• Unified Communication as a Service is a cloud-based platform combining various communications channels, such as messaging, video conferencing, and cloud calls, into one interface.
• Contact Center as a Service is a cloud-based platform that combines communication channels with contact center tools, such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and advanced analytics, into one interface.

Organizations consider cloud services such as Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) as an alternative to on-premise systems as it helps consolidate an organization’s enterprise applications into a single cloud-based platform. It improves communication and collaboration and enhances the employee and customer experience (CX). Although these tools – UCaaS and CCaaS – have similar functionalities, they are used by different departments for different purposes.

It is obvious to compare them for differences, but they complement each other as they have similar functionalities yet different purposes. These cloud-based communication platforms became popular alternatives to on-premises systems and experienced increased adoption amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

This article will help you understand the concepts of UCaaS and CCaaS and the differences between them. Let’s begin understanding these tools first; then, we will move on to the differences.What is UCaaS?

Unified communication as a Service (UCaaS) is a cloud-based platform combining various communications channels, such as messaging, video conferencing, and cloud calls, into one interface. Organizations typically purchase UCaaS software to streamline communication and collaboration among their employees.

UCaaS users don’t need to purchase hardware; hence, they typically pay lower upfront costs than companies with on-premises unified communications systems. The ability to consolidate multiple types of digital communications like video, messaging, voice, and conferencing into a single space is a primary benefit of UCaaS. It also enables users to access the software from any location. Features like conference bridging, voicemail-to-email transcription, virtual receptionist, and call routing and forwarding help support interoffice collaboration.

Benefits of using UCaaS

The primary benefit of UCaaS is linked directly to its ability to help people work together, and organizations of all sizes can benefit in the following ways:

• Enabling increased worker mobility
• Enhancing cross-department collaboration and removing silos
• Increasing efficiency
• Facilitating better synchronization of organizational and departmental goals.

What is CCaaS?

Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) is a cloud-based platform that combines communication channels with contact center tools, such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and advanced analytics, into one interface. This software can promote inbound and outbound communication between contact center agents and customers. Organizations generally invest in CCaaS to enhance CX and boost sales performance.

As vendors cover maintenance and hardware expenses, CCaaS users benefit from lower upfront and overhead costs compared to on-premises contact centers. CCaaS also supports remote work, as the contact center agents can access the platform from any location. A CCaaS solution offers businesses features like skills-based routing, customer authentication, AI-powered voice analysis, and split recording — solutions used by organizations to offer customer-facing services and features, thus enabling stronger, smarter, and more thorough data analysis.

Benefits of using CCaaS

CCaaS have a few more features and is, hence very useful. Here are some of the benefits –

• Lowers and simplifies your IT expenses
• Offers better flexibility to grow and scalability as per business needs
• Provides faster connections and hence, faster resolution of problems
• Faster and better-quality service helps in a better customer experience.

Difference Between UCaaS and CCaaS

Although both UCaaS and CCaaS are cloud-based platforms that integrate communication tools, they differ in the aspects such as purpose, features, integrations, and vendors.

Purpose: UCaaS enables an organization’s employees to connect with each other. On the other hand, CCaaS allows customer service and sales representatives to connect with the company’s customers.

Organizations may embrace UCaaS to replace existing private branch exchange phone systems since UCaaS provides more channels than just cloud calling. UCaaS also streamlines inter-organizational communications into one interface and enables remote collaboration. Typically, an organization’s IT department supervises the implementation of UCaaS.

On the other hand, CCaaS helps organizations provide better customer interactions. Organizations with high inbound and outbound call volumes may adopt CCaaS to streamline customer service and sales communication channels. Other organizations which need to support a remote contact center or sales team may also consider CCaaS. Usually, service and sales leaders supervise the implementation of CCaaS.

Features: Although both UCaaS and CCaaS include call routing. However, CCaaS has some additional features, such as automated call distributors, IVR systems, skill-based routing, customer authentication, customer survey tools, call center analytics, and call whispering. With these additional features, contact centers can manage high call volumes and provide quality assurance for customer service interactions.

Integrations: Organizations usually combine UCaaS software with calendar applications and productivity. Employees can schedule meetings with each other with the help of calendar integrations. Organizations can improve workflows by integrating UCaaS with productivity apps like DocuSign.

On the other hand, organizations commonly integrate the CCaaS platform with a CRM. Since CCaaS allows representatives to interact with customers, a CRM can track all these interactions. Organizations can also combine CCaaS with UCaaS platforms and help desk tools.

The combination of UCaaS and CCaaS software enables agents to contact subject matter experts within their organization, thus reducing the problem resolution time.

