Metrigy has been tracking the rates of adoption of unified communications as a service (UCaaS), with their findings detailed in a recent report entitled “Workplace Collaboration: 2021-22.” They discovered that out of 476 responding companies, 47% are using UCaaS. While it has typically been out of reach for bigger companies, Bring-your-own-carrier options are addressing the challenges that hindered adoption.
While almost half of all respondents are utilizing UCaaS, it is often as an augmentation to legacy systems, though some have completely replaced on-premise private branch exchange (PBX). Since 2019, the study reveals, there has been a 240% increase in companies choosing UCaaS for communications upgrades.
Before 2020 dramatically accelerated digital transformation, UCaaS was a popular choice mostly among small- or medium-size businesses. While large corporations could also benefit from the features of UCaaS, there were concerns around a variety of factors, including security, performance, cost, and reliability. But the impact of the pandemic, alongside some advances among UCaaS solutions, has made it a viable choice for bigger organizations.
The report shows this change, with approximately one-third of large company respondents indicating that they are using UCaaS, compared to the 31% that are still using on-premise communications. Even among those still using legacy systems, 25% plan to move to UCaaS before 2022. An additional 14% will make the change in 2022.
Bundling Challenges: One of the biggest challenges for bigger companies was the very benefit that attracted so many smaller organizations, which was bundled access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Multinational companies often have a number of PSTN provider contracts that are spread across the globe in an effort to reduce costs and comply with local regulations.
These larger companies also have their own session border controller (SBC) infrastructure to enable call routing, SIP trunking, and security for voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology. Large companies may operate several platforms to handle calling and their contact center functions. When they are contemplating UCaaS, the limited options around bundled PSTN access that requires the porting of phone numbers renders this option too expensive, complex, and labor intensive. PSTN access also limits call routing functions for contact center solutions or other legacy systems during a transition to UCaaS, and it may not support all the integrations that company has with subsidiaries.
Changing the Game With Bring Your Own Carrier: Bring your own carrier offers an alternative by providing a separation between call control and PSTN access. Companies that use bring your own carrier for UCaaS place their call control in the cloud, rather than on-premises, while keeping their PSTN services and infrastructure in place. At some point, it may make sense to move these to the UCaaS provider, particularly in cases where managed services allows support, integration, and PSTN management in a UCaaS solution.
If your company has been waiting for the right time to consider UCaaS, the bring-your-own-carrier option may provide the opportunity for you to gain the benefits of feature-rich, cloud-based communications. Contact us at Safari Solutions to learn how UCaaS technology can fuel growth for your company.
