UCaaS and What it Offers Your Business
Today’s modern office relies on multiple communication tools to conduct business, such as emails, instant messaging, and customer management software. However, many companies still use an antiquated PBX phone system that adds very little value in terms of features, benefits, or scalability.
A UCaaS phone system will unify many of your office’s tools and offer your employees and customers a far superior experience. Read on to learn more about what UCaaS is and the value that it can provide your business in today’s business climate.
What Exactly is UCaaS?
UCaaS stands for “unified communications as a service.” The “as a service” business model is highly popular amongst both providers and customers as it offers greater flexibility, features, and solutions than a standard business telephone system.
There are many individual components of Unified Communications, such as:
- Text messaging
- Instant messaging
- Web and video conferencing
- Telephones
- Customer management
- Voicemail
- Screen and file sharing
A UCaaS phone system unifies the above components. It provides a seamless experience that allows your employees to perform their job duties more efficiently and offers a superior customer service experience.
The “as a service” model allows your business to pick and choose the features that will benefit you the most—without having to pay for features you don’t need. In addition, the infrastructure is completely handled by the UCaaS provider—meaning no expensive on-site PBX servers that you’ll need to install, maintain, and upgrade.
If any technical issues arise, the provider has highly trained on-site support staff who will work to get it up and running as quickly as possible. UCaaS providers often give their customers a special app, software, or web portal to securely log in and manage their chosen components.
How Does UCaaS Solve Modern Business Problems?
Many companies rely upon a UCaaS phone system to:
- Unify existing business tools such as instant messaging, email, video conferencing, and much more.
- Significantly reduce the upfront hardware costs and eliminate maintenance costs (as they are handled by the provider)
- Eliminates the need to run additional wiring and manage expensive PBX servers
- Provides remote workers with the same powerful communication tools as their office counterparts
UCaaS in Action
Unified communications as a service take the expensive and time-consuming burden of infrastructure and maintenance and put it squarely on the plate of the provider.
This means your office won’t have to call out an expensive technician if a problem should arise. The UCaaS provider will provide you with troubleshooting advice over the phone and bear the cost themselves of any infrastructure repairs, security upgrades, or maintenance.
UCaaS uses voice over IP (VoIP) and is based in the cloud, eliminating the need for your office to install servers or equipment outside of a telephone for each desk. It should be noted that your office needs to have a reliable internet connection to take advantage of the features and benefits that UCaaS offers.
In short, UCaaS offers a very simplified way of unifying unrelated communication tools regardless of your physical location. If you have remote workers, they too can take advantage of the same benefits that your office workers have provided to connect to the cloud.
UCaaS Benefits
A UCaaS phone system will provide your business with the following benefits:
Enhanced Security
The UCaaS providers take security seriously—they have many redundant security features built into their systems to protect your business, employees, and customers.
For example, if your employees are using several unrelated communication tools, how sure are you that each installation has received the latest security patches?
Just one unsecured communication tool that hasn’t received a security update can be an entry point for hackers looking to cause trouble or steal your data.
A UCaaS system provider manages the encryption and software patches and constantly stays on top of security best practices. This will provide you with peace of mind knowing that you’re always protected.
Scale up or Scale Down
With a traditional phone system, you will most likely have to bear the cost of additional wiring and servers as your company grows. With a UCaaS provider, you can easily scale up or down with a single phone call to your provider. You won’t have to worry about equipment, installation, or your technology getting out of date.
Unify Your Communication Tools
If you don’t have a company-wide communication tool policy, your employees could be using incompatible software. This can lead to frustration when one employee tries to send another employee a file, but neither of their chosen communication tools can communicate—this situation usually resolves itself in the form of one employee downloading yet another communication tool to perform the file transfer.
A UCaaS system provides your entire workforce (office and remote workers) with standard communication tools such as instant messaging, file transfers, and email clients. This provides a unified and simplified way of getting business done without having your employees deal with software incompatibility issues.
UCaaS and What it Can Do for Your Company
A UCaaS system offers a cost-effective way of providing your workforce with the communication tools they need to perform their jobs effectively. Forgo the expensive PBX servers and associated hassles with a UCaaS phone system from NTi.
At NTi, we have over 30 years of experience providing our customers with the right business phone system for their budget. Over this time, we’ve developed long-term relationships with our customers based in part on the top-notch customer service immense value that we strive to add.