What Is Cloud-Based Unified Communication?

Nowadays with the increasingly hyper-competitive and hyperconnected world, companies need to excel at collaboration and communication outside and inside the business - otherwise, they risk missing out on huge potential growth opportunities and fall behind some of their competitors. Unified Communication solutions providers can enable organizations to not only improve collaboration within their business but also enhance worker productivity and overall customer service. This system integration in the Philippines provides effective ways for people to constantly keep track of each other regardless of their communication device or their location. 

One of the most effective delivery models for unified communication is cloud computing which is fast becoming the IT delivery machine of choice for businesses today. The term unified communications can mean different things and various descriptions exist in the market. This can create confusion for business decision-makers and IT people particularly regarding the number of approaches and solutions that are available in the market. UC solutions incorporate the following key capabilities and elements. 

1. Presence - it enables individuals of the company to manage their availability and make better communication decisions. Users can choose the most appropriate communication channel as he or she can see which is which. This saves a lot of time, especially within highly distributed companies. For instance, users who see that the person he or she is trying to reach on the phone can send a message instantly. 

2. Unified Messaging - it’s a combination of fax, voicemail, email, instant messaging and other electronic media platforms used for messaging users. Messages can be received from the interface of their choice, whether over the phone, UC client or email client. Users can see their messages to prioritize which one of them he or she should listen to first.  

3. Collaboration - collaboration has become increasingly vital and challenging for each company as workers become more widespread geographically speaking. UC systems should let different users work with one another in a number of ways. 

4. Contact Center - unified communication solutions can improve contact center environments significantly to enhance service and deliver operational efficiency of the team. They enable businesses to serve their customers or clients in the medium of their choice like voice, email, SMS or web chat; respond and monitor social media; keep their clients well informed, providing estimated wait time response and continuous position of in queue updates. UC allows contact center staff to be located anywhere in the world to leverage presence to find other available resources in the company that they can collaborate with to resolve issues on the first contact. 

5. Mobility - for the mobile worker of today’s world, a vital part of UC is support for mobility so that users can access some of the network's features on any device and on any location. Given the fast increase in the mobile workforce, support for mobile technology is especially important for today’s UC platform. Another consideration for UC with regards to mobility is fixed-mobile convergence that allows users to access voice, data or video services and data without concern for how the services are delivered by different telecommunication carriers.