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UCaaS Platforms 2024: 9 Trends To Keep Your Eye On This Year

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What communication and collaboration look like in business have changed drastically over the past few years. The workplace has evolved beyond cubicles and hardwired phones. Especially now that the work-from-home movement is in full swing, companies are turning toward the unified communications as a service (UCaaS) market for a more flexible and agile way of communicating.

A “one size fits all” communications solution just doesn’t cut it anymore. UCaaS platforms provide users with all of the essentials in one convenient location, including voice and telephony, web, audio, video conferencing, and text and instant messaging capabilities, among other features.

The UCaaS market is estimated to be worth roughly $79 billion by 2024. Today’s landscape is highly competitive, and choosing the right UCaaS solution requires knowing what trends are on the rise.

1. Employees Working From Home Will Drive Companies Toward a UCaaS Solution

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, more and more employees have begun working from home. Many companies were left scrambling to prepare their infrastructure for a last-minute, large-scale pivot to remote employment.

By consolidating multiple communication features, UCaaS platforms allow your team to collaborate seamlessly throughout the lockdown. It’s become a valuable asset to any business, even as the COVID-19 pandemic winds down.

The pandemic acted as a large-scale trial run for remote employment and has raised the question of why commuting was even necessary in the first place. As companies re-evaluate the costs of keeping an office open post-lockdown, UCaaS will continue to make working from home easier than ever before.

ucaas for remote employees

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Becomes More Prominent

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs were already being adopted throughout the business world before COVID-19, but the pandemic rapidly increased the prevalence of these programs as remote< workers became the new standard. A BYOD program allows employees to use any device they wish, provided its compatible with necessary systems and meets any company-specific requirements.

The result is that the modern device landscape is no longer in the hands of IT professionals who can selectively assign devices. Now, IT needs to find tools and Unified Communications solutions with widespread compatibility. Fortunately, the latest UCaaS platforms are compatible with most Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS. This is possible by embracing a cloud-based platform and responsive design.

It’s vital for organizations to keep BYOD in mind when selecting a UCaaS provider, whether they currently have a program or plan to implement one soon. Failing to accommodate the wide range of possible devices can hinder employee collaboration and productivity.

2. Little Compromise for Collaboration

As companies struggle to recover from the effects of a viral pandemic on business as usual, they’ll look for ways to make the most out of limited resources. Investing in a UCaaS platform streamlines the number of apps (which can be dozens) required to communicate down to a single platform with a transparent pricing model.

A nightmare for all companies is a disorganized workforce that lacks the right tools for collaboration, especially during periods of uncertainty. Now more than ever, companies need to keep their team members on the same page with one another and projects running smoothly.

A customizable UCaaS platform lets you choose the exact features you need based on your company’s goals. Real-time communication services in a single location enable your team to run like a well-oiled machine despite stay-at-home orders. to both recreational and business-class guests.

3. Telehealthcare Is More Important Than Ever

Though the healthcare industry is usually slow to adopt new technologies, the outbreak of COVID-19 brought telehealthcare into the spotlight seemingly overnight. After all, telehealthcare makes it possible for patients to access care providers while under stay-at-home orders.

UCaaS platforms play an essential role in ensuring healthcare can take place whenever and wherever necessary. These feature-rich communication solutions and their underlying network are used to screen for COVID-19 symptoms and to keep up with the treatment for cancer patients.

The mobile health market is expected to grow to $100 billion by 2023. But the alliance between UCaaS and the healthcare industry doesn’t have to end with remote patient visits. UCaaS can empower internal hospital communication and shorten response times during emergencies.

By now, it’s clear that telehealthcare trends have been fast-tracked by the pandemic and will continue to evolve long after the pandemic is over. UCaaS is bound to play a significant and exciting role in the endless possibilities that arise when medicine and technology are forced to combine.

healthcare ucaas trends

4. Artificial Intelligence Will Play an Even Bigger Role in UCaaS

One of the biggest trends in tech is the growing demand for and use of AI. With companies collecting vast quantities of data daily, manual data analysis is impossible. This is why AI has exploded across industries. When combined with UCaaS, AI can analyze massive amounts of data for patterns and trends that inform business decisions.

The rest of the year will see UCaaS platforms integrating AI in new and creative ways, including:

  • Helping companies maintain compliance during calls by picking up words or topics that would violate regulations like HIPAA.
  • Sales coaching by recommending which products to promote and which strategies would perform best to create a better sales and customer experience.
  • Simplifying or automating specific tasks (such as scheduling) allows workers to concentrate on more collaborative or creative aspects of the task at hand.

UCaaS platforms that provide users with access to analytics and AI will distinguish themselves from the competition as AI continues to open up new worlds.

5. UCaaS Will Start Using Sentiment Analysis

Another AI application for UCaaS is sentiment analysis, which uses data mining techniques to comb through text or spoken communications (such as podcasts or YouTube videos) and identify opinions. Sentiment analysis allows businesses to extract how customers are feeling toward their brand, products, or services — and use these insights to tailor their business approach accordingly.

