The Future of Unified Communications

Gartner, in its report, Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, Worldwide defines unified communications as a service (UCaaS) as offering the same services as premise-based unified communications — namely, services that facilitate the interactive use of multiple enterprise communications methods — but via cloud service delivery. UCaaS includes voice, conferencing, messaging, presence and collaboration tools. Communication and collaboration applications and services are outsourced to a third-party provider and delivered over an IP network, generally, the public Internet.

UCaaS can be delivered to customers in a hosted architecture in which each enterprise is provided its own dedicated networking capacity and physical infrastructure to run their UC applications. UCaaS may also be delivered as a multi-tenant platform with several enterprises sharing compute capacity, networking resources and even UC application instances with other customers.

The chief driver for a company in selecting UCaaS, regardless of size, is collaboration. Other factors include dispersed locations, mobile or home workers, a global presence as related to the ability to access services regardless of location, 24/7 support and unified billing. UCaaS also enables greater flexibility and scalability as users and applications are added. Because UCaaS is, by definition, cloud-based, it also provides back-up and business continuity in the event of a disaster. 

BridgeVoice’s UCaaS is an integrated system of real time communications, including IP and voice telephony, instant messaging, data sharing, video conferencing, call control, SMS, voicemail and more. Unified communications and collaboration enable businesses to use professional communications services independently of the device they are using or network they are connected to. BridgeVoice offers unified communications as a service as a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) service, and partners with other local operators or service providers with local presence in specific countries. BridgeVoice provides end-to-end unified communications services through its own network and in-house developed technology, enabling service providers to offer the service without making CapEx investments and with minimal OpEx.

For enterprise customers, given the entry of younger, millennial workers who are tech-savvy and have multiple devices, unified communications provide the desired mobility, integrated applications and focus on messaging rather than voice services that the younger and future workforce requests. With unified communications, businesses may experience faster problem solving and decision making due to improved collaboration and enhanced communication between dispersed workforces.