5 Signs UCaaS Has Gone Mainstream

Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) has come a long way over the last two to three years and I think it is fair to say it has finally gone mainstream. The combination of an increasing appetite for UCaaS within enterprises and the acceptance of cloud models have brought UCaaS to forefront of communications services.

So how do we know it has gone mainstream? Here are five signs that UCaaS has gone mainstream. 

1. The Conversations You Don’t Hear

At events and in meetings, questions around reliability and viability of the cloud have disappeared. The cloud model has been proven and is trusted by the largest enterprises all the way through to SMBs. The conversations have moved away from how the technology works to being focused on ROI and business transformation.

2. The Forecasts Highlight Double Digit Growth

As the market becomes more confident in the future of UCaaS, the forecasts for its growth are in the double digits. Wainhouse Research forecasts the worldwide UCaaS market will be approximately $5.3 billion by 2018 with a tremendous 5-year compound annual growth rate of 24%. To maintain this kind of growth, the market will see a wide range of enterprises adopt UCaaS. 

3. Our Partners are Growing

We are adding new partners at a faster rate than we have ever before and our partners are winning more and larger deals. Any reluctance to adopting cloud-based services has dissipated and we see partners offer both premises- based solutions and cloud, with cloud being their primary growth driver.

4. Analysts Agree

Research firm Gartner says, “2014 is the first year in which North American multinational corporations (MNCs) should consider UCaaS as a mainstream, viable alternative for UC deployment.” It added that if UCaaS is good enough for the largest players in the market it is ready to be adopted by SMBs as well. 

5. Distributors Are Asking For It

IT channel distributors are seeing the opportunity and aligning themselves with providers like CoreDial. The opportunity is being recognized across the value chain and demand is driving different types of players to get involved.

All of these factors indicate that the market for UCaaS has a far-reaching level of acceptance. What being “mainstream” will mean is that more end users and enterprises will benefit from UCaaS while the opportunities for channel partners and distributors will grow. Mainstream UCaaS is good for the whole ecosystem.