MARKET REPORT Unifi ed Communications
Unifi ed Communications
for the SME
UC adoption is the driver for so many markets and a key constituent component of a typical Digital Transformation
journey. At last the SME is getting to grips on what unifi ed communications is and how it can help its business – and at
last there are simple, easy to understand and use solutions
For some time, there has
been a bit of a view that
UC for the SME consisted
of a PBX with a couple of
collaboration apps bolted on and
not much else, but all that has
changed.
Much of that is the shift
from CPE UC to cloud based
UCaaS and the introduction of
‘teams’ style collaboration with
messaging, collaboration, video
and le sharing by an array of
vendors – some of whom such as
RingCentral, include their Glip
teams app.
is makes for a far more
feature rich set of functionalities
but with a pay as you go
deployment model that SMEs
can consume with ease.
What are the real life drivers for
UC in the SME sector?
IanRowan, UK Channel
Manager at Wildix, says the
SME sector is no di erent than
those corporate sectors that have
already adopted UC.
“UC is about bringing teams,
along with their customers, closer
together and allowing them to
communicate e ectively using
whatever they have to hand. It’s
very sad but people no longer
want to pick up the phone to talk
to someone, in fact for many,
the voice call has become the
last resort as email and chat now
dominate. If an SME wants to
stay in touch with customers they
have to o er the ability to contact
them using smarter methods.
Would any business still
operate without email? e only
issue with email is it is a send
and forget system, send an email,
wait for it to arrive in the person’s
inbox, wait for them to read it,
hope they reply. As one of the
many tools within UC, chat is an
example of how simple customer
John McKindland,
Head of Solution
Sales, Nimans
communications can be, with
clients instantly knowing your
availability and knowing what to
expect in terms of response rather
than sending a message to an
already congested inbox. It’s these
kinds of e ciency generators
that I believe are driving SME’s
towards UC.”
Iain Sinnott, Head of Sales
at VanillaIP, says that sta
productivity and customer
revenue are the key drivers for all
businesses and the SME sector is
no di erent.
“Technology that supports
productivity and both the new
and existing customer experience
will be critical in any decision to
invest in new systems.
Business managers however
are time poor and sceptical,
so resellers need to be able to
demonstrate and justify UC tools
as well as deliver comprehensive
reporting which allows the
management to track and
recognise the di erence their
investment has made.”
According to Roy Shelton,
Managing Director of
Connectus, business e ciencies,
or rather, time and money are the
real-life drivers for UC among the
SME community.
“Wasted time is wasted
opportunities, and that is
language that resonates with
small business owners. While
technology conversation resonates
among the IT team, at a board
level, talking technology isn’t a
comfortable topic.
ere is still a massive
education taking place within
some small businesses, and
with a knowledge gap around
the technology itself, the talk
of maximising e ciencies
within a business operation is
a language that is understood,
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