Vendors: Some of the leading UCaaS vendors are Fuze – an 8×8 company – Nextiva, Vonage, RingCentral, and Zoom. In contrast, some top CCaaS vendors are Avaya, 8×8, Salesforce, Five9, and Talkdesk.

Similarities between UCaaS and CCaaS

No matter the differences, UCaaS and CCaaS platforms adopt a cloud-based payment model and offer streamlined communications. Furthermore, both can include call routing that can easily integrate with CRMs and other apps. The vendors for both platforms are common as the markets have begun to merge.

Conclusion

Organizations could prefer bundling these two software to get the best results. Those who rely on effective communication and collaboration to get their job done – such as remote sales agents, contact center staff, office employees, and other arms of the business – may not always communicate with each other, but the tools they use should.

To get the best of both tools from a single cloud-hosted partner, organizations should combine UCaaS and CCaaS. It results in a single point of contact for billing, fewer expensive hardware installations (or maybe even none), and one point of contact for any questions aroused.

In this 21^st century, we all expect a seamless experience when it comes to a digital lifestyle, whether it is chatting with friends, contacting a brand for consumer support, planning a trip, or making a purchase. Therefore, businesses and app developers around the corner are offering an enhanced consumer experience that is equal to product quality, weight, service, or the app itself.

Digital transformation helps firms enhance the consumer experience, boost the decision-making process, and increase employee efficiency. There is a strategy for every change, but necessary to understand what makes companies go onboard for digital transformation. On asked, companies listed down the following strategic boosters:

• Enhance consumer experience
• Raise employee efficiency
• Boost decision-making process
• Encourage innovation
• Help transform the business

An SAP (System Applications and Products) study shows that about 92% of organizations follow digital transformation strategy to enhance the consumer experience. To achieve this kind of transformation needs an omnichannel approach – and this is where CPaaS comes into the picture.

What is CPaaS?

Communication Platform as a Service, or CPaaS, a cloud-based platform that simplifies the communication services, i.e., SMS, social, email, chatbots, voice, RCS (Rich Communication Services), and push messages.

In short, this means in an omnichannel space, CPaaS is an instrument for reaching consumers on the channel of their choice, majorly for top-of-the-funnel awareness. Even later down the funnel, CPaaS services such as video authentication, biometric security, and digital payments can revolutionize how one interacts with consumers and accepts new digital behaviors.

For this reason, CPaaS is creating its image among businesses and consumers.

An IDC study predicts that post-COVID-19, most large enterprises will shift their business on digital platforms. Transforming business to a digital platform will help enterprises overcome COVID-19 crises. Enterprises that are not even thinking about transforming their business to the digital platform are at risk, worst extinction, or falling behind.

So, companies that have not even thought of accepting digital transformation need to pull up their socks and win the COVID-19 race. CPaaS platform is one that will help you win the race.

Courtney Munroe, Research Vice President, Worldwide Telecommunications at IDC, commented: “CPaaS will be an integral aspect of customer engagement for enterprises over the next five years, providing the foundation for innovative differentiation.”

The IDC report forecasts the CPaaS segment will develop, accounting for approximately USD 3.3 billion in 2018 to about USD 17.2 billion in 2023.

Munroe added: “CPaaS companies are integrating new segments, churning out new use cases, and piquing the interest of enterprise developers with innovative digital solutions for customer engagement.”

Moving ahead.

Let’s focus on some of the important questions

1. How will CPaaS help enhance consumer experience?
2. How do you reposition customer experience (CX) and customer engagement strategies to gain from the latest CPaaS technologies?

The following information will help you find answers to these questions.

Principles behind acceptance of new channels and the role of CPaaS

Enterprises must be aware of three principles when offering enhanced consumer experiences across multiple platforms. These principles help maintain relationships and trust with consumers that last for a lifetime.

1. Protection of consumer

This principle builds trust as an organization while conversing with customers across channels. Protecting consumers means also being clear about data usage policies, privacy, data rights, and permissions beyond the bare minimum compliance needs. This is because about 80% of clients stop interacting with an organization after a data breach. Therefore, it is necessary to protect and secure interactions across various channels for superior CX.

CPaaS solutions offer robust security to prevent common threats such as phishing, DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, and spam communication. Many CPaaS tools use multi-factor authentication to verify consumer identity, thus adding an extra layer of protection.

2. Recognizing the client

This is the second most important principle. Recognizing clients allows you to gain insights into their channel preferences and execute a more brilliant CPaaS strategy.

Respecting and recognizing channel preferences shows encouragement of delight as an organization shows they genuinely appreciate consumers’ value. By combining customer relationship management (CRM), CPaaS, and customer data platforms (CDP), one can express recognition and develop a long-term relationship.