Using UCaaS and sentiment analysis, you can automatically analyze thousands of reviews, discussions, direct mentions, and comments on social media to see if your customers are happy. Real-time sentiment analysis can even identify issues occurring right now and help your company stop a PR crisis in its tracks.

6. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Will Take Shape in UCaaS

When coupled with UCaaS, IVR technology enables companies to segment callers automatically without the need for live agent intervention. AI-powered IVR can reduce the number of times customers are stuck listening to music on hold by quickly pairing them with the right agents or departments based on customers’ individual cases. Make your customers happy by delivering faster service.

IVR-enabled customizable scripts allow you to play messages over the phone detailing your products or services. Taking it a step further, IVR makes it possible for your customers to complete voice or keypad-prompted entries. IVR can even distinguish between accents and tones with increased accuracy, outshining traditional speech recognition software.

Surveys have shown that customers strongly prefer self-assist tools wherever possible. Self-service solutions such as automated tutorials or FAQs allow customers to troubleshoot generic issues and quickly resolve simple concerns without needing to interact with a live agent, which can be time-consuming.

As a general trend, self-assist tools powered by UCaaS and a next-gen network will increase in 2024. Self-service solutions boost customer experience while freeing up time for your agents to focus on more resource-intensive, high-value tasks. Streamlined handling with automation also helps reduce costs.

ivr and ucaas trends

7. Development of 5G Networks Boosts UCaaS Reliability and Speed

One of the biggest trends in 2022 that won’t be stopping soon is the deployment of the new 5G network. This next-generation network has already been deployed in most major cities and will soon be available anywhere that previously had 4G, potentially even reaching into new areas to expand the network.

The main purpose of 5G is to improve data speeds on mobile networks. The upgraded speed allows remote workers to use Unified Communications apps even when they’re near WiFi without creating a bad experience.

How will 5G affect UCaaS? Remote and hybrid workers now have even greater flexibility and capabilities to join video conferences, participate in remote collaboration, and take on other responsibilities when they’re not at home. This was technically possible with 4G, but typically, it created a bad experience for the user and those they were working with.

8. Video Conferencing Becomes the New Norm

Video conferencing certainly existed before the pandemic, but then it became a necessity during it. As the business world has been returning to normal, video conferencing has remained and become a new business-as-usual standard. It’s no longer a fringe way to hold meetings but the standard way to communicate.

The new norm of video conferencing is in part due to the dominance of hybrid and fully remote workers. Employees who aren’t in the office can still attend meetings, have smaller collaboration chats with their team, and participate in everything other than water cooler conversations.

The challenge of video conferencing is providing reliable and secure communications. It’s vital that not only is the conference itself secure but also that access is limited only to authorized users. Make sure that you have a robust system in place to restrict access and that the meeting host can kick anyone should an unauthorized party join.

Additionally, video conferencing provides an improved employee experience as compared to traditional in-person meetings. Even workers within the office can opt for video conferences instead of gathering together in the meeting room. This allows workers to feel less distracted and more easily transition from working to joining a meeting, then back to work.

9. Security Takes Center Stage

As the business world has pivoted to remote and hybrid environments, coupled with advanced UCaaS solutions, security has become an essential part of daily operations. The COVID-19 pandemic sparked a massive increase in cybercrime, and part of that rise was the new vulnerabilities introduced by remote workers.

Products ranging from UCaaS solutions to collaboration productivity tools need to utilize the highest security protocols available. Additional security measures, such as multi-factor authentication should also be in place to further protect your systems. You can take it a step further and embrace zero-trust architecture so that even if someone penetrates your IT assets, they won’t get far.

A single data breach can have devastating consequences, including reputation damage, fines from regulatory agencies, expensive mitigation measures, and an overall loss of revenue. It’s well worth investing in UCaaS solutions and collaboration tools with leading-edge security to protect all the sensitive data that will pass through those systems.

Take the time to evaluate the security of your current tech ecosystem and any new additions. Don’t focus entirely on pricing and features. Look under the hood and determine if anything in your current or future ecosystem might create new attack vectors that create an opportunity for cybercriminals.

Make the Most out of the Ever-Evolving UCaaS Market With Cloud Softphone

Are you searching for a streamlined communications platform that lets you pick and choose the features and overall experience you want? Are you interested in a simple, versatile, and secure tool for collaboration that will support remote work and boost productivity?

Check out Acrobits’ award-winning Cloud Softphone. We give you everything you need to create your own UCaaS. Here are just a few of the features we offer:

  • Crystal-clear audio and video calling
  • Best-in-class encryption
  • SMS and instant messaging
  • Push notifications
  • File transfer
  • API integration
  • Support across iOS, Mac OS, Android, and Windows

Build the ideal mobile VoIP app that meets your business goals using Cloud Softphone. You can rely on us for high-quality, secure communications that inspire confidence in you and your clients.

Are you interested in learning more about UCaaS platforms and how they can support your business growth? Book your free demo with a member of our Cloud Softphone team today.

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