With rapid technological advancements, communication procedures across borders have also progressed. The growth in communication practices has also assisted organizations in managing their internal and external interactions appropriately. Gradually, companies observed the evolution of unified communication and collaboration (UCC).
Unified communication and collaboration is not a single tool but a combination of multiple technologies that help businesses enhance their communications and strengthen collaborations. As per data, the UCC market currently has a valuation of $145 billion and is about to surpass $496 billion by 2029.
Let us understand what exactly the method of unified communication and collaboration is, along with its benefits, challenges, and use cases across industries.
What is UCC?
Unified communication and collaboration is the umbrella term for tools and technologies that help organizations smoothly communicate and collaborate with internal and external audiences. It is a contribution of recent digital transformations. The popularity of remote work culture has also been a major cause for unified communication and collaboration’s impeccable growth.
Communication methods in UCC include text messages, email, voicemail, audio and video calls, and more. With the latest developments, unified communication and collaboration have attained advanced capabilities of AI and voice assistants.
While understanding how unified communication works, it is essential to know that the whole process needs back-end management systems, usually one or more than that. Such systems are also known as UC platforms. These allow the integration of multiple facilities at once, including front-end clients.
Companies can incorporate UCC facilities through third parties. Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet are a few pioneers in this industry. The service providers deploy the communication technologies into on-premises servers and private or public cloud servers.
Advantages of UCC:
Better collaborations: Unified communication and collaboration allow users and businesses to initiate real-time interactions in multiple methods. This assists various teams in an organization in effectively collaborating and working on complex tasks.
Higher flexibility and productivity: When companies implement easy and effective communication tactics, employees can interact with each other operationally. It enhances flexibility within the organization and boosts the productivity of the workforce.
Cost-effective: Multiple integrations for various methods of communication cost more than a single technology incorporation that enables all types of communication procedures. Since unified communication and collaboration offer multiple ways to interact with others, it significantly saves company costs.
Enhanced customer/client experience: With unified communication and collaboration facilities, companies can also communicate with their customers and address their queries impactfully.
Challenges of Unified Communication and Collaboration:
Though UCC unlocks various scalability opportunities within the enterprises, certain difficulties can arise while integrating this technology.
Compatibility with existing systems: Unified communication and collaboration facilities include the latest technologies and tools. Hence, to run it smoothly, user systems also have to be up to date.
Security concerns: UCC is deployed by third-party service providers. Therefore, in case of security breach, there is a chance of unwanted exposure of confidential information that has been shared over the platform.
Requirement for high-speed network: Unified communication and collaboration services offer different tactics to communicate which require faster network support. If users do not have high-speed network connection, they may encounter difficulties to smoothly communicate with each other.
Use cases of Unified communication and collaboration:
Healthcare:
With unified communication and collaboration healthcare professionals can interact with their patients in various mediums. The process also contributes to telehealth initiatives, which allow needy people to seek medical facilities remotely.
Marketing:
The marketing sector has to collaborate with other domains to execute their tasks. In this regard, UCC can be a great support to offer different tactics to communicate.
Education:
Educational institutions can enhance their students' learning experiences by adopting UCC facilities. Video calls and file-sharing platforms can provide students with knowledgeable learning sessions.
Wrapping up!
Unified communication and collaboration (UCC) can be beneficial for companies of all sizes. However, organizations need to consider the prevalent challenges before implementing this technology. Therefore, thorough planning, assessing, and selecting the appropriate service provider is necessary. Alongside that, determining strategies for change management is also crucial.
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