Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is a delivery model in which PBX (Private Branch Exchange) and collaboration applications and services are outsourced to a third-party provider and delivered over an IP network, typically the public Internet. It’s being driven by growing desire to eliminate onsite hardware that require maintenance contracts and ongoing management costs, as well as a great need for redundancy to mitigate costly outages. It enables a uniform telephony experience for all users, regardless of location, due to the availability of affordable bandwidth.

Communication technologies are now critical infrastructure, central to every business model.

UCaaS streamlines operations, giving IT staffs the ability to tackle once tedious tasks with the click of a button, freeing up bandwidth for higher level concerns. Sales teams are acting with more precision, since UCaaS integration with CRMs enables more efficient interactions with prospects and existing customers. ERP applications can integrate with UCaaS solutions too, so Finance spends more time atop the value ladder as well.

When voice and telephony are integrated with conferencing, email, and instant messaging, little efficiencies emerge in every interaction. Those efficiencies may seem of small import individually but ultimately translate to untold billions of dollars in value when multiplied across organizations over time.