The Channel Partner Opportunity to Help Businesses Deploy UCaaS, CCaaS TogetherThe Channel Partner Opportunity to Help Businesses Deploy UCaaS, CCaaS Together

Prior to the advent of the cloud, most communications technology solutions were purpose-built, with prime examples being the PBX for telephony in the enterprise, and a multitude of applications that were only used in contact centers — ACD, IVR, WFM, CRM, call recording, etc. During that time, the elements were mainly hardware-based, and required specialized equipment and IT expertise to both deploy and manage. The pace of change was much slower than today, and beyond a few basic software patches, these solutions performed at a high level so long as the environment did not change much.

The Rise of Cloud and UCaaS for Integrated Communications

The rise of cloud communications radically changed that dynamic, mainly because as hardware-based applications became software-based, it become possible for the first time for integration to occur among them. This, in turn, gave rise to platforms that could seamlessly support applications that previously operated in standalone fashion.

For most businesses, unified communications as a service (UCaaS) became the first cloud-based platform to gain adoption, whereby telephony, email, chat, conferencing, video, etc., could all be managed from a common interface. Not only did that allow IT leaders to move away from aging hardware, but being a SaaS offering, UCaaS was subscription and consumption-based, as opposed to being a capex-based asset for the enterprise.

Related:CF20: 2024's 20 Top UCaaS, CCaaS Providers Making the Most of AI

With technology changing so quickly, cloud-based offerings represented a better way for IT leaders to keep pace. Managing hardware onsite offers a greater degree of control - which is important to IT – but the acquisition cost is high, and the limited ability to adapt to changing needs made ownership a less attractive proposition.

Conversely, with software-based platforms being easier and cheaper to develop than proprietary hardware, it became much easier for new players to enter the market. While competition is always a good thing, this meant that IT leaders had more UCaaS vendors to choose from than ever before. For many decades, voice was the sole domain of telephony, but once it became a data application, vendors with no telecom pedigree could enter the market.

The same scenario is unfolding now in the contact center space, where contact center as a service (CCaaS) is becoming the norm for the same reasons UCaaS has done the same in the workplace. Given the complex and highly specialized nature of the contact center, this evolution has lagged UCaaS, but it is following the same trajectory. Software has replaced hardware, and with the proliferation of CCaaS vendors, this has also become a very crowded space.

Related:Channel Futures' Top UC/Contact Center Leaders for 2024

The Rationale for Deploying UCaaS, CCaaS Together

With UCaaS and CCaaS following similar tracks – along with other widely used cloud offerings such as CPaaS and CRM – the cloud model has largely displaced premises-based systems. The appeal for IT is understandable – no capital investment, easy to deploy, applications always up to date, etc. – but with so many cloud offerings – and cloud vendors – IT is faced with a different problem. Rather than being hands-on and managing familiar technologies, IT is essentially outsourcing these solutions, often to vendors with which they have little history, and for technologies that are relatively new for them.

For IT, the new challenge becomes one of managing many – or too many – of these types of vendors. Aside from having such a big number of vendors to manage, without a deep understanding of how these cloud platforms work, it’s difficult to see the opportunities for where cross-platform integrations make sense. For IT to get full value from this sprawling investment in so many cloud platforms, they need to simplify things. This means dealing with fewer vendors, and managing fewer platforms.

Vendors are keenly aware of this issue, and with UCaaS and CCaaS both being deployed so widely, there has been a strong shift to offer these in an integrated fashion. The rationale is fairly self-evident; both platforms use many of the same applications — telephony, chat, email, video, digital channels such as social media, etc. While contact center workers don’t have much everyday interaction with office-based workers, agents often need to engage with subject-matter experts outside the contact center — and they could be located anywhere across the organization.

In this context, UCaaS and CCaaS are highly complementary, and it’s not surprising that most vendors originally rooted in one of these spaces now offer both. For the vendors, there’s a strong rationale to simplify their architectures by supporting both solutions on a common platform, and for buyers, this helps simplify operations as well as the pool of vendors they have to manage.

