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For years, we’ve known that unified communications can streamline business operations and boost employee productivity. Now, we’re discovering that taking those communications tools onto the cloud also means that organizations can access better agility and cost efficiency too.

Around 88% of UK businesses say that they’re active on the cloud today. In a world where “as a service” continue to grow, this passion for the cloud is set to continue.

So, what are the biggest benefits of launching your own cloud unified communications strategy?

Looking to learn more? Check out our latest episode of Tech Chat, in which Martin Kuppinger, Founder and Principal Analyst at KuppingerCole, explains how to balance the Cloud Hybrid reality

Reduce Operating Costs

Finally, the cloud has always been renowned for its cost-saving benefits. Those efficiencies also apply to the world of communications. When you remove your dependence on expensive hardware and ongoing maintenance costs, you free up more budget for investment elsewhere. As-a-service solutions allow companies to access the tools that they need on a pay-as-you basis.

What's more, on the cloud, you can build the service that best suits you. For instance, if you sign up with Zoom for video conferencing, you get to choose what kind of features you want, how many employees you wish to support and more. You pay only for what you use, and nothing more.

It's easy to see why the future is in the cloud.

Enhance Customer Service

Many companies agree that customer experience is now the most crucial differentiator for modern brands. If the unified communications space on the cloud can deliver better security, reliability, and performance for your teams, it also means that you can offer better experiences to your customers too. The cloud ensures that the right person is always available to answer client queries. What's more, it ensures that teams can access the innovative tools they need to support those customers too.

For instance, Worldline offers a host of available features to add to it's UC solution on the cloud. For example, virtual assistants can answer customer questions when your people aren't available. Omnichannel contact means that your community always gets the kind of conversation they want. Even voice recognition can reduce the risk of fraud and put customer minds at ease.

Improve Recovery and Security Options

In years gone by, one of the biggest concerns that corporations had about the cloud, was that it wouldn't have the same security as on-premise systems. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that cloud unified communication might be more secure than on-premise options.

Vendors like VBrick build their communication strategies on top of the highest security standards. That's why Fortune 10 corporations and the federal government trust VBrick. The cloud can run to extremely high resilience and security standards. What's more, because your data doesn't stay on-premise, if anything goes wrong with your computers or systems, you can rest assured that your information will remain safe on the cloud.

Greater Versatility

As well as providing your teams with better ways to work, you can also rely on unified communications through the cloud to give them more options too. For instance, in the past, accessing video collaboration services was incredibly tricky. Now, thanks to the cloud and leading companies like StarLeaf, even the smallest companies can discover the benefits of video.

This means that if you need to help your teams collaborate together in a more intimate setting, but you have teams located around the world, you can simply switch to video. It's much easier for organizations to get things done when they can experience a face-to-face conversation. With the right desktop hardware, UCaaS turns any environment into a potential video meeting room.

Improve Employee Productivity

As your business becomes more efficient and agile, you'll find that it's a lot easier to empower your employees too. For instance, if you find out that your teams are more productive when they have the opportunity to work from home or remote locations, you can set up mobile access for your UC tools. When your unified communications services are available on the cloud, it's easy for anyone to access them from any device with the right password and username.

Leading UC vendors like West UC even provide tools that grow increasingly intelligent as your teams use them. As well as hosting virtual meetings with West UC, you can also implement AI and machine learning to gather insights into how your teams work best, and what you need to do to deliver greater customer service.

Increase Agility

The world is changing at a rapid pace today. Digital transformation is happening everywhere, although each company is moving at its own pace. Unified Communications on the cloud ensures that you have complete control over your own growth strategy. Through services like UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service), you can be as agile as you need to be to meet changing customer demands.

8x8, one of the leaders in UCaaS solutions, Offers a range of highly adaptable services that companies can use to build their real-time analytics, contact center, and business phone strategy. With vendors like this, if you need to add extra cloud solutions to your infrastructure, you can do it with just a few clicks and nothing more. It's the easiest way to stay ahead of the competition and keep up to date with the latest technology. What's more, if any of your systems need an update, businesses like 8x8 just roll the patches out over the cloud, no engineer needed.

Simplify Deployment Strategies

In the past, communication systems have been notoriously difficult to implement and manage. If you wanted to connect multiple systems, then you need to configure and sync tools ranging from voice and video conferencing, to IM, mobile features, presence, and so much more. With a UC cloud strategy, you can access your resources "as a service." This means that a provider handles the back end of the technology for you.

LogMeIn, the company behind the Go To UC&C strategy, gives companies on-demand all-in-one experiences for their cloud-based collaboration and communication needs. Whether you need a conference room, meeting service, or collaboration tool, you can access it all with a couple of clicks. There's no need for any complex hardware installations.

Achieve Flexibility When You Need it Most

What happens to your business when you see seasonal changes in demand? Perhaps at certain times of year, you need to host more meetings between your teams or take additional calls from customers. Maybe annual sales mean that you need to set up new phones and systems for extra employees, then remove them again when the peek is over.

In a traditional communication system, achieving that level of flexibility would be impossible. With the cloud, you can add or remove seats to your communication plan whenever you like. You're not tied into a specific number of softphones or a certain amount of bandwidth. Unified Communications Product of the year for 2018 (according to TMC) BlueJeans lets companies build video into any business environment, with bandwidth and features to suit you.

Reduce Physical Barriers

Many of the traditional on-premise options for communication that we've seen over the years have been limited by demands for specific hardware. For instance, legacy telephones needed a significant PBX server to accommodate numerous numbers at once.

The cloud unified communication environment removes this issue by ensuring that you can scale your business up and down with ease. You don't need to worry about your PBX size when you're managing calls and communication over the web. The Cisco Unified Communications manager can support local, and global calls as your business evolves. What's more, there's support for a host of industry standards, so you can build onto your system however you see fit.

Simplify your Communication Network

Unified communications is all about bringing your communication strategies together in a simple, and accessible environment. For instance, Microsoft aims to provide users with a complete productivity suite for their business, including documentation tools, sharing applications, and Microsoft Teams for collaboration. Teams even have video and voice conferencing as a service solutions so you can upgrade your conversations with colleagues from instant messaging to a call in seconds.

When everything from your telephony services, to your data sharing and messaging solutions, are in the same environment, they're much easier for IT to manage. Plus, if you ever need to scale your services, you don't have to interact with multiple vendors at once.