Start Here: A Guide to Multi-UC

92% of businesses are switching lanes to hybrid Unified Communications (UC), a digital transformation of their communication environment that trades full on-prem infrastructure with on-prem and Cloud UC for a boost in security, data control, enhanced collaboration, scalability, and remote work support.

Your customers are making the same move, and they're using multiple UC vendors to curate their most optimal environment.

Let’s talk about how you can deliver a seamless on-prem and Multi-UC service experience that empowers their teams without overwhelming your IT resources. On this page, you’ll learn the benefits of a Multi-UC environment, common pitfalls, and how to overcome them. Though everyone is welcome to join the conversation, this article will be especially helpful for Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) and IT decision-makers.

What is “Multi-UC”?

“Multi-UC” refers to when businesses leverage multiple UCaaS providers for solutions that fit the needs of not only customers, but the employees, too. With a Multi-UC strategy, businesses can combine solutions from the top UCaaS providers like Cisco, Microsoft, or Zoom for a boost in productivity, user experience, and employee job satisfaction. Multi-UC solutions are communication tools and services for video, messaging, recording, analytics, and collaboration.

Embracing vendor diversity as an advantage offers greater market agility, which positions you ahead of the innovation curve. Multi-UC rides the wave of a new era, where the one-size-fits-all approach and looming threat of vendor lock-in are no longer relevant.

The Catch- UC Complexities

Much like the whole of IT, managing Multi-UC environments can be a recipe for disaster and offer a daily headache if not controlled efficiently.

Here’s what makes these environments a nightmare for any IT team:

• Maximum Effort—Every vendor operates differently, forcing IT teams to juggle separate systems, each with its own provisioning, licensing, and monitoring hurdles. That’s hours lost on manual work instead of driving strategy.
• Security Gaps—When disparate UC systems can’t talk to each other properly, vulnerable entry points throughout the networks and inconsistent access permissions allow for attacks and breaches.
• Limited Visibility— Fragmented solutions make it tough to access the data and performance metrics you need, slowing support and creating compliance risks.
• Rising Costs—The more platforms included in your UC stack, the higher the cost to keep everything running smoothly. This means more training, more security costs, and several vendor subscriptions to manage separately.
• User Frustration—End users feel when the UC environment is disjointed and fragmented. Siloed tools and metrics lead to confusion and poor adoption.

How can your customers leverage a Multi-UC strategy and turn these complexities into clear results like significant ROI and reduced total cost of ownership (TCO)?

Multi-UC Management

A UC service management platform centralizes the fragmented UC stacks and siloed tools across the network into a unified plane of existence with full visibility of the entire infrastructure. Offered as a Cloud Platform as a Service (CPaaS) solution, UC service management platforms simplify managing a Multi-UC environment, while still affording streamlined operations and the flexibility to build the most optimal UC environment for your needs. With a Multi-UC service management platform in place, an organization can:

• Dramatically reduce operational overhead and time spent on repeatable tasks. A platform with automation built into the core will automate manual workloads and free up your IT team’s expertise and skill for other tasks.
• Preserve current investment, training, and data (learn quick tips to keep your data portable).
• Avoid vendor lock-in and reduce reliance on any single vendor for UC services or tools.
• Automate migrations with a touch-free, zero-downtime approach.

Thoroughly evaluate if the platform meets all of your organization’s needs when you’re looking for a Multi-UC service management platform. Here’s what to look for when you start your search:

• Robust Security and Compliance Features – The ideal management platform allows IT teams to create individual user profiles, roles, and permissions while maintaining end-to-end security.
• Ultimate Flexibility – The complete flexibility to configure a UC environment that fits the needs of your employees and customers, despite borders and regions, is important. Your service management platform should be able to scale effortlessly as the business grows and needs evolve, adapting to different modalities of work for remote, hybrid, and on-site employees for enhanced collaboration.
• Seamless Integration – A true Multi-UC management solution can intuitively integrate all of your existing platforms, tools, and communication systems. Ensuring that your Multi-UC service management platform can do this will drive efficiency, productivity, and save valuable time and money.
• Intelligent Automation - Automate provisioning, user management, number management, and migrations so your IT team can focus on strategy, not repetitive tasks.
• Superior User Experience – All these features should blend to create a unified, intuitive experience with total oversight, the ability to create self-service portals, and effortless support.
  
  

How NUWAVE Communications can ensure a smooth Multi-UC journey

Not all UC management platforms deliver the same value. Platforms like iPILOT from NUWAVE Communications stand out by unifying automated processes with advanced migration tools, empowering you to manage the complete service lifecycle with ease.

iPILOT is an infrastructure-agnostic UC service management platform that puts the control back in your hands, enabling teams to manage the lifecycle of your UC offerings across Webex, Teams, Zoom, or hybrid environments from one comprehensive platform

Automate onboarding, slash migration timelines by over 75%, and simplify provisioning so your team can deliver exceptional customer experiences without the usual headaches. Secure, Simple, and Scalable. This is the kind of framework your service management platform should work on.

Connect with NUWAVE Communications today to elevate your Multi-UC strategy!

“NUWAVE’s iPILOT was specifically created to solve Multi-UC service management for Carriers and Partners to solve global voice and manage the full GTM lifecycle of their end customers. The iPILOT platform is always expanding and evolving to meet our partners’ needs.”
Mark Bunnell, Chief Operating Officer of NUWAVE Communications Inc.