The hybrid workplace is officially here. Paving the way to a new era of work/life balance and flexibility, hybrid work promises employees and team leaders a better level of productivity. With the perfect blend of in-person and remote working models, employers can keep staff members happy and satisfied without having to compromise on efficiency or output levels.  

Of course, to unlock all the benefits of hybrid work, you’re going to need the right technology. Among the most important investments for any modern workforce is a UCaaS solution. Unified Communications as a Service is a foundational service for ensuring success in the hybrid workforce. 

With UCaaS, businesses can enable and empower employees wherever they might be, offering access to cloud-based technology staff can tap into anywhere.  

So, how do you choose a UCaaS provider well-suited to enhancing your hybrid work landscape? 

What to Look for When Comparing UCaaS Vendors

All UCaaS vendors should have certain benefits to offer.  

For instance, the best UCaaS providers will always offer scalable, flexible technology which can adapt according to your company’s specific communication needs. UCaaS is designed to be as flexible and versatile as possible, and it generally includes not just telephony support, but tools for collaboration, video, and analytics too.  

Here are some points to focus on when you’re comparing your options.  

Bundled Services 

Bundling services is commonplace in the UCaaS environment today. After all, unified communications are all about bringing technology together to minimise cost and improve productivity. The right UCaaS solution for you should bundle all the right tech together, including: 

  • Full telephony services: Telephony solutions like call management, recording, and quality management are all essential in any UCaaS solution. Make sure that your provider can offer the unified communications basics you need.
  • Contact centres: Many UCaaS solutions are now coming bundled with contact centre, or CCaaS technology, to help connect multiple parts of the communication environment as effectively as possible 
  • Collaboration and Meetings: Your UCaaS offering will often come bundled with meeting tools. These are essential for keeping hybrid teams connected. Look for something which supports real-time calls and conferencing, video, and chat

As hybrid teams continue to spread around the world, the UCaaS service that’s best for you will often be the one most capable of bringing your teams together through perfectly aligned information, services, and functionality.  

APIs and Integrations 

To take your UCaaS experience even further, you might decide to look for custom integrations and additions to your service. The leading companies in the UCaaS environment today will offer a host of ways to transform your UCaaS environment, with APIs and CPaaS connections customised to suit you. CPaaS solutions even allow you to embed calling, meetings and messaging into other apps. 

Most UCaaS solution providers will come with their own native integrations, add-ons, and extension to support the hybrid workforce. However, many will also allow you to request your own integrations too. If you have specific requirements for your UCaaS environment, make sure your vendor can offer the integrations and extras you need.  

If the environment you’re embracing isn’t “open” enough, then you may need to deal with extra expenses, like getting an advanced developer involved.  

Ease of Use 

When comparing your options for UCaaS, it’s important to think about how easy your tools are going to be to implement, provision, and use. Ideally, your UCaaS offering will come with zero-touch provisioning and remote management tools, so your IT teams and supervisors can keep on top of the technology wherever they are.  

Provisioning new solutions to your employees should be as simple as pressing a few buttons, thanks to the flexibility of the cloud. It’s also worth looking at how easy it is for your employees to access things like telephony solutions, meeting services, and more. Your hybrid employees won’t always have access to a direct source of assistance when they’re using your UCaaS system.  

Compare providers based on the ease-of-use they can promise for your hybrid team and pay attention to how much training and guidance they can provide if your team has any issues.  

Global Support 

As the hybrid workforce becomes more common, it’s increasingly likely that companies will begin to hire staff members around the world and allow their teams to move freely too. With that in mind, it’s worth looking for a UCaaS provider who can support your needs all over the world.  

A UCaaS company with a global presence should be able to deliver excellent speed, reliability, and performance in locations across the globe. This means your team members can continue to access strong performance features, regardless of where they might be.  

When examining UCaaS vendors, don’t just look at the support and uptime they can offer, but the kind of uptime they can deliver around the globe. 99% uptime or better is great, but it’s even more effective if your provider is available in the locations that suit you.  

Analytics and Insights 

Today’s teams moving into the hybrid environment are treading new territory. Although we’ve begun to get a feel for what we need for solutions to be effective in this new world, it’s likely that more adaptations and changes will be necessary for the years to come. After installation, it’s important to ensure you can collect as much information about the success of your technology as possible.  

Make sure that your provider can give you insights into everything from your number of connected calls, to how your employees are using meeting and collaboration tools. The more information you can collect, the easier it will be to make important decisions in the years to come.   

You may need to look into third-party add-ons and tools to add further analytics and insights into the mix. Think about the kind of information you’ll need to collect when looking for the ideal vendor.  

Comparing UCaaS Offerings 

Finally, remember that with people working for your team from all over the cloud, you’ll need to focus more than ever on keeping your tools secure and compliant. Make sure any technology you purchase comes with the right solutions in place to keep your team secure. Think about things like GDPR compliance, and how you can make sure you’re ready for any industry demands.  

 

 



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