Unified communications tech now a must-have for SMEs

February 11th, 2021 – Large companies showed an increase of nearly 40% in unified communications adoption over the previous year, driven by the remote working surge during the pandemic.

Embracing unified communications technology was always a business imperative for organizations, as inevitable digital transformation initiatives meant that virtual collaboration tools were more in the spotlight over the past couple of years.

On-premise and cloud-based UC systems were already taking over the contact center and other customer experience (CX) roles for larger organizations. But no one could have predicted the near-overnight demand for unified communications tech from small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and indeed, from enterprises around the world, as the pandemic forced rapid adoption of remote working and digital collaboration software upon organizations of every size, worldwide.

As part of the ‘new norm’ of a remotely distributed workforce, unified communications solutions are now considered to be a business necessity instead of a luxury. And this turnaround in perception has occurred in just under the space of a year, according to new research from Ribbon Communications.

The real-time software and IP optical transport solutions provider’s annual unified communications (UC) survey measured the UC purchase drivers and buying behaviors of enterprise and SME leaders from more than 4,500 technology decision makers across 18 countries in the Americas and Europe.

All survey respondents worked in companies with workforce strengths of at least five up to more than 5,000 employees, and the study found that remote working might be here to stay even in a post-pandemic setting.

Approximately one-third of all businesses covered in November 2020 expected to adopt work from home on a more regular basis, regardless of company size: this includes 36% of large firms over 1,000 staff, 35% of midsized companies with a staff strength ranging between 100-1,000, and 31% of smaller businesses comprising of less than a hundred workers.

The survey found that for all business the three most popular unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) platforms for supporting remote workers during the pandemic for large companies were joint leading platforms Microsoft Teams and Zoom (both 27% of those surveyed) followed by Skype for Business (21%).

More…https://techwireasia.com/2021/02/unified-communications-tech-now-a-must-have-for-smes/

Written by Techwire Asia
Photo: Inside Small Business