UCaaS vs. CCaaS: Do You Need Them?

UCaaS vs. CCaaS: What Does Each One Do?

Before evaluating UCaaS vs. CCaaS, it’s essential to review their basic definitions and functionalities. The main difference between UCaaS and CCaaS is that UCaaS improves and facilitates overall communication and collaboration, while CCaaS focuses on increasing customer satisfaction and optimizing the customer experience.

UCaaS

UC, which stands for Unified Communications, offers a variety of enterprise communication channels, including voice, video, personal and team conferencing, and voicemail. As a result, the companies that offer these bundled services are UCaaS (UC as a Service) providers. McKinsey has written a study that highlights the importance of these technologies following the pandemic:

Since the crisis, more than 80% of business interactions with customers are now digital.
When asked why digital transformation was not a top business priority before the pandemic, only 50% of respondents said it wasn’t a priority.
Almost 30% of B2B respondents cite customer resistance to change as their main reason for delaying change, compared to only 24% in consumer-facing industries.
In industries and countries worldwide, respondents indicated a significant increase in remote work, a shift in customer preferences toward health and hygiene concerns, and a choice for remote communication.
70% of the respondents said remote working would remain the most common change as the pandemic passes.

It is possible that if your company resonates with any of the above statistics, you are already leaning towards the need for UCaaS vs. CCaaS. Now let’s review this second option in more detail.

CCaaS

CCaaS stands for Contact Center as a Service. It is best understood and defined as a cloud-based software solution for inbound and outbound teams to improve the overall customer experience.

Its primary purpose is to route contacts from all communication channels with the help of a software application. Contact center software as a service is developed and maintained by external vendors, which speaks to the “as a service” part of the definition. In short, CCaaS is a cloud-based phone system that allows users to make phone calls via the Internet. Contact centers have been revolutionizing their customer service with this approach.

Unless your company is a contact center, the best approach for organizations in other industries is to use UCaaS vs. CCaaS. UC will allow for more comprehensive solutions in different communications areas. The key is finding the right provider, which you can review in the following section.

Related: Get the Best Value from Unified Communications Integrators

Checklist to Compare UCaaS Providers

Now that you’ve seen past the dilemma of choosing between UCaaS vs. CCaaS, it’s time to acknowledge that your business needs seamless, secure and cost-effective communications across the board. In today’s on-the-go business world, you need to efficiently connect multiple platforms. By implementing UCaaS, your company will be able to compete in a fast-changing communications environment in real-time.

Gartner explains UCaaS supports six communications functions:

Enterprise telephony
Meetings (audio/video/web conferencing)
Unified messaging
Instant messaging and presence (personal and team)
Mobility
Communications-enabled business processes

It’s important to know what your best UCaaS provider can offer when evaluating your UCaaS options. Before deploying this cloud-based model, you will want to become well acquainted with best practices and the types of services available to you.

Cloud type

Consider the cloud models UCaaS providers offer when choosing a partner. Deployment models include public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud. The best UCaaS providers deploy a hybrid option, although they all offer different advantages.

Companies can keep some of their existing communications infrastructures when implementing hybrid UC deployment models. The hybrid model is worth considering when you recently invested in a communications platform. If your company is not sure at what pace its communications will scale. This approach could be the best choice because it allows a company to transition to a full cloud UC model at its own pace.

Your UCaaS provider will help you choose the more appropriate model for your company’s unique requirements.

Related: Unified Communications vs. VoIP: Which Is Best?

Long-term viability, support, and uptime

UCaaS lets you integrate your communications needs into a single platform. You should choose a provider that offers excellent customer service and technical support. The best providers offer 24/7 support via phone, online, and even in person.

Additionally, you should choose a company that offers team training. Your staff will have to learn how to use and maintain a new communications system. You need to invest in high-quality training as your business adopts UC technology.

UCaaS solutions that a leading provider manages include network support and maintenance. Furthermore, check UCaaS providers’ uptime history. Be sure that candidates have documentation demonstrating an uptime of at least 99%.

You should also evaluate providers for their long-term viability. Ensure the company has been around for a long time to continue supporting your communications for years to come.

In light of COVID-19 making unified communications a more critical issue for all companies, picking a UCaaS provider that cannot guide you as your communications need to change and grow is a poor choice.

Scalability

An important consideration when evaluating providers should be their ability to grow with your business. Your UCaaS provider must consider your future needs. Make sure their platform can scale quickly.

Verify that your chosen provider can accommodate increases or decreases in users without requiring costly changes to the system. Additionally, check whether the cloud options they offer will accommodate changes in your bandwidth requirements.

Admin dashboards from top providers will let you control the permissions and access of your users instead of having to depend on the provider to do so.

Security

A high level of security and compliance are critical components of a solid UCaaS solution. Of course, you must determine your own security requirements and make sure the provider you are interested in can accommodate your needs. If your business requires local data centers, make sure they are available.

Providers with embedded disaster recovery are the best choices. If disaster recovery is fully integrated, it is better than an add-on.

Personalization and features

Many UCaaS providers offer a range of different features, but if you want the best one, you should opt for a platform with several options. A comprehensive suite of features should deliver audio conferencing, video collaboration, desktop sharing, mobile apps, text and instant messaging, among others.

Several of these are fairly standard, but third-party integration is something you should strongly consider. Many of these traditional platforms are already in use in your organization. These systems can integrate into the UCaaS solution quickly and efficiently by the best UCaaS providers.

A potential provider should also tell you how they plan to develop new features. Find out if they are implementing disruptive technologies and capabilities and how often. Ideally, your provider will keep their platform as modern as possible and forward-looking.

Now that you’re done comparing UCaaS vs. CCaaS, an expert at BCM One can demonstrate they are a provider that checks all the UC boxes. View our range of UCaaS solutions suited to your application requirements and budget to learn how UC can enhance your business communications. Contact us today.