Unified Communications - The what and Why

SMBs: Unified Communications, The What and Why

Unified communication (UC) solutions consolidate multiple types and channels of communication into a single solution. They’re gaining popularity with organizations of every size, allowing businesses to collaborate and communicate seamlessly. Nearly 1/3 of businesses already use unified communications, while another quarter plans to move to unified cloud communications in the next few years.

But, UC isn’t a single product or technology. It’s a suite of applications that consolidates different communication methods within an organization to streamline and enhance business operations.

And for small and mid-size organizations, UC is typically provided by a service company (like CM3) who sets up and manages the platform, so that customers are able to focus on their core business. This is known as UCaaS.

What Are Unified Communications?

UC refers to the integration of communication services, such as instant messaging, voice calling, video conferencing, desktop sharing, data sharing, call management, and speech recognition. It brings all these disparate systems together and enables them to synchronize, providing a consistent and unified interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types. It leverages the internet to ensure consistent calling, texting, video conferencing, and data, regardless of location.

6 Features of UC Solutions

UC solutions are customizable and packed with various features that enhance business communication and collaboration. These include:

  1. Presence Information: This feature allows users to see the availability status of other team members, fostering efficient communication and collaboration.
  2. Instant Messaging: Real-time chat functionality enables swift and direct interactions between team members.
  3. Voice Call: High-quality voice call capabilities ensure clear and effective verbal communication between internal teams and external customers.
  4. Video Conferencing: This feature facilitates face-to-face interaction, enhancing clarity and understanding in communication.
  5. Screen Sharing: This allows team members to share their screens during meetings or presentations, promoting better collaboration and understanding.
  6. Unified Messaging: This integrates different messaging systems, such as email, SMS, fax, voicemail, and more, into one common platform.

The Role of UC in Communication and Collaboration

UC solutions play a pivotal role in enhancing business communication and collaboration. They eliminate the need for multiple platforms, reducing complexity and fostering efficiency by integrating several channels. UC solutions enable real-time communication, promoting swift decision-making and problem-solving to improve productivity and operational efficiency. And since UC uses the cloud, it can facilitate remote work, allowing team members to collaborate effectively, regardless of location.

4 Benefits of UCaaS

UCaaS is a service offered by companies like CM3. The benefit is that customers receive a suite of communication applications and services that are implemented and managed for them. UCaaS provides integrated, real-time services, such as voice calling, video conferencing, instant messaging, and traditional communication services like voicemail, email, and fax over an IP network. The benefits of UCaaS include:

  1. Scalability: A feature that allows businesses to easily adjust their communication capacity to fit their evolving needs.
  2. Flexibility: It enables distributed remote employees to communicate and collaborate from anywhere with a stable internet connection.
  3. Cost-Efficiency: UCaaS reduces costs by eliminating the need for businesses to invest in, maintain, and upgrade their physical communication infrastructure.
  4. Reliability: Business continuity is easily achieved as the cloud-based model provides robust disaster recovery options, such as redundant routing and remote capabilities when employees must transition to a remote office environment.

Reach out to CM3 for help with implementing UCaas in your organization.