Unified Communications Featured Article

Moving your Business to Unified Communications

By Jonathan Keane
Contributing Writer

Companies can benefit greatly from unified communications (UC) by integrating their communication tools such as VoIP, chat, telepresence, collaboration platforms, videoconferencing systems, and social media into one centralized solution. This will allow a staff member, for example, to send a message through one particular medium but enable the recipient can retrieve the message through a completely different medium, all while still using the same system.

With unified communications as a service (UCaaS), a company outsources these communication tools to an outside party, which provides these services via the cloud, in an effort cut down costs and increase efficiency.   Indeed, deploying your own UC solution on-premises can be quite costly, which is why many look to leverage hosted services through UCaaS.

GCN makes a number of recommendations for effectively moving to a UCaaS model. Firstly, establishing a strong IT team is vital for providing helpdesk support to staff throughout the company that will be using this UCaaS system.  Moreover, this team needs to be backed up by strong IT infrastructure with the necessary tools to provide the services and support required.

There will definitely be some growing pains in getting your UCaaS solution off the ground, which is why your company will need evaluate its current infrastructure. What’s working? What’s been failing? Companies should consider an audit of the agency they are working with as well the IT team that has been assembled and the staff that is using the solution. This will all work towards a the best quality of service possible.

With any enterprise communication services, you also need to consider your security options. This is especially important when sensitive information is travelling between colleagues. GCN encourages businesses to protect their communications with layer 1-7 firewalls to keep prying eyes out and detect any compromises to the system.

Finally, businesses should seek advice from industry experts and most importantly, compare the services of different agencies to not only find the best price but the best service for their specific communications needs.