By Peter Radizeski IP Centrex, hosted PBX, virtual PBX and now UCaaS are the various terms associated with unified communications on its way to being the darling of the pandemic. At Enterprise Connect, the enterprise communications show, UC was hiding. It is rapidly being outshone by other parts of the cloud communications stack. In this era of a Great Resignation amid a Digital Transformation, anything as a service is in play to help companies be more competitive. Business communications are an integral component of customer and employee experiences. Businesses want to add automation and self-service, as well as other avenues of connection to customers such as web chat, WhatsApp and more. Much of this is powered by cloud communications in one stack or the other – CPaaS, CCaaS or UCaaS. More and more data are stored in the cloud. Think about all the websites you use and where the data sits – Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, CRM, Gmail, Office365, Workday, ServiceNow and between 40 and 150 other applications. Data in the cloud is more easily accessed, analyzed and reported. Calls, messaging, emails, orders, records, meetings, conferences and more can be recorded and analyzed. Smart companies are finding ways to use that data for customer and talent acquisition and retention, marketing, sales and more. Businesses are adding functionalities including call recording or IVR or transcription because these functions are available to any size business. And this is all part of digital transformation. Most people are used to the way mobile apps such as Uber or Doordash communicate with them by text, phone calls and via the app and/ or website. Every business is looking for that kind of approach. CPaaS powers those apps. CPaaS also provides doctors and dentists with the ability to schedule appointments, send reminders, ask for patient reviews and make payments. There are cloud communications systems at work for these healthcare offices. Most business owners are unaware of what technology is available and affordable. For a business to have an IVR just five years ago was a large investment. Today, it is very affordable for any business. Contact center functionality isn’t out of reach for any business anymore. Partners have to educate the business owners on not only what is available but how it can benefit the business. The use cases are very important because they demonstrate what the technology can do, which is more than the acronym does. As the communications stacks merge, it won’t be about pushing an acronym or product. Do you want UCaaS? That hasn’t work well so far. It is about finding out what the business needs and what other similar businesses are benefiting from. Partners need to start with, “What do you have now? What is working AT YOUR SERVICE: XaaS Still Crossing the Cloud Communications Chasm 32 CHANNELV ISION | MARCH - APRIL 2022
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