3. Orchestrating the CX

CX orchestration helps develop ongoing relevance across multiple channels, reaching consumers at several points of their journey. CPaaS helps route the communication to their preferred channels. If you cannot reach them initially, don’t worry because messages can be redirected to the next available best option. CPaaS technology makes these decisions intelligently using real-time behavioral data produced by consumers.

CPaaS helps reach the right consumers at the right time

For instance, Microsoft recently launched its own CPaaS services to strengthen the cloud communication environment significantly.

How CPaaS is digitally transforming CX

• Omnichannel connected journeys
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)
• Employee efficiency
• Business agility
• Endless flexibility

Final lessons

CPaaS has been a game-modifier in the business world for communication. Nowadays, consumers are becoming more digitally savvy, so organizations must keep up with changing demands. CPaaS gets scalable, streamlined, and expansive connectivity options that extend to the very last mile.

Communication Platform as a Service is one of the best solutions for digital transformation.

For more such content check out our latest whitepapers on unified communication and digital transformation.

Nowadays, organizations are continuously making efforts to be more competitive in this highly technological world. In 2020, we realized that no one could afford to be tied down to a single vendor or solution. Because organizations must cope with varying requirements of their consumers and marketplace.

Businesses prefer the cloud to expand their unified communication (UC) functionality via Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). It is said that UCaaS provides a scalable and customizable solution for communication technology on the cloud.

UCaaS is designed using necessary modules, from video conferencing tools to call recording.

I know you might have some queries at this point.

Right?

Don’t worry.

Here we go.

So, when selecting UCaaS, should one be in search of a single vendor that could check every box on your bucket list? Or is it better to prefer open platforms to develop something from best-in-class technology?

Here are your answers and a guide to going multi-vendor or full-stack with your UCaaS investment.

Getting to know multi-vendor and full-stack choices

In the kingdom of UCaaS, there live multiple amazing vendors. For instance, Zoom may be your first choice for virtual/video conferencing, but there are chances you might prefer Microsoft for productivity and Cisco for calls.

The UCaaS industry is booming at a rapid pace, with new entrants appearing all the time. Few vendors such as Avaya and RingCentral could offer full-stack solutions for businesses of all sizes.

When UC took a boom in the market, it combined primary tools such as fax, voice, email, and messaging into the same platform. Therefore, the majority of UC systems have access to means such as collaboration tools and video conferencing.

On the back-end, most unified communications tools include features such as:

• Team and project management tools
• Multipoint control units and video bridges for video conferencing
• Multi- or single-vendor UC server or platform
• Business communication gateways such as SBCs (Session Border Controllers)

Unified communication is a multi-vendor world

Avaya, Microsoft, and Cisco hold the lion’s share of UC deployments worldwide. Also, we all know that Avaya and Cisco are the old players in the UC game. However, Microsoft has turned the table by introducing Skype for Business. A significant challenge with UC systems management is interoperability between these several vendors.

For example, an organization might use Microsoft Skype for business communication in a few sectors and use Cisco in its contact center for real-time communications, thus raising interoperability and adding time, expense, and complexity. In short, it means unified communication is a multi-vendor world.

What is multi-vendor UC visibility?

A single tool that can manage or has visibility into all servers, vendors, endpoints, applications, and network devices will give you a complete picture of the entire work environment.

When to go multi-vendor?

When one goes with a multi-vendor approach, that means they don’t have to compromise on functionality. One has a remote to select the best product from multiple providers instead. Multi-stack is perfect for an organization that doesn’t prefer a one-size-fits-all solution. It is easy to get an ideal video solution or the perfect call recording technology if you are not restricted to a specific provider.

A multi-vendor mix means that one can get a competitive price option from various solution providers. Based on consumers’ and employees’ requirements, one can add components into the UCaaS stack depending on the business growth. This means one does not have to wait for a full-stack solution provider to offer the same tools that one could get elsewhere eventually.

For an organization with specific requirements, multi-vendor could be the perfect approach to get the correct functionality.

When to go full-stack?

A multi-vendor approach is perfect for customization and flexibility in the communication stack. But there are some pitfalls too.

A full-stack solution provider could help you by giving access to all the tools you need on a combined environment or platform. It is much easier to jump straight into the cloud with your comms. Also, full-stack vendors offer considerable discounts to high-value consumers who prefer to use multiple services at once.

The expert view

Damien Margaritis (Microsoft Certified Master, Experienced Modern Workplace Consultant, Microsoft Teams expert)

What factors are essential to you when considering UC Management tools for your clients?

