8 Key Benefits of Unified Communications for Business

In today’s decentralised world, businesses must communicate with customers and employees efficiently, seamlessly, and quickly. However, most business owners cite a lack of collaboration or ineffective communication, which is usually the main reason for failure. Unified Communications becomes the solution and top priority for overcoming this challenge.

According to statistics, the size of the global unified communications and collaboration market has grown rapidly in recent years. The UC market grew by almost 30% in 2020 compared to 2019, reaching 47.2 billion dollars, and in the next few years, the industry will grow to more than 50 billion dollars.

So, digital transformation has led to a rapid boost in the number of unified communications approaches and solutions, but what exactly does UC stand for? What are the key features and unified communications advantages for business? Keep reading to find out this and more.

What is Unified Communications?

Unified Communications (UC) is the integration of a business communications system that unifies various systems, tools, technologies, and forms of communication to work together in one solution and one unified environment. As a rule, this is a system of several products combined into a single interface, which allows the user to stay in touch at any time using any device.

Top Features of Unified Communications

UC implements the principle of interaction using any means of communication, regardless of the currently available communication environment. Unified communications systems are based on some key technologies, components, and features.

Call Management

When choosing a UC solution, enterprises should consider advanced call management features. A UC environment must provide multiple call centre opportunities in one place (CRM merging, click-to-dial, forwarding, recording, call logging, missed call notifications, and more). This helps to ensure that all the data can always be accessed from one place.

When looking for a call management service provider, consider experience and longevity in the market, reliability and reputation, pricing and payment flexibility, call management integrations with CRM software, marketing automation platforms, and so on.

Instant Messaging

Instant messaging is by far the most in-demand form of communication for today’s users, who communicate primarily through popular apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Chat. The prevalence of this type of communication is due to the satisfaction of people’s desire for speed, simplicity, and familiarity.

The role of instant messaging in modern communications will continue to grow exponentially, so choosing a UC solution that includes it now is a good investment for the future.

Unified Messaging

Unified messaging combines all forms of messaging in one environment and stands for an integration of different electronic messaging methods into one interface. The main goal of this approach is to simplify all communication processes significantly, which is exactly what businesses are striving for in terms of unified communications.

The unified messaging feature allows users to save time by accessing text messages or voice mail, photo or video content, e-mail or other data from one source. The main benefits of a robust UM solution are enhanced performance and reduced costs.

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing is a valuable aspect that plays an important role when selecting unified communications solutions. It represents a new method of communication that allows teams to stay connected while working remotely, and it can save businesses time and money.

The video conferencing feature in unified communications allows users to hold meetings from anywhere at the touch of a button, completely transforming  regular team meetings, job interviews, general meetings, and all other types of business communications.

Cloud Deployment

Unified Communications enables businesses to deploy a solution through the cloud, where it is stored and maintained in ultra-secure modern data centres that can be reached from any device and from any location with network access.

This unified communications feature is implemented through the public cloud, private cloud (used by one company), community cloud (shared by multiple companies), and hybrid cloud (combining all options in one model).

Team Collaboration Tools

Remote work is gaining more and more popularity, and bridging the physical gap between remote employees and office team members is a key challenge for businesses. Collaboration tools allow smooth and seamless communication between virtual teams to complete tasks and meet goals.

The key trends in Unified Communications are the reduction in the number of software solutions in favour of collaboration tools on a single platform, plug-and-play suites for video conferencing, and video-based communication.

BYOD Support

When choosing a unified communications solution, it is important to pay attention to bring-your-own-device support. This strategy enhances user mobility, improves collaboration, and cuts costs.

The main problem with the BYOD concept is that the contacts of your clients remain with your sales agents, and if the agent leaves your company, you can lose the client. However, a properly implemented UC solution allows businesses to mitigate this risk with call forwarding.

8 Business Benefits of Unified Communications

UC solution is a win-win strategy for any business that is advantageous and profitable in many ways. So, what are the benefits of Unified Communications?

Boosted Productivity

Improved performance is one of the key business advantages of Unified Communications, which means faster connection, reduced response time, automation of repetitive tasks, instant troubleshooting, and more. UC technologies make it easy to switch between text messages, video calls, or voice calling, making workflows faster and more efficient. The main thing achieved is real-time communication and instant information about colleagues' availability through presence statuses. All this leads to facilitating communication between employees and increasing teamwork efficiency.

Reduced Costs

The UC solution is inherently cost-saving, which comes from consolidating the cost of various communication channels into one environment and one bill. Businesses receive significant savings when implementing this system: reduced travel costs (employees can stay in touch anywhere, anytime, and on any device), reduced equipment and maintenance expenses (companies can eliminate the need for numerous machines and equipment), reduced IT budget (the tasks of in-house IT staff are solved by external providers), and minimised scalability costs.

Seamless Team Collaboration

One of the most obvious unified communications benefits for business is the persistent multi-channel nature, which means that collaboration between colleagues becomes easier and less cluttered. Efficient real-time communication, one-pane accessibility of information, online changes, team chats, desktop sharing, simplified coordination of actions, and so on make team collaboration seamless and smooth.

Advanced Customer Experience

A well-implemented UC environment delivers the best user experience and offers innovative ways for customers to interact with your business. Among advanced tools that improve the customer experience are interactive voice response systems, multi-channel service solutions, powerful business intelligence, and more. All these are the undoubted benefits of using Unified Communications that allow the company to monitor and adapt the UX, which means applying an individual approach and satisfying the needs of each user.

Enhanced Security

Implementing modern unified communications is inextricably linked to increased security and regulatory compliance. These systems from market-leading vendors include advanced security, encryption levels, strong administrative controls, permissions, security standards, advanced authentication methods, and more. UC integration simplifies the enforcement of security policies across all communication channels and enables real-time monitoring of security issues and immediate remediation of threats.

Connecting Remote Employees

Unified Communications allows team members to work from anywhere, which fully satisfies the trend towards remote work worldwide. UC provides mobility of collaboration and flexibility of communication, as well as guarantees absolute data security and eliminates the need to use a specific device or be in a specific location. Unified Communications supports a decentralised workplace and allows remote employees to communicate in the way they prefer.

Flexibility in the Cloud

Another feature that stands out among the business benefits of unified communications is flexibility. This system allows you to easily scale your workflow as business requirements change without excessive costs. The UC implementation reduces the necessary local equipment, which frees up physical space and other resources.

Increased Efficiency with AI

One of the most subtle advantages of Unified Communications comes from artificial intelligence technology. AI completely transforms the standard UC solution, bringing automation, machine learning, and natural language processing possibilities. All this increases communication effectiveness and automates workflows, allowing employees to concentrate more on the connection within the team. Some of the best AI features in UC include real-time meeting transcription, chatbot scheduling, and more.

How to get the most out of the UC solution?

We know how to provide advanced real-time multi-channel communication and effective team collaboration. Reach out to UCtel and bring your business into the digital age. 

Consider UCtel Your Trusted Partner

UCtel is a professional and market-leading British provider of next-generation unified communications and advanced digital experience for businesses around the world. Our top-notch UC solutions completely transform the digital environment of business, reform communications, and implement a unified system, allowing companies to make faster decisions and more flexible transactions. 

Our unified communications services take your digital connectivity to the next level and keep you in touch anytime and anywhere. Reach out to us right now and experience all the benefits of having Unified Communications with UCtel.