UCaaS leads the way with 70 percent to opt for cloud-based UC by 2023

UCaaS has become the most widely used communications infrastructure for the first time, according to research from Metrigy.

The analyst found that UCaaS is now used by 47.3 per cent of businesses globally – the highest amount since it started tracking the market in 2016.

Adoption is expected to peak in the next two years with up to 70% of companies adopting a cloud collaboration suite by 2023.

“There’s still a growth opportunity for the UCaaS market.

“UCaaS is probably going to top out at somewhere north of 70 per cent of the market in the next two years.

“I think that’s where we’ll get to. There will always be cases where companies find the value of running on-prem, or are slow to move, or need a custom hosted solution, but I think, by and large, UCaaS has won the war.”

Irwin Lazar, Analyst, Metrigy

UCaaS is the winner and not just because of the pandemic

UCaaS takes all the benefits of your communications infrastructure and places it in the cloud. The technology has been propelled into the limelight and accelerated beyond all predictions as a result of the pandemic. But the rise of UCaaS is not wholly dependent on the Covid-19 distributed workforce shift. There are many other reasons why it makes sense, especially for small enterprise and business organisations.

Reason #1 It makes sense commercially 

No more using costly IT resource to manage aging on-premise legacy infrastructure. No more investing in expensive hardware, or storage space. Cloud-based services have almost no upfront costs.  Companies shifting to UCaaS will see a commercial benefit immediately and will continue to see savings over time.

The freedom to scale services up and down also means that costs will scale, and, in many cases, UCaaS providers will have an option for  'pay as you go' pricing. Upgrades and patches are  included in a UCaaS subscription rather than being an ongoing expense. Generally UCaaS has a lower cost of ownership than providing multiple fragmented tools.

Reason #2 It is soo easy for IT to manage 

Adding or removing users. Changing access or security policies. The scalability and agility of UCaaS makes life easier for the IT team.  Managing a single platform, the ability to roll things out much more quickly, and network connectivity advantages are all benefits of UCaaS. This frees up internal IT resources to focus on the core business.

Reason #3 It works for the 'anywhere workforce' 

COVID-19 lockdowns and lockouts changed how we communicated full stop. And there is no going back. The value of digital collaboration is now unchallenged and we have all gotten used to having these tools in play. Much as we may dislike video calls, we can fit many more of them into our day than travelling to meet face-to-face. 

One huge benefit of UCaaS is that it provides a single platform for communication and collaboration. Without UCaaS, a workforce is far more likely to be managing multiple apps, which certainly doesn’t contribute to productivity. With UCaaS the team is connected on one network and can collaborate simply through virtual meetings, instant messaging, and file sharing.

Reason #4 Innovation, Security and improvements are delivered instantly

One of the greatest benefits of UCaaS is also its most under-rated, at least during the sales process. Being in the Cloud allows easy and swift access to the latest innovations in the UC market. This could be a security protection or a new productivity tool. These past couple of years have shown the unpredictable nature of work and the value of a technology where innovation and adaptation can be applied Over-The-Air, with zero-touch required from the end user and with a far less onerous commitment from the IT team. 

Zoom won the early battles, but Microsoft Teams is winning the war

When the pandemic struck, the video conferencing of the Zoom platform drove a massive adoption uptick. The Zoom brand became synonymous with the shift to communicating through video calling. From not appearing in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS in 2018 or 2019, it landed straight into the Leaders Quadrant for 2020.

 

However, over time, as organisations have looked to improve on the solutions that were hurriedly put into place when the pandemic struck, the pivot has most firmly been in favour of Microsoft Teams.