Get the Best Value from Unified Communications Integrators

What Are Unified Communications Integrators?

Unified communications integrators can assist your business with understanding and implementing new, more robust communications infrastructures. Since it is a highly competitive industry, choosing the best one for you can be daunting. These providers usually have experience with both digital and legacy communications platforms and can help you deploy a new system with more modern features.

Gartner explains Unified Communications (UC) combine and provide multiple enterprise communications channels, such as audio, video, personal and team conferencing, voicemail and content sharing. “This can include control, management and integration of these channels. UC products and services can also be integrated with networks and systems, IT business applications and, in some cases, consumer applications and devices,” says Gartner.

It is crucial to understand what the best unified communications integrators have to offer when evaluating your options. Having a firm understanding of the various service types and best practices will be an essential first step. This post will help you compare unified communications integrators by explaining major checkpoints worth comparing between them.

Essentially your business needs reliable, secure and cost-effective communications. The key to today’s on-the-go business world is being able to connect efficiently across multiple platforms. If you want your company to win in real-time, you need unified communications integrators to do this. But how do you choose the right provider?

Related: 6 Reasons to Make the Move to a UCaaS Provider

What to Look for in Unified Communications Integrators

Recent data reveals the Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) market could reach USD 69.93 billion by 2028. The pandemic only accelerated the growth of the demand for industry leaders able to take business communications to the next level in a fast, seamless manner.

While doing your research, it is crucial to look for the following criteria in your options for unified communications integrators:

Personalization and Services

Unified communications integrators offer a wide range of capabilities. The availability of options for your UC platform is an important factor when you’re looking for the best.

You should look for packages that include as many of the following features as possible, depending on your business requirements: audio conferencing, video collaboration, desktop sharing, mobile apps, geolocation routing, web collaboration, voicemail, text and instant messaging.

You probably already use several default office platforms. The best-unified communications integrators are able to combine these solutions quickly and effectively, resulting in a more efficient and effective system.

A potential provider should also tell you how much they are investing in developing new features. Make sure they are adding new features or bringing new technologies to the market. The platform of your provider should remain dynamic, flexible and future-proof.

Compliance and Security Standards

Security and compliance are essential aspects of good unified communications integrators. Of course you must assess your internal security requirements first to consider whether or not the provider you wish to work with can meet your needs. Does it handle PCI compliance and GDPR compliance, for example?

They should also provide disaster recovery solutions embedded into their systems. Fully-integrated disaster recovery features are preferable to those add-on ones.

Flexible Cloud Types

If you are evaluating unified communications integrators, it is crucial to focus on their available cloud models.

Most UCaaS deployment models begin in the public cloud. For small and mid-sized businesses they are effortless to set up. Providers offering public cloud UC solutions will assist companies in installing these services based on usage, payment schedules and security requirements.
Larger companies benefit from the private cloud option. Prices are higher than those for public cloud services since there are extra costs associated with having a network devoted exclusively to your business. This means the UC network will not share any of your resources, and you can customize it as you see fit. UCaaS deployment in the private cloud is the right choice if a large organization wants flexibility, control, and greater bandwidth.
The best unified communications integrators offer a hybrid option. By using this UC deployment model, the business can retain some of its current communications infrastructures. In case you invested recently in a communication platform, a hybrid model might be worth looking into. The hybrid cloud approach may also be the best choice for companies with an uncertain sense of how quickly their communications will scale because it allows their business to migrate to a cloud UC at their own pace without having to move very fast.

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

High-Level Customer Support

You may be considering UC because you want to address your communications needs in one place. If you choose to run your UC operations with a provider, you should expect excellent customer service and technical support. Look for unified communications integrators who offer 24/7 assistance online, over the phone or even onsite when other options aren’t enough.

Team Onboarding and Continued Training

It is also critical to choose a provider thatoffers training for your staff. Introducing an entirely new communications system will require your team to learn how to use it properly. High-quality training is crucial for your business’s proper adoption of UC technology.

Included Maintenance

When you work with unified communications integrators, your provider will be responsible for all network maintenance and support. As your communications needs grow and change, it makes little sense to select a provider who cannot meet your requirements, especially now that UC has become a crucial issue for companies everywhere since Covid-19.

Availability Guarantee

Be sure to check the uptime history of your prospective providers’ UCaaS network. The candidates should provide documentation that demonstrates 99 percent uptime or higher.

Industry Track Record

You should determine whether the providers are long-term viable. To ensure your communications are supported now and in the future, look at how long they’ve been around and search for success stories.

Scalability

One critical factor for evaluating your chosen provider should be their ability to grow with you. Your candidate for unified communications integrators need to plan for your business needs in the future. Do they offer scalability?

Ensure your provider can support increasing or decreasing users without causing costly system changes. Be sure you check whether the cloud options they offer are flexible enough to meet changing bandwidth requirements.

Choosing Among Unified Communications Integrators

If you are considering investing in unified communications integrators, be sure to compare all the options available. The best provider is one who prioritizes your company’s best interests and fits as many of the above criteria as possible.

You should pay close attention to your company’s unique traits. There’s no guarantee a provider will please your specific needs just because they have a list with numerous features. Make sure you partner with a provider who can custom-build your network to fit your current needs and scale as you grow.

Talk to a BCM One solutions expert today to learn more about how UC can boost your business communications. We offer an expansive range of UCaaS solutions to suit your specific application demands and available budget. Get in touch now.