By: Theadora Cericos Malvar , Content Writer
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, UCaaS has dominated big and small workplaces. Now, businesses and corporations cannot thrive without excellent methods of communication in a distributed environment, which happens through the cloud. UCaaS is what enables business agility, continuity, and growth.
According to experts, UCaaS will be leveraged by 70% of organizations in 2023. This implies that cloud technology use will most certainly skyrocket in 2022. What trends will determine the direction UCaaS is heading today?
The Consolidation of UCaaS and (X)aaS
The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the main reasons behind the acquisition of UCaaS in today's workplaces. Businesses have learned that if an office has to close unexpectedly, they will not be able to continue operations without a digital approach to corporation interactions. Utilizing more "as a service" options and moving to the cloud provide businesses more freedom to operate in an agile manner and adapt to market demands.
UCaaS is just one of many tools that businesses will need to take into account as investments in "aaS" solutions increase. Along with Communications Platforms as a Service, Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) will be crucial for many brands. There's a fair chance we'll see more of these "aaS" areas come together in an all-in-one cloud environment, which would help brands negotiate less complicated platforms.
Better Experiences for Staff Members
Companies of different sorts were forced to give more attention to enabling and supporting their staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the sudden shift to remote and hybrid working patterns. Employees lacking access to the right resources in a relaxing, pleasant environment could produce the desired business outcomes. Brands have realized that improving staff experience will enhance customer experience and boost bottom line performance.
The future of UCaaS will focus on establishing accessible experiences for employees wherever they may work. This entails investing in new technology and enabling features like hybrid work with a UCaaS experience that is consistent for everyone.
Collaboration from One Company to Another
The early 2020s introduced a rather complex version of working, which posed different problems for businesses and corporations, including poor methods of external collaboration. This is why the modern workplace needs to leverage UCaaS, not just for employees to reach their colleagues internally but also for staff members from other business firms, partners, vendors, and stakeholders.
As 2022 continues to move ahead, businesses and corporations must consider the "guest account sprawl" in their UCaaS environments in terms of issues with compliance, security, governance, and costs. Vendors of UCaaS will increasingly need to consider allowing team members to engage with external contacts wherever they are, regardless of the gear or software they choose to use. Although interoperability is still a significant obstacle in the UCaaS market, more businesses are progressing in this direction.
Bring Your Own Carrier
Numerous industry professionals believe that workplace environments that are adaptable, flexible, and open will serve as the cornerstone of the future of UCaaS. Businesses and corporations will seek unrestricted access to the productivity tools they desire from one source and the voice connectivity they need from another. This prompted an increasing number of "Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC)" offerings.
Microsoft Teams is a well-known example of how valuable BYOC is. Microsoft Teams is one of the most widely used UCaaS platforms today, yet the Microsoft Business Phone environment is rarely chosen first by businesses seeking business voice. Voice suppliers now have the choice to collaborate with Microsoft Teams to provide customers with the best of both worlds using BYOC solutions like direct routing and Operator Connect.
Establishing Team Collaboration as a Work Hub
While the "C" in UCaaS stands for "Communications," another word businesses consider just as important is collaboration. In the era of hybrid operations, the collaboration ecosystems built within the UCaaS environment have taken center stage. Investments in UCaaS are being prioritized by businesses, allowing their teams to collaborate more effectively in a dispersed environment.
The importance of collaboration ecosystems that provide access to everything from instant messaging to file sharing and real-time whiteboarding tools will grow in the future. Vendors must also provide their clients with various options for fostering a sense of community among hybrid teams in these settings, including "Together Mode" video conferencing and clever technologies for fostering stronger employee relationships.
Personalized UC Tools
Another trend thrust into the workplace is the personalization of UC tools. This is due to the rise of hybrid work and the arrival of multiple new "employee personas." There is a chance each team member would like different things from their UCaaS space, which makes personalization another crucial element.
An example of personalization is allowing users to establish their integrations with approved apps to increase productivity or adding their to-do lists to their collaboration hub.
Giving Way to Augmented Meetings
In the context of UCaaS, "augmented" meetings can refer to several market-disrupting technologies. For instance, real-time transcription or translation of any dialogue using artificial intelligence can improve its quality. AI solutions can also aid meeting scheduling by automating time-consuming tasks like gathering and managing data.
As UCaaS environments grow increasingly innovative, augmented meetings in the space could also include a closer consideration of extended, mixed, augmented, and even virtual reality in the interactions between team members. Market leaders like Microsoft and Cisco are already experimenting with this landscape.
These trends are just the beginning of the evolution of UCaaS. From employee demands to workplace changes, numerous other elements can cause changes, not only to UCaaS and how it works, but to how we communicate with each other in the workplace.