Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is one technology that fits with virtually every vertical market. Some of the most prominent ones, however, include Gov/Ed, Healthcare, IT, Manufacturing, Media, Retail, Travel/Hospitality, Transportation, and Utilities.
“We’ve seen a lot of use cases in retail,” said Mitel’s Jim McGarry. “We can tie a lot of benefits to putting communication devices out at the edge in those stores, and then running all that back to be able to 4-digit dial to the corporate office. Sales and professional organizations are another strong vertical because they need their
communications to be nimble and agile, so when you can empower them with tools that will update the CRM platform based on the individuals that they’ve called, based on what trends and market data might be provided inside of their CRM and tie that into collaboration, that is really valuable information for professional and sales organizations.”
“Retail, in fact, is going through massive transformation about how they can stay ahead of their competitors,” agreed Fuze’s Jed Brown. “Communications really define your company – how you communicate within your business, how you make decisions, where your bottlenecks are located, and how you communicate with your customers. So, not just providing the voice, but providing analytics can really change those companies, and I think retail is catching onto that really quickly because performance can be directly tied to numbers. Healthcare is also starting to understand that, but they’re lagging a little bit behind.”
Initially, UCaaS saw limited uptake among regulated industries, especially the health care and finance sectors, given their respective need to adhere to privacy and compliance regulations built specifically for those industries. But as security within the UCaaS space has strengthened, a move to the cloud has become a much more viable option across the full range of verticals and company sizes.
The advent of the Coronavirus seems to be drawing an increased number of telemedicine, and schools into the mix, as many organizations look towards the cloud as a means of enabling the remote workforce.
UCaaS also has profound implication in manufacturing where QR codes could facilitate the availability of a wide range of data on contracts, warranties, maintenance, etc., all easily accessible via smart phone. The movement towards the Smart Factory with increased technical integration is a case in point. Further advancements in Computer-Aided Design is a similar example, in that UCaaS can be used to enhance communication among the team.
For more information on whether UCaaS can be an advantage to your company, contact your Trusted Advisor.