Unified Communications Is Changing How We Work

By the DynaSis Team

Unified communications―a service found in many VoIP phone solutions that extends communication by incorporating location, availability and notification―is changing the way companies and their personnel do business. For example, no longer are customers forced to leave a message at 4:55 pm on Friday and wait for a call back on Monday, merely because their representative happened to be down the hall or out of the office.

Now, phone systems can find the representative, notify him or her, transfer the call to another device or location, and perform many other connectivity functions without any operator interaction. These systems are often called Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), because that is exactly what they are―a technology service, usually cloud-based, that works with the underlying VoIP hardware to achieve greater functionality.

UCaaS dovetails perfectly with the “always on” nature of business communications today, where personnel can be available via smartphone, tablet, laptop or other device, in any location. UCaaS is also a key component of customer service, as the technology does more than locate and notify a specific person; it also can connect a caller to any employee that matches a specific profile, for example, to connect a caller with a salesperson.

In 2015, we expect to see even more development in UCaaS, with such innovations as web-based, real-time communications (WebRTC) being used to unify communications even further. Already, workers are using their mobile devices to take and share on-the-fly videos with other staff, vendors and customers. When these solutions are built into a UCaaS platform, it extends business functionality and customer service even further.

According to Nemertes Research, 68% of all companies have implemented at least one cloud-based UCaaS solution. With customers expecting more connectivity and faster response times, and VoIP and UCaaS solutions becoming more affordable than ever, firms that remain fixed on legacy telephone systems risk losing their competitive edge. To learn more about VoIP or UCaaS, we invite you to give us a call.