Published on March 30th, 2020 | by Sunit Nandi

Why unified communications as a service was thankfully inevitable

While the unified-communications-as-a-service market reached $15.8 billion in value last year, this number is expected to swell to $24.8 billion by 2024, according to a press release published by PR Newswire. Therefore, the market’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will be 9.5% up to 2024.

What is driving the market growth of UCaaS, as unified communications as a service is otherwise known? The service has found increasing popularity among both large enterprises and SMEs, while the emergence of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) system in the workplace is another key factor.

However, these facts only scrape the surface of why UCaaS has soared in popularity in the corporate space. Here are several reasons why this development has been a long time coming.

What actually is unified communications as a service?

For a good answer to that, we should look at why it became necessary – or, at least, desirable – in the first place. If you’re part of the “old guard” of the business world, you can probably clearly recall when companies only needed two forms of electronic communication: phone and email.

These channels sufficed for most businesses, which would maintain much of the required infrastructure on their own premises – maybe even in one building. However, over time, more and more communication methods have been introduced, increasing the variety of options.

Instant messaging, for example, took off in the late 1990s, after a small team in Israel publicly released the ICQ distributive, as TechRadar notes. Since then, video conferencing, group chats and more have been added to the communications mix, albeit with little centralisation.

In other words, businesses often needed to check each tool or inbox manually, one after the other; it was not possible to simply see, control, collect and analyse all of the incoming messages in a single place. It was UCaaS that tied all of these services into just one for much easier use.

A UCaaS system can save both time and money

You’re probably more than familiar with the business mantra “time is money”, and it’s easy to see how UCaaS can save time. However, that’s not the only way it can save money. This is because UCaaS is just one component of cloud computing’s “as a service” model.

With a company’s communications being funnelled through the cloud rather than on-site hardware, that company doesn’t have to employ its own IT team. Instead, it can just pay a monthly fee to the UCaaS service provider, which will iron out technical kinks on the client company’s behalf.

Examples of UCaaS-based phone systems include, in the UK, the Horizon hosted system in unified communications by Gamma. This product allows users to access, through an easy-to-use web portal, a range of extensive fixed and mobile telephony capabilities.

As such systems are managed outside the business, this frees up time for the company to devote to other matters, as UC Today explains. Revelations like these shed light on not only why UCaaS has taken flight but also why it looks set to keep growing in prominence.

Tags: inevitable, service, unified communications

About the Author

Sunit Nandi I'm the leader of Techno FAQ. Also an engineering college student with immense interest in science and technology. Other interests include literature, coin collecting, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there's no tomorrow.