Using UCaaS to Keep Things Running Smoothly for the Holidays
With the holidays coming, companies need to be able to have access to an easy to use and efficient communications system. UCaaS or unified communications as a service is a great option for businesses that are looking for a way to integrate phone, messaging, video, and other business-related processes. Whether you want to switch to UCaaS now or in the new year, a managed service provider like Tekscape can help you.
Most providers of UCaaS handle things like security, backend configuration, and phone functions. VoIP converts the sound over the phone and transmits it into data to a cloud-phone service provider. Generally, UCaaS strengthens VoIP without being complex about it. It also allows a company’s workforce to work remotely with apps on their computers and mobile devices. As a managed service provider of UCaaS we help manufacturers, law firms, education, and financial institutions unify their communications.
What is UCaaS?
UCaaS or unified communications as a service is a cloud delivered communications model that supports six different communication functions. These are telephony, meetings with audio, video, and web conferencing, unified messaging, instant messaging, mobility, and communications enabled business processes. UCaaS is always owned, operated, and delivered by a provider (like Tekscape).
The provider will usually deliver applications from a platform for a monthly subscription charge. If you have not tried using UCaaS, the holidays are a great time to try it. Using UCaaS for the holidays can help employees work remotely, improve the customer experience, and even help retain your workforce.
UCaaS can keep the business going from anywhere.
Employees are likely to do some traveling during the holidays and will want to stay in touch with the office. With a unified UCaaS system, employees will be able to access their email, chat, phone, and calendar from anywhere. In today’s remote work environment, UCaaS is essential for good communication and productivity. Whether your employee is sitting at an airport or at their home office, UCaaS can allow them to “have an office out of the office”.
Supporting customers during the holidays is easier with UCaaS
Using a unified communication system for customer support will provide an improved customer experience. UCaaS gives employees the ability to shorten customer response times on support tickets, which is extremely important around the holidays. It is especially useful for ecommerce businesses because it gives the employee the tools to solve problems for shoppers in real time. The easier it is to contact customer service and find a solution, the happier the customer will be.
UCaaS can help save costs going into the new year.
If your organization’s new year’s resolution is to save costs, then unified communications as a service might be the way to go. There are many ways UCaaS can lead to savings in the long run. The first way UCaaS saves costs is that there is no need for a data center to support the communication tools. It is all hosted in the vendor or MSPs data center. Costs associated with hosting a data center range often include real estate, server hardware, utilities, and on-site staffing. There are also costs associated with maintenance and business continuity planning.
UCaaS can also save on labor costs especially with the IT staff shortage at such high levels. A recent article even suggested that hiring a skilled IT engineer can cost up to $4,700. UCaaS can provide skilled engineers at no extra cost because the data center management, deployment, maintenance, integration, and training are all done externally by a managed service provider. There is no payroll cost or need to pay benefits. Another good thing about getting an MSP to manage your UCaaS is that you will have access to support 24/7 as opposed to being limited to when your internal staff is working.
UCaaS gives your internal IT staff a much-needed holiday break.
The holidays are a busy time for IT staff. They are likely preoccupied with answering tickets and preparing infrastructure for staff to leave for their holiday break. Cyber-attacks tend to also pick up around the holidays too so they may also be preoccupied with watching for cyber threats. When you implement UCaaS with a managed service provider, your internal IT team can worry more about internal systems and helping their coworkers. The MSP will provide updates, system monitoring, and application maintenance for the UCaaS infrastructure even over holiday breaks.
We hope you learned more about using UCaaS to keep things running smoothly for the holidays. If you would like more information on Unified Communications as a Service, please reach out to our support staff today. You can also read our case study on a UCaaS project with our client Crystal Run Healthcare here.
