What is UCaaS? Key Benefits, Top Providers, and Implementation Best Practices

Unified communications as a service (UCaaS) is rapidly reshaping how businesses manage communication in the digital era. What was once handled through separate tools — such as telephones, video calls, internal messaging, and file sharing — has now been consolidated into a single, cloud-based platform. 

As remote work becomes the norm and collaboration demands increase, UCaaS enables organizations to streamline operations, reduce hardware dependencies, and scale communication effortlessly.

The global UCaaS market is booming, with projections estimating growth to over $382 billion by 2030. Enterprises that want to remain agile and competitive are turning to UCaaS to consolidate their voice, messaging, and conferencing systems. 

In this guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know: what UCaaS includes, why adoption is growing, how top providers compare, and what challenges arise during Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) implementation.

Understanding UCaaS

UCaaS is a subscription-based communication model that delivers multiple enterprise tools over the cloud. Rather than managing separate platforms for calls, messages, and meetings, users get a single interface to handle everything, from their desktop or mobile device. 

Standard UCaaS solutions typically offer:

• Enterprise telephony (cloud-based calling);

• Instant messaging and presence detection;

• Video conferencing and virtual meetings;

• Unified voicemail, messaging, and call logs;

• Customer relationship management (CRM) integrations and contact center support;

• API-based communication-enabled workflows.

Providers manage the infrastructure, software updates, uptime guarantees, and data security, freeing up IT departments to focus on productivity rather than maintenance.

Why UCaaS Is Gaining Ground

The shift to UCaaS is fueled by increasing remote and hybrid work models. With teams spread across multiple locations, a unified system ensures everyone stays connected. UCaaS also supports scalability, and adding new users or locations can be done with a few clicks, without new hardware or contracts. It’s also more resilient, with geo-redundant servers and multiple public switched telephone network (PSTN) gateways to ensure call continuity.

Finally, UCaaS is inherently flexible. Businesses can choose to keep some on-premise systems, such as legacy private branch exchange (PBX) setups, and connect them using providers’ specialized features. These flexible deployment models make UCaaS accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Benefits of UCaaS

As businesses move toward unified communications, it's essential to understand the tangible advantages UCaaS can deliver. Some of the biggest benefits include:

Improved Productivity

Organizations can unlock new productivity levels by consolidating communication tools into a single platform. Employees no longer have to switch between disparate apps to send a message, join a video call, or make a phone call. All core communication happens in one place, on any device.

Simplified IT Management

For IT teams, UCaaS reduces the burden of managing multiple platforms and patching various security vulnerabilities. The service provider handles maintenance, updates, and compliance, freeing internal teams to focus on innovation. Further, UCaaS platforms typically include built-in redundancies and uptime guarantees, ensuring your communication system remains resilient during outages or network disruptions.

Scalability and Flexibility

Adding users is simple and often automated as your team grows or changes. The ability to deploy services instantly, without onsite equipment or long provisioning cycles, helps businesses respond faster to new opportunities or shifting workforce demands. UCaaS also makes supporting hybrid and remote work environments easier by offering access to the same tools and interfaces across desktops, tablets, and mobile devices.

In short, UCaaS aligns your entire organization around more agile, cost-effective, and future-ready workflows.

Top UCaaS Providers

With so many providers competing in the growing UCaaS market, choosing the right platform for your business can feel overwhelming. From small teams needing straightforward collaboration tools to large enterprises managing global communications, there's no one-size-fits-all solution.

Understanding what each provider offers regarding features, security, integrations, and pricing is essential. For a more detailed guide on current UCaaS pricing, read our recent post here.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is often the go-to solution for businesses already using Office 365. It seamlessly integrates with SharePoint, Outlook, and Dynamics CRM, giving it a massive productivity advantage. 

Teams supports various PSTN options, including:

• Microsoft Calling Plan: Fully cloud-based telephony with Microsoft as the carrier.

• Operator Connect: Leverages existing telecom relationships through certified partners.

• Direct Routing: Connect your own session border controller (SBC).

• Teams Phone Mobile: Integrates mobile numbers into Teams.

Certified for SOC (Security Operations Center), HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), ISO, and many others, Microsoft Teams aims for 99.99% uptime and an extensive list of features, including screen sharing, webinars, chat, bots, and more. 

Microsoft offers a range of different phone system implementations — you can choose an end-to-end cloud-based PSTN service with a calling plan, or if you need to integrate on-premise hardware, they’ll work around that, too. Standard features of Microsoft Teams include: 

• Apps, bots, and connectors;

• Audio conferencing;

• Standard, private, and shared channels;

• Chat;

• Live events;

• Meetings;

• Mobile and PC app versions;

• Screen sharing;

• Voice;

• Webinars.

Certifications and compliance are a significant consideration when previewing UCaaS providers, as one of the benefits of using a unified comms solution is the opportunity to offload a greater proportion of your compliance responsibilities onto the provider. Teams has far more certifications than can be listed here, but they include the following: 

• ISO 2700;

• ISO 27018;

• SSAE18;

• SOC 1;

• SOC 2;

• HIPAA;

• EU Model Clauses (EUMC). 

If you’re using Office 365, you likely have Teams — check with your IT administrator and find out which tier or features you can access. If you don’t use Office 365, or Teams isn’t in your bundle, you can purchase it through an authorized partner or directly from Microsoft, but be warned — Microsoft pricing tiers can be fiendishly complicated, and they change with the wind. 

At the time of going to press, you can purchase the Teams Essentials Plan for $4 per user per month. If your needs are more extensive, there’s the Business 365 Basic Plan at $6 per user per month, or the 365 Business Standard Plan at $12.50 per user per month. 

Cisco Webex

Cisco’s Webex Suite shines in video-first environments. It also integrates smoothly with Microsoft tools and offers strong encryption, zero-trust architecture, and compliance with frameworks like HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO. 

Webex supports:

• Webex Calling Plans: A full-featured cloud-based phone system offered by Cisco that supports enterprise-level calling without the need for on-premise equipment.

• Cloud Connected PSTN: Enables you to choose from a range of certified Cisco partners to provide PSTN connectivity, offering flexibility and global reach across over 65 countries.

• Local Gateway: Designed for hybrid deployments, this option allows you to retain your existing PSTN provider and on-premise hardware while accessing Webex Calling features through a secure connection.

Webex can be very smoothly integrated with the Microsoft suite thanks to features like cross-platform messaging, and a Call app that launches with Webex even if you hit the call button in Teams. Additionally, a variety of Cisco devices are Teams Meeting certified, meaning users can host Teams meetings on Webex and vice versa. 

Because Webex integrates perfectly with Office 365, you can access your SharePoint and OneDrive files and apps from within Webex. It can also be integrated with Google Workspace and a number of other 3rd-party platforms. 

Webex offers a robust portfolio of compliance certifications, which help make it one of the most trusted UCaaS platforms. Webex holds more certifications than can be listed here, but they include:

• SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3;

• ISO 27001, 27017, 27018;

• ISO 9001 certificate;

• Cloud Computing Compliance Controls Catalog (C5);

• Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) for Webex Teams;

• Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) for both Webex Teams and UCM Cloud for Government;

• HIPAA;

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR);

• Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA);

• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA);

• California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). 

There are a range of Webex plans available, each with different features and a different price point. Currently, Webex offers a free plan with unlimited meetings that includes