file sharing, and instant messaging application, Microsoft Teams definitely qualifies as a UCaaS platform. It is available as part of Microsoft’s more expansive subscription-based offerings, which are Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise, Microsoft 365 E1, Microsoft E3, and Microsoft 365 E5.
The last three offerings were formally called Office 365, but the nomenclature change indicates the company’s push towards a more consolidated offering.
There are several other reasons why Microsoft Teams can be considered UCaaS:
- It is very big on integrations. The company is actively partnering with peers and competitors alike to bring you native integrations for teams. This means that you can expand Microsoft Teams as per your communication requirements, without having to invest in on-premise infrastructure. This focus on subscription-based scalability is one of the key characteristics of UCaaS
- It is compatible with PSTN telephony. For a communication environment to be truly unified, your cloud-based solutions must work side-by-side with on-premise infrastructures like PSTN. Microsoft Teams gives you the option of 100% cloud-based telephony using the Phone System, PSTN integration through direct routing, or a combination of the two. You can effectively switch from a traditional telephonic conversation to a multi-party video conference without switching between apps
- It includes powerful monitoring and reporting capabilities. In a UC landscape, your IT administrator should be able to provision, monitor, manage, troubleshoot, and maintain the infrastructure from a single console. Different portals for different providers or separate portals for hardware and software reduces UC productivity. Microsoft Teams does very well in this regard, constantly adding to its admin capabilities. The Teams November update was dedicated almost entirely to monitoring and reporting controls, making life simpler for your UC admin
- It can scale up to multi-user scenarios like contact centres. Ideally, your UC solution should cover internal needs and external service requirements with the same efficacy. This is where Microsoft Teams really shines, unifying UCaaS with the CCaaS. Features like auto-attendant, call routing, voicemail transcription, etc. that were earlier available only in contact centre solutions can be found in Teams as well
- It comes with predictable, user-based pricing. Teams is entirely cloud-based, allocating a portion of cloud resources to users as per average and acceptable usage levels. This lets it come up with a transparent pricing structure that is very different from the perpetual license format enterprises followed for large-scale software implementations. A paid Microsoft plan, including Teams, starts at $10 per user per month. There is also a free forever version with limited cloud storage (10 GB shared+2 GB per user), up to 60-minute-long phone calls, and up to 100 meeting participants
Another reason why Microsoft Teams qualifies in the UCaaS category is its impressive application marketplace. The world’s leading UCaaS players such as Fuze, RingCentral, 8×8, etc. all have an easy to use app integration marketplace. In addition to the usual API/SDK-based integration, you can simply head over to the Microsoft Teams application marketplace to add on a free or paid as-a-Service integration.
Microsoft Teams is a UCaaS Leader
Not only is Teams part of the UCaaS category, but it is also No. #4 in the Leaders segment, after Fuze, RingCentral, and Cisco. Forrester evaluated the world’s most promising and prominent UCaaS providers based on 31 criteria, and Teams emerged as a definitive frontrunner.
Back in 2018, Microsoft announced that Teams was officially a “complete meeting and calling solution” as part of the company’s vision for intelligent communication, which all for intents and purposes, refers to UCaaS.
Since then, Microsoft has been intent on establishing a robust UCaaS landscape. Over the next few quarters, it will migrate Skype for Business users to Teams and also convert its Exchange Server offering into a subscription as well. The cloud offers incredible opportunities for companies looking to grow their communication capabilities with minimal efforts, and Microsoft Teams is a powerful UCaaS partner to have on this journey.
