What Makes a Good Unified Communications Service Provider?

There are a lot of unified communications companies out there. But how can you decide which is the UCaaS provider for you? A unified communications service provider is going to be in control of your organization’s most vital infrastructure and services. You need to know that you’re getting the UCaaS you can trust.

Here are some of the major things you need to consider when comparing different UCaaS solutions.

1. The right technology to support your needs.

“Unified Communications” is still somewhat of a nebulous term. Certainly, you need to unify the systems that your organization uses. But what systems does your organization use?

For some companies, that’s email and instant messaging. For other companies, an intense VoIP infrastructure needs to be integrated. For others, most of the operations are done on Slack, MS Teams, or another platform.

You need to make sure your UCaaS provider has best-in-class services for the services that you use the most, whether that’s video conferencing or large audio calls. For most, the UCaaS provider will come down to the platform they provide — a platform that you can often demo in advance.

2. Communicative and responsive staff.

A communications system, of course, needs to be communicative itself. As you discuss the system, how frequently do they touch base with you? How much information do they provide? Are they proactive about providing the information that you would need — or do they want for you to ask for every little thing?

Some companies are self-starters and like to be in control of their systems. But if you’re getting a UCaaS provider, you want a team that you can work with. The more communicative your UCaaS provider is, the more likely they’re going to be to provide the services that you need.

3. A direct point of contact for help desk and support.

When something goes wrong, who do you contact?

Don’t accept “the tech support team” as an answer, unless you’re talking about general help desk tickets.

With UCaaS, you could be losing thousands of dollars every hour your system is down. It’s important to have a first point of contact that you can reach out to whenever you need technical troubleshooting and support.

4. Reliable uptime.

As with any cloud service, you should know the historical uptime of your unified communications provider. What uptime will their Service Level Agreement guarantee? What is their process when the system is down? Do they have 24/7/365 monitoring (they should)?

When your system goes down, it can be disastrous. Many companies rely upon their communications system for all their operations. The more reliable the UCaaS provider can be, the more reliable your operations will be.

5. Training and continued support.

What happens when your employees don’t know how to use the functionality of your new UCaaS system?

Simply put: They won’t use it.

In addition to providing technology, a good UCaaS provider will also be able to provide ongoing training and support, so your teams will be able to effectively leverage their new cloud unified communications. If your provider offers the platform but no technical training, knowledge bases, help desk systems, or direct support systems, your employees are going to be left adrift.

Go with a company that will provide support through services such as seminars and training videos.

6. Security and disaster-preparedness plans.

What happens if your system is hacked?

It’s going to happen. It’s a virtual guarantee. Today, most companies are going to experience dozens of attacks, and often, one will be successful. When that happens, how prepared will your unified communications company be?

A prepared company is going to have end-to-end encryption and reliable backups and syncing, so your data is neither disrupted nor compromised.

If you’re in a controlled industry, such as finance or health, you may need to look at UCaaS companies that provide industry-complete security — companies that meet the compliance regulations and standards of your industry. Regardless, your unified communications provider should have thorough disaster preparedness plans.

Choosing the right unified communications companies

Cloud unified communications are absolutely the way of the future. It’s hard to deny that unified communications don’t lead to a more effective collaborative atmosphere — and they help lean a company’s budget significantly by cutting out services such as old, outdated on-premises telecommunications systems.

But unless you can trust your UCaaS provider, it’s difficult to trust your communications infrastructure. If you’re looking for a new unified communications service provider to help your business succeed, contact us today for more information.