Microsoft gives its partners a variety of awards. One of them is for converged communications. An observant reader will notice that converged communications sounds a lot like unified communications, and that’s because as far as Microsoft is concerned, they’re functionally the same.
We, however, as recipients of the 2023 partner of the year award for converged communications, would like to introduce a greater convergence. There’s a way to bring Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) together in one solution to create the perfect communications environment.
On their own, UCaaS and CCaaS solutions provide tremendous benefits to organizations that use them. Being 100% cloud-based, they’re infinitely scalable and much more flexible than on-prem systems. The as-a-service model also makes them highly cost-effective.
UCaaS combines calling, messaging, video, and other communication functions on one platform. It makes communication across an entire organization streamlined and consistent regardless of how spread-out users may be.
Famous UCaaS solutions include Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Webex.
CCaaS includes omnichannel contact centers, allowing agents to reach clients by any means they’d prefer. They can integrate with CRM software and other applications to lend a boost to the customer experience.
Industry-leading CCaaS solutions include the Genesys Cloud GX and Continuant’s own C4.
When discussing UCaaS and CCaaS, it only makes sense to use both at the same time, since they provide different benefits. Convergence between the two maximizes their value.
Convergence creates a single platform that leverages UCaaS and CCaaS simultaneously. The best converged platforms are vendor and software agnostic, allowing you to mix and match the UC and contact center applications that work best for your organization.
Where before collaboration internally between users and externally with customers was siloed, convergence makes both forms easier and more efficient. For example, customer service agents can easily message users in other departments without switching platforms and risking disruptions during customer calls.
Convergence adds the customer interaction benefits of CCaaS with the real-time communication benefits of UCaaS. As chats or calls unfold, customer service agents can notify anyone and everyone across the entire organization as it happens. That data then becomes easier to share, allowing users outside of the Customer Care departments to personalize the customer experience.
Everything becomes simplified and streamlined when UCaaS converges with CCaaS. This setup reduces operational expenses, dramatically improves the user adoption process, and makes it easy to scale both platforms at the same time.
The broad applications of UCaaS and CCaaS are all well and good, but what are some more vertical specific applications of convergence between the two?
For retail organizations, convergence makes it easy to include high-level employees during customer interactions. While we don’t necessarily want to reward the “speak to your manager” mentality, this ability does make the customer experience more satisfying.
Retail organizations can also leverage omnichannel applications to create a consistent experience across both their brick-and-mortar stores and their website.
By creating seamless transitions between the CCaaS and UCaaS systems, convergence lets users in healthcare organizations communicate easily in real time during telehealth appointments. This allows them to get expert input and process referrals much more effectively.
This system also helps when following up with patients after appointments. Schedulers can use CCaaS to call or message the customer and then use UCaaS to alert their physician, all without missing a beat.
An education organization, particularly a university, uses UCaaS to communicate with faculty and CCaaS to communicate with students. Convergence simply makes it easier for both parties to exchange information in real time, reducing potential frustrations.
This remains the case in the virtual classroom. Online classes are unfortunately familiar with technical disruptions. Convergence makes it easier for teachers and professors to play the role of the customer, reaching out to IT to resolve problems while adding minimal extra disruptions.
By now you’re probably wondering, “where does one buy convergence? Is Microsoft, Zoom, or Genesys selling it right now?” While we can’t speak for them, we can speak for ourselves.
Continuant Connect is the convergence you’re looking for. It’s a platform that seamlessly combines the functionality of UCaaS solutions like Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, and Zoom, with omnichannel CCaaS solutions like the Genesys Cloud CX or C4. On top of that, it comes with award-winning services from Continuant.
At Continuant, we’ve received partner of the year awards from both Microsoft and Genesys for the services we’ve provided in converged communications. This is thanks to our 28 years of experience with both legacy voice systems and modern, cloud-based solutions.
We’ll help you design and deploy convergence of your very own using whichever platforms and applications that fit your needs.
Give us a call to get started.