Why Do Companies Opt for Unified Communications in the Cloud?

Nowadays, organizations are interconnected. Therefore, they need much more of their corporate communication solutions, in addition to telephone access capabilities. To meet these demands, companies increasingly adopt collaborative communication solutions that bring together all the essential elements of business communications, including voice, messaging, videoconferencing and contact center, into a single easy-to-use solution. In this post we will discover why companies opt for unified communications in the cloud.

The ultimate goal is to allow mobile and distributed teams to communicate and collaborate in the way they choose, from any device and from anywhere. Only the cloud can meet these expectations.

At the end of 2017, the IHS Markit consultancy conducted a survey among the IT leaders of 207 North American companies in order to report on the trends and growing needs for unified communications in the cloud (UC) and collaboration between companies. According to the survey, there are three key factors that are driving the increase in the adoption of this type of solutions:

1.- Business needs

IT leaders surveyed highlighted the following as the main drivers of unified communications in companies: improving employee productivity (81%), improving response time (77%), mobility/flexibility of employees (76%), and the enhancement of competitive advantages (75%).

By providing employees with the tools that allow them to communicate more effectively, today’s UC solutions help create more efficient, agile and productive organizations. Even greater benefits can be obtained when companies integrate communication tools with their commercial applications.

And because cloud platforms offer more flexibility, companies can scale, centralize management and deploy new features, applications and integrations quickly in their organizations.

2.- Expansion of unified communications capabilities in the cloud

In the not too distant past, companies relied on UC solutions in the cloud solely for their voice and messaging capabilities. But today, video conferencing and collaboration tools have become increasingly important for companies to collaborate efficiently with colleagues, partners, suppliers and customers.

The results of the survey reveal that voice, email, messages and collaboration (in the form of video and web conferences) have been widely implemented to meet the demands of “always connected” communications.

3.- Fundamental aspects of unified communications (UC)

For companies, the most important factors in the adoption of UC in the cloud are, in this order of importance: unified messaging (80%), the integration of business applications (78%) and collaborative tools.

Historically, unified messaging only included emails and transmissions of connected voicemail messages. But business instant messaging has become a unique platform that encompasses instant messaging, chat, text messages, email and voice messages that can also be integrated into other applications in the cloud.

After unified messaging, 78% of respondents mentioned integration as a key component to link their communication tools with commercial applications. The capability to integrate unified messaging into other popular applications in the cloud streamlines workflows, reduces human error and improves efficiency throughout the company.

The third key aspect was collaboration tools, a broad category that includes instant messaging, conferences, document sharing and other capabilities.

In conclusion, the combination of these three components gives organizations a boost in consistency and productivity in their communications, both nationally and globally.