Blog: Stop the Premise Insanity
The numbers don’t lie: Multiple analyst estimates show that about 70% of businesses are using some sort of cloud communications, but only 30% to 40% are using cloud for full capabilities – phone, video messaging & contact center.
UCaaS has many benefits, but this means that the vast majority of current cloud users are only getting a portion of the value – usually just video meetings or messaging. In most cases, they’re paying for Zoom, Webex or Microsoft Teams for video meetings but still using a legacy phone system for corporate communications (continuing to also pay for support, managed services, carrier services, etc.)
Why?
The simple answer is that the current setup works – there’s been no compelling reason to fully adopt a full UCaaS suite. Instead, they’ve been plugging the functionality gaps by providing employees with paid cell phone plans, separately subscribing to the video/messaging tools and continuing to maintain and upgrade existing PBX, call center, call recording, workforce management and IVR systems.
Seriously, does this make sense?
We used to call this “masters of complexity” because you deploy all these siloed apps separately over time to address individual requirements as they come up – then build out separate support and administrative expertise to keep things running. Next, money is continually spent on professional services every year to keep each system up to date, not to mention the periodic server and database replacements that need to happen. Don’t forget the nights and weekends that staff need to sacrifice in order to perform those upgrades and replacements.
It can be ugly (and expensive).
It may work, but at what cost? If you add up the time, effort and money on each of the siloed systems it’s likely costing much more than a modern, cloud application that delivers all the current capabilities – plus adding much, much more.
There’s a better way. What are some of the Benefits to UCaaS & CCaaS?
Modern, cloud-based communication tools like Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) offer a single, unified app that delivers phone, video, messaging and contact center (plus texting, fax and document collaboration) in a unified tool that is accessible anytime, anywhere.
You no longer need to pay for employee cell phone plans because cloud delivers a secure, reliable app that allows employee access through a single number for office, mobile, text and fax. Yes – if desired each employee gets their own personal business number, without requiring clients to dial an extension in a touch-tone interface.
AI is built in.
- Each call, meeting and message can be transcribed (and recorded) and AI will create a synopsis of the meeting, along with a list of tasks (with assigned owners).
- AI builds a shared workspace to manage those tasks to completion.
- AI will also automatically summarize messages to save time (even email) and create a recommended response to those messages.
Security? Reliability? Quality of Service? All are better than legacy premise systems, and cloud is actively managed by the provider. The provider is held to a financially-backed Service Level Agreement, so there’s assurance that they have to stay current with compliance and standards.
More? Definitely. Cloud is always current because they include upgrades and new capabilities as part of their service. If there’s a new function you need, the options can be inexpensively added and quickly adopted.
Why wait? The old way is costing way more and delivering less.
Ready to simplify your communications and cut costs? Let’s talk about how cloud communications can work for your business today.