The new set of mobile UCaaS offerings hitting the streets appears to be the perfect marriage of leading UCaaS providers and mobile operators
Prior to 2020, the demand for mobile unified communications solutions was limited and the availability of native mobile UCaaS was scarce. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and businesses were scrambling for solutions to connect employees, they more readily embraced UC providers’ mobile apps for telephony, meetings, and collaboration.
While the use of mobile apps for enterprise communications can be useful, they are not without challenges, especially in telephony. A global Metrigy study published in February 2023 of 440 companies found that only 20% of participating companies are using a mobile UC app for calling. It is easier to make a call directly through a phone’s native contact list or dialer than it is to take the additional steps to open an application and place a call through the application, assuming the data connection is good. Going through a phone’s native interface ensures the data detailing contacts and call history remain with the employee, not with the company — putting companies at a disadvantage if they’re not able to retain potentially critical customer and partner data and insights.
The market has begun to actively address the opportunity for mobile UCaaS with partnerships between leading UC vendors, most notably Cisco and Microsoft, in conjunction with leading mobile carriers. However, this opportunity is much bigger than just addressing the native dialer piece of the equation, it’s about bringing a viable calling option (voice connectivity) to platforms like Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex.
Over half of businesses worldwide are still utilizing on-premises PBXs or dedicated single-instance hosted UC platforms. The same Metrigy study noted above found that only 30% of participating companies are using multi-tenant UCaaS as their primary calling platform. Most companies worldwide have yet to migrate their calling to UCaaS, representing big upside potential for providers.
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