Companies are switching from traditional phone systems to cloud-based unified communications as a service (UCaaS) as a means of embracing trends in workplace communication. The 2017 State of Telecommuting in the U.S. Employee Workforce report found that 3.9 million employees are working from home half of the time. UCaaS makes it easier for workers to stay connected to other employees and for customers and clients to reach them no matter where they are.
UCaaS also enables companies to take advantage of tools for better business collaboration. Employees gain access to a whole suite of integrated services for messaging, conferencing, and document sharing. With UCaaS, employees are more productive and satisfied.
When companies switch to unified communications, they need to decide whether to go with an on-premises solution or a hosted / cloud solution. The cloud-based approach offers many economic and operational advantages over an on-premises solution.
Here are 5 reasons why your company should consider cloud-based unified communications.
1) Scalability
When your company houses a system on-site, adding users and provisioning equipment are lengthy processes. Scaling your voice system requires ordering new equipment, waiting for it to arrive, and taking the time and effort to install it. Companies that are growing quickly may find it difficult to keep up with the demands of onboarding new employees.
Like most cloud services, UCaaS is easily scalable. Additional equipment is deployed by the cloud provider. Companies can add and delete users as staffing changes. User types can also be changed as employees change positions.
2) Reduced Capital Expenses
On-site systems requires upfront payments for hardware. In contrast, UCaaS lets you buy what you need, when you need it. You may be asked to buy the phones, but in many cases those can be rented instead of purchased outrigh, leaving you with nothing more than a monthly cost that fits nicely into your operating budget.
3) Predictable Operating Expenses
When your company maintains a system on-site, operating expenses are difficult to anticipate. Hardware failure or an outage could occur at any time, throwing your team into crisis mode. Your company must absorb all the costs of the time, parts, and labor necessary to solve the problem. In contrast, your UCaaS provider is responsible for core systems which are hosted in the cloud, removing your IT staff from the burden of maintenance and upkeep.
4) Automatic Updates
Implementing an on-premesis system adds to the endless list of upgrades your IT team is responsible for tracking. UCaaS frees your IT team to attend to the strategic part of the business. The UCaaS provider is responsible for any hardware or software upgrades, which in nearly all cases are at no additional cost to you.
5) Access to Enterprise-level Resources
Some small companies may feel that UC is beyond their reach. Without UCaaS, organizations may try to piece together diverse communication tools that don’t work well together. Others may hesitate when faced with the cost of the necessary software.
Small businesses can leverage enterprise-level UC capabilities at an affordable cost. Features include find me, follow me or simultaneous ring to a mobile device, enabling support for remote workers and road warriors. Unified messaging and voicemail transcription are also huge time savers. Additionally, employees can use instant messaging, video chat, web conferencing, and file sharing to collaborate with other workers or communicate with clients.
Leveraging UCaaS to Improve Business Outcomes
Good communication is at the heart of everything you do, so it stands to reason that improving the communication tools your teams utilize will help improve their ability to get work done, faster.
FirstLight offers options for small to medium size companies with just tens or hundreds of users to large enterprises that may have tens of thousands of endpoints. Whether it’s the enterprise-level UC features of FirstLight’s cloud communications solution or the transformative benefits of a Cisco collaboration solution, FirstLight has the services that your organization needs to thrive.
What are you waiting for? Contact FirstLight by March 15th and you’ll be eligible to save up to $5,000* on a cloud-based UCaaS solution!
*credit applies to the first month of a 36-month agreement. Must reference this blog post to receive discount
