2023 Workplace Collaboration MetriStar – Unified Communications as a Service

Four providers earned Metrigy’s 2023 MetriStar Award for Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). The value of the MetriStar Award is that it is based on customer ratings of providers and quantitative metrics correlating the use of a vendor’s products and services with measurable business success.

Unified Communications as a Service: UCaaS is a cloud-based suite of integrated communications and collaboration applications. At a minimum, UCaaS offerings must include calling to and from the public switched telephone network (PSTN). UCaaS may be sold as telephone-only services or be bundled with other UC features including meetings, messaging, and contact center. All applications for call control are hosted by the service provider, though customers may deploy local equipment for PSTN connectivity and remote site survivability. Endpoints may include software apps, physical phones, or conferencing devices. Services are typically sold on a per-user license basis, with most vendors offering volume and length-of-term discounts. UCaaS may include bundled PSTN access and/or the ability for customers to use their own PSTN connectivity services (an approach known as “bring your own carrier,” or BYOC). UCaaS providers may also offer additional options for long-distance or 800-number service as well as SMS/MMS.