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Unified communications as a service, or UCaaS, has become a critical asset in modern business, according to industry leader Peter Alden. As the Sales and Marketing Director at Axis 4, Alden has seen first-hand how these technology solutions are reshaping workplaces across Australia and New Zealand.

Speaking on 10 Minute IT Jams, Alden emphasised just how essential UCaaS technology has become in supporting hybrid work environments. "UCaaS, unified communications as a service, is absolutely critical in new work," he said. "Employees were fantastic in supporting businesses by having people working three to a desk in homes. The flexibility of UCaaS allows us to do that."

He added, "Moving forward, our employees are really wanting to embrace the benefits of hybrid work, and what UCaaS allows us to do is ensure there's a balance between the flexibility that employees want and the assurance for employers that their customers are being serviced and are getting a great experience."

Alden described UCaaS as the "bridge" between two sets of priorities: staff seeking flexible arrangements and employers needing collaboration, involvement and strong customer service. "UC provides that," he explained.

The disruption caused by the pandemic, along with a series of subsequent challenges - power outages, natural disasters and even sophisticated cyber attacks - has triggered a lasting period of uncertainty for businesses large and small. Alden said, "The only thing we can be certain about is more uncertainty. There's a lot going on."

In this environment, the flexibility UCaaS provides has grown in significance. "It gives you the flexibility to work anywhere, anytime," he said. "No matter what comes over the hill, be it a malware attack, outages or natural disasters, businesses can move quickly. They can keep the customer services running, keep the invoices flowing and keep those enquiries answered with the same level of engagement and accountability as if everyone is in the office."

Alden pointed out that, despite a focus on data continuity and cybersecurity, businesses too often overlook their voice infrastructure. "A lot of focus is around data resilience... but if a partner is talking to you about business resilience and they're not talking to you about voice resilience, they're only talking to you about half the problem," he said.

When it comes to small and medium-sized enterprises, he believes many would prioritise their voice lines over data if forced to choose. "Voice is absolutely imperative," he stated. "It's really important that when businesses are talking about business resilience, they're looking at both sides: voice and data."

He also encouraged managed service providers and security professionals to regard voice resilience as a new revenue and value opportunity. "If you're not talking about voice resilience and continuity, and you don't have an answer to that, then you're leaving some revenue on the table. There are opportunities to talk about having a full resilient solution, and that can be delivered by partnering with experts," Alden said.

Looking ahead, Alden highlighted the top three UCaaS trends for the coming months. "Hybrid work is number one," he said. "It's not just a blanket 50/50 split between office and home: effectively, you've got to deal with 100% of your staff working somewhere else from an office at some point in that week. How businesses are grasping and grappling with that is very much front of mind."

He continued, "Second is that voice resilience. We've gone through power issues, floods and fires... how do I build resilience into my communication stack?"

The third trend is the democratisation of enterprise-grade communication tools for smaller organisations. "Enterprise-grade communication tools are now being made available to small and medium businesses: call centre software and analytics, for example," Alden said. "What the big end of town used to have in massive call centres, we can now deliver very easily. That gives real benefits to smaller businesses and gives them flexibility."

Expanding on this, he described the effect such tools have on recruitment. "What that also does is expand our net for talent," Alden said. "The war for talent is a significant challenge in the Australian market. These tools widen your net to allow you to take the best person for a role, not just someone who lives within 30 kilometres of your office."

When asked who businesses should approach for successful UCaaS deployments, Alden had clear advice: "Managed service providers and communication service providers are perfectly positioned, particularly in Australia and New Zealand, when they're partnering with the right vendor. They are the user's trusted advisor around UC."

He was keen to differentiate between these service providers and traditional telecoms companies tied to legacy technology. "Your trusted advisors, the managed service providers and your voice provider, they're the ones embracing this technology already," Alden said.

He explained that managed service providers do not need to be experts in voice communications themselves: "They're working with a partner who is, and that's a really good combination. You've got someone who's an expert and advocate for the customer, partnered with us as an expert in UC. That delivers really nice outcomes to the end customer."

The discussion concluded with Alden expressing optimism about the future. "We're really democratizing these services," he said. "What the big end of town only had in massive call centres, we can now deliver very easily and deliver some real benefits to smaller business that gives them that flexibility."

"That flexibility, that resilience, that talent reach - that's what UCaaS is enabling for businesses right now," he added.