Enterprise communications has undergone a profound transformation over the last several years as video meetings have largely replaced conference calls and as many organizations have moved from on-premises private branch exchanges, or PBXs, to unified communications as a service, or UCaaS. However, on-premises calling platforms and self-managed PSTN connectivity still play an important, if not a growing role, in the enterprise communications and collaboration landscape.
UCaaS isn’t always the answer
The use of on-premises calling platforms has largely remained unchanged over the last year, according to Metrigy’s “Workplace Collaboration: 2023-24” global study of 440 organizations. Nearly 32% of participants use them for their calling needs. Of those still on premises, just over 25% plan to move to the cloud in the next few years. Why are these companies bucking the UCaaS trend? It’s largely due to costs.
A company running a fully depreciated and paid-for on-premises calling platform may not want to incur additional costs for licenses for UCaaS, even if doing so may reduce operational time and costs. Other factors also come into play, including 36% of organizations who view their on-premises platforms as more reliable than cloud services — some of which only guarantee four-nines availability.
Additionally, some companies prefer to maintain control of the security of their calling platforms and to more easily integrate on-premises calling applications with contact center and other business apps. Some companies also prefer a private-hosted platform, which offers many of the benefits of on premises coupled with the ability to outsource day-to-day management and switch to subscription pricing.
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