Digital transformation is no longer a buzzword in the business environment, it’s a strategic imperative for any organization hoping to compete in an ever-changing market. For many companies, the shift to a more agile, innovative, and scalable technology landscape starts with the cloud.

Cloud technologies and platforms, offered via an “as-a-service” model, provide companies with more control and freedom over the technologies they embrace. This innovative solution can help to minimize operating costs, improve productivity, and even unlock new opportunities in a world of changing customer and employee expectations.

Since effective communication is crucial to any business, UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) and CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) solutions have become popular parts of many business transformation strategies.

And thanks to the inherently mobile nature of the cloud, these communications, collaboration, and customer care solutions are available via a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone from wherever work happens.

However, in the past, many organizations have adopted these technologies separately, creating siloed environments for internal employees and customer-facing teams. For true innovation, it’s time to embrace an integrated approach.

UCaaS vs CCaaS, Compared to UCaaS & CCaaS

Alone, both UCaaS and CCaaS platforms deliver incredible benefits to businesses looking to streamline and enhance internal operations. Unified Communications as a Service allows organizations to align their internal communications strategy in a single platform.

Business employees can access all the tools they need for video, voice, messaging, presence, and more in one environment, allowing for exceptional productivity.

Alternatively, CCaaS solutions unify similar cloud communication tools into a platform designed for customer service. With CCaaS systems, companies can connect with clients, external partners and more, through a range of channels, while accessing various reporting and management tools.

Unfortunately, the traditional approach of keeping these two environments separate can create unnecessary inefficiencies, from data silos between departments, to diminished collaboration. That’s why innovative vendors are beginning to introduce “all-in-one” UCaaS and CCaaS alternatives.

The Benefits of UCaaS + CCaaS

At its heart, a combined UCaaS and CCaaS solution gives businesses an exceptional opportunity to synchronize their teams. In today’s workplace, ensuring consistent collaboration between all team members is crucial to delivering exceptional service, and boosting productivity.

With a combined UCaaS and CCaaS service, customer-facing employees can rapidly access the assistance of subject matter experts, without having to move into a different app or platform. At the same time, all employees can access a unified environment for insights into business resources, data, and customer personas.

With a UCaaS + CCaaS solution, businesses can:

1. Upgrade Customer Experiences

Today’s customers demand fast, efficient, and personalized service, delivered through a variety of channels. For agents to deliver excellent, knowledgeable service, they often need access to support from decision makers and subject matter experts.

A unified UCaaS + CCaaS offering makes it easy for service agents to seamlessly switch from their CCaaS customer service environment and connect with the specialists they need through the employee communication and collaboration channels in their UCaaS solution. This integrated UCaaS + CCaaS application ensures they can rapidly respond to customer queries and concerns, without having to leave one application for the next or clients on hold for long periods.

Many solutions can even provide direct access to AI tools, and CRM integrations, ensuring every employee can optimize the experience for the needs of specific customers.

2. Enhancing Performance and Productivity

In an environment where CCaaS and UCaaS solutions are separate, customer service agents need to abandon their contact center dashboard to solve problems in other tools. This not only leads to disruptions in productivity, but it also makes data silos more common.

Combining UCaaS and CCaaS paves the way to greater productivity, by reducing the number of applications and tools employees need to navigate every day. At the same time, it ensures companies can collect data about the customer journey and employee performance on a comprehensive level.

This end-to-end visibility into all aspects of the communication stack allows businesses to make more informed decisions about how to improve efficiency, cost savings, and customer experience.

3. Cost Savings and Increased Revenue

Every business wants to find ways to boost revenue, while minimizing costs. This is particularly true in today’s complex economy, where operational costs are constantly increasing.

With a unified solution, you can minimize the expenses of having to work with different providers, and the headaches of multiple support numbers and bills. At the same time, you boost your chances of making additional revenue because employees are more productive, and more capable of delivering exceptional service.

Some studies indicate that companies can achieve up to 28% higher revenue when they integrate UCaaS and CCaaS, rather than using separate providers. Plus, the monthly costs for technology to support each employee falls by 22%.

4. Rapid Innovation and Scalability

Both UCaaS and CCaaS solutions are excellent for giving companies quick access to innovative tools, without the need for huge initial investments. However, when these technologies are combined, your company’s ability to quickly innovate and scale grows.

With a comprehensive view into your communication stack, you can make intelligent decisions about where to implement new solutions, from AI assistants to automated workflows. Many UCaaS and CCaaS providers even ensure companies can rapidly add new features and integrations to their toolkit with nothing but a couple of clicks.

For more information about Intermedia’s services, click here, or watch this useful video which gives an overview of Intermedia Unite and Contact Centre.

How to Combine UCaaS and CCaaS

Combining UCaaS and CCaaS effectively doesn’t just mean ensuring you can access information from your contact center in your UC solution, and vice versa. Some organizations claim to offer a combined solution, but really offer a patchwork system of integrations.

To unlock the true benefits of combined UCaaS and CCaaS, businesses need a comprehensive tool. Solutions like Intermedia Unite natively integrate critical contact center capabilities and unified communication tools, into a comprehensive, all-in-one, highly reliable, secure, and cost-effective ecosystem.



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