As per Fortune Business insights study in 2019, the unified communication as a service (UCaaS) market was valued at $18.13 billion and is expected to touch $36.45 billion by 2026.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are primarily driving the cloud-based unified communications-as-a-service sector. The technology is helping SMEs reduce capital costs, and travel time and is also helping them simplify the hiring and training process, plus it offers continuous service support and customer interactions.
Also, the adoption of mobility and BYOD services is boosting the growth of this sector.
So, if you are still thinking, whether or not to opt for UCaaS or not, peruse these three valid reasons why businesses should switch from premise-based UC to cloud-based UC without much ado.
Here are 3 credible reasons why businesses should switch from premise-based UC to cloud-based UC.
#1. UCaaS Cuts Overhead Costs
Businesses are opting for cloud-based unified communications mainly because they offer significant cost savings.
Without UC, companies will have to have separate budgets for voice, video, chat, conferencing, and more. In some cases, every department has to have their own budgets, which could make the cost of communication too much to manage.
With cloud-based UC, the hardware costs are borne by the provider, which automatically brings down the equipment costs, security, support, maintenance cost, and so much more, thereby allowing businesses to focus on growth pursuits. Costs are calculated in a straightforward manner and so analyzing ROI is also much, much easier.
Cost Comparisons of On-Premise UC, Public cloud solution and Private cloud
On-premise UC: You need to shell out between $70,000-$90,0000 for hardware/infrastructure, software licenses, endpoints, and installation/deployment support.
Public cloud solution: In most cases, the upfront costs are just $0.
Private cloud/ Hybrid cloud solution: Highly variable and vendor dependent. Most providers are doing their best to minimize costs.
UCaaS is billed monthly. If your organization has 50 employees, however, only 25 are using phone lines, you pay only for 25 users. Also, it depends on the type of service each user needs, whether it’s basic, standard or premium features
UCaaS User Categories
The basic category offers call forwarding, call transfer, intercept, directory, location, voice messaging, video, voice messaging.
Standard category, besides offering basic features, also provides anonymous call rejection, automatic call back, call me now, do not disturb, group forwarding, group paging, shared call appearance.
Premium category, besides basic and standard category features, offers automatic hold, BroadWorks Anywhere, Call Notify, Executive features, Executive Assistant features, instant call group, location-based call restriction, Outlook integration, push to talk, remote office, voice portal calling among others.
The demand for UCaaS will be highly variable as businesses will have to choose a mixture of different categories depending on their requirements. Employees in leadership positions, such as the sales staff, may require premium features. In contrast, the normal staff that mostly holds internal communications with co-workers will need just the basic stuff. Remote working teams and contract-based employees will have different requirements. However, the cost will be in direct proportion to the UC licenses in use, as the hosted model would offer a budgeting certainty that premise-based UC won’t be contributing.
#2. UCaaS Supports Remote Workforce
A study covered in Harvard Business Review, How to raise productivity and let your employees work from home, revealed that in comparison to the employees who came into the office, the at-home workers were much happier, were more productive, and were less likely to quit.
Like it or not, most people these days would prefer doing jobs in their pajamas. And there’s no stopping this trend because companies have started realizing that employees can be more productive while working from home as well. Also, it helps them curtail overhead expenses, both in terms of labor and office space.
More than anything, the trend is picking up because it is in keeping with the lifestyle demands of millennials that form a considerable part of today’s workforce. Almost 50% of the current workforce comprises millennials who demand work-life balance.
This is where UcaaS comes to your rescue. Combined with common tools and common interface for sharing information, this top-notch collaboration software help employees collaborate effectively, irrespective of the dwelling place of the employee. Checkout Rainbow Video to gain a better idea as to how collaboration software could work for you.
#3. Easy Future Upgradations
It goes without saying that when it comes to investing large sums of money on on-premises types of equipment, companies are not really happy. For one, these equipment become outdated in no time. Sure, there will be software updates and all, but then outdated equipment isn’t of much help. And given the investment made, companies tend to keep them longer than the ideal time.
However, just like other kinds of as-a-service offerings, UcaaS makes sure that subscribers will never have to worry about technology up gradations; because it’s the UCaaS provider’s job to buy the latest equipment on your behalf and update them consistently.
Long story short, promise yourself to stay away from legacy equipment and instead take advantage of UC in the cloud. There are some fantastic solutions out there that make the transition from on-premise to cloud-based UC super easy.
Tips for implementing UCaaS at your company
- When external communications start growing in your company, start looking for the right UcaaS solutions.
- UC is reliable and scalable and has proved to be safer compared to other intranet solutions
- More than putting all communication channels under one platform, UC also enables to analyze communications and supervise users.