Margaritis said: “First and foremost, tools selected need to be Microsoft certified. This lets us know that Microsoft’s tool has been reviewed and fully ratified to add value to a UC deployment. Ease of procurement and deployment are also important factors, as is how much time it takes us to transfer key skills to clients to make them self-sufficient once we’ve finalized deployment.”

Final words

Clearly, we can see both positives and negatives of full-stack vendors and multi-stack vendors. The multi-stack vendor gives the flexibility to select the best tech solutions as per company requirements. On the other hand, this strategy also means that one has more maintenance to keep everything connected.

Alternatively, full-stack solutions offer the simplicity that current businesses need from an all-in-one communication environment. But there is a possibility to miss out on functionality.

The decision to go multi-vendor or full-stack depends on the business priorities. Do you prefer to work in a flexible or agile environment to access new technology easily? Or prefer simplicity by managing all communications in one place?

There is no correct answer for which is best because it totally depends on what better suits you or what better works for you. For instance, one company with Cisco in its contact center may want to prefer Cisco everywhere else as well. At the same time, another company may think of combining Cisco with other vendors.

If you are headed to make more such critical decisions, look at our latest whitepapers on unified communication and increase your knowledge base.

SD-WAN + UCaaS = a cloud on ramp

Innovations have a significant impact on the way we work and live. The smartphone, the personal computer, and the internet are some examples. The migration of communication workloads to the cloud has developed several technologies, most recognized as Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS). It made cloud-based unified communication (UC) services less costly, scalable, and easier to manage.

UCaaS joins videoconferencing, instant messaging, voice, screen sharing, and other host communications tools for the cloud.

A report published by Biztech states: About 85% of businesses shifted all or a portion of their communications tools to the cloud via UCaaS. It seems that UCaaS is a ‘Swiss army knife’ application for the cloud.

As an organization continues to move its voice technology to the cloud, software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) is born as a supplemental networking solution to optimize that move. UCaaS, the cloud, and SD-WAN are the technological enhancements that emerged and grew almost overnight. These enhancements were a natural fit: like fish and chips or like pancakes and butter.

Blending SD-WAN with unified communications as a service (UCaaS) gives many advantages to a business. In a way such as, “Friends always come with benefits.”

Following three are the significant benefits of SD-WAN and UCaaS being friends:

• Advanced network – UCaaS depends on its network, and SD-WAN enhances the network performance.
• Higher security – SD-WAN delivers improved security to make the system safer and offers a cleaner flow for UCaaS traffic.
• Better routing – when we talk about the quality of service (QoS) in UCaaS, three significant factors impede quality: latency, packet loss, and jitter. SD-WAN focuses on those three issues with dynamic traffic management across improved network links in real-time and voice packet duplication.

UCaaS and SD-WAN – a perfect bond

As so many applications are running in the cloud, a modern enterprise needs to keep up with increased network demands and manage traffic. This is where SD-WAN and UCaaS come together to overcome a new breed of enterprise challenges.

UCaaS and SD-WAN accompany one another to provide the best cloud-based communications to small, medium-sized, and large-sized businesses.

What happens when we bundle SD-WAN and UCaaS together?

• Network performance will get better by performing dynamic path selection to deliver an optimal user experience.
• Organizations could connect branch offices and data centers across long geographical distances.
• Bandwidth could be easily manageable.

When paired with UCaaS, SD-WAN could help eliminate voice and video delays by routing activity via an organization’s infrastructure in the most effective way possible. SD-WAN automatically differentiates network traffic and prioritizes real-time video conferencing and other live activities for crisp and clear communication while non-essential activities route to lower priority pathways.

In simple terms, SD-WAN with UCaaS could help an organization enhance communication quality while reducing costs.

Selecting correct vendor

It is equally essential to choose the correct UCaaS and SD-WAN vendor. Selecting the right producer will reduce operational and capital costs and allow businesses to consolidate WAN services, including VPN, Wi-Fi, firewalls, and Ethernet. This consolidation could significantly reduce maintenance and hardware costs.

Takeaway

The combination of a few technologies could prove beneficial for enterprises. SD-WAN, for instance, is a natural fit for UCaaS by enhancing voice and video call quality and offering more deployment options, increased bandwidth efficiency, and potentially lower costs.

By bundling an SD-WAN solution with a UCaaS solution, one could expect enhanced security, seamless connectivity, advanced visibility, and the ability to scale businesses’ emerging needs smoothly. Together, they will improve reliability, cost savings, and make management and deployment easy for enterprises.

Has your organization brought communication to the cloud yet, and have you considered the combination of SD-WAN and UCaaS?

No?

Then why wait? Give a chance to this new match made in heaven.

When you combine SD-WAN technology with UCaaS, things get a little more modern.

For more such content download our latest whitepapers on unified communication and networking.