Coming back to the start of this article, in a pre-cloud world, when there was good reason for PBX and contact center providers to live in separate worlds – and no good reason to do otherwise – the climate today is one where these two spaces may have different needs, but can now be supported by one vendor with an integrated platform. That may have been unthinkable 20 years ago, but today, it’s becoming a must-have for UCaaS and CCaaS vendors alike.

How Channel Partners Can Help IT Leaders Properly Integrate UCaaS, CCaaS

That said, not all cloud communications providers are created equal, and IT leaders must carefully evaluate the best fit for their needs. This presents an opportunity for channel partners in terms of doing their own evaluation of the landscape — not just for the familiar vendors, but for those who will be new for the end buyer.

“Delivering integrated UCaaS and CCaaS solutions simplifies operations for our clients, boost steam productivity, and creates a seamless customer experience. By combining these platforms on one native solution, businesses can focus more on growth and less on managing disparate tools.”

—Jerry Goldman, CEO, Select Communications

In cases where customers are early in their cloud journey – this will be especially common among small and medium-sized business – IT leaders will have limited expertise in understanding these new technologies, along with the realities of deploying SaaS-based offerings and the benefits they should expect to realize.

The business case may be clear, at least in terms of streamlining the technology stack and dealing with fewer vendors, but for IT leaders to make good vendor choices around integrating UCaaS and CCaaS, channel partners have a value-added role to play. To make the most of that, here are three best practices to guide both the decision-making and buying process.

1. Evaluating the technology pedigree of each vendor. For businesses that have been using separate vendors for UCaaS and CCaaS, there may be an inherent level of trust with each, and it might be easy to assume that trust will carry over to the other side. Some vendors with roots in legacy telephony will also have native contact-center expertise, in which case these two platforms should integrate pretty seamlessly.

Others, however, will only be native to one, and will typically partner with other vendors in order to offer both together. That scenario will pose more integration challenges, and most vendors can manage that, you’ll need to consider which vendor integrates the most seamlessly, not just between UCaaS and CCaaS, but also with other applications that are specific for each platform.

2. Assessing capabilities for both cloud and premise-based technologies. The technology pedigree that vendors bring for UCaaS and CCaaS cannot be considered in a vacuum. Important as that is, you must also consider their native roots. Vendors grounded in legacy technology – both for telephony and contact center – know how to address all the challenges that businesses had to manage in a pre-cloud world. Conversely, of course, they may lack some core expertise that cloud platforms require.

Newer vendors that are cloud-native didn’t have to go through that learning curve with legacy technology, and for businesses just starting their cloud journey, there might be some risk going with one of them. In these scenarios, channel partners need to be attuned to how a legacy, premises-based mindset might have some hesitancy about integrating these platforms with a vendor that is entirely cloud-based. This is especially true in cases where only some elements will be integrated in the cloud, while others will remain on-prem.

3. Determining best fit for the customer based on their business. Technology aside, channel partners must also consider the business-level requirements for the customer. First would be their vertical, as each has a specific set of needs, both for the workplace as well as engaging with customers. While some communications needs are truly horizontal, value also comes from supporting needs that are distinct to a vertical, such retail, hospitality, health care, banking, etc.

Each will have specific workflows, along with communications modes and endpoints that work best. This applies to UCaaS and CCaaS when offered on their own, but especially when integrated. Channel partners need to ensure that the vendor of choice has real expertise in a particular vertical — there is much more involved beyond providing simple connectivity or selling at the lowest price.

The same can be said for the size of the business. Most business entities have fewer than 100 employees, or even below 25. Their needs and criteria for vendor choice will be very different from large enterprises. This is especially true in large contact centers, where complex integrations make it challenging to consider adopting cloud, with or without UCaaS being part of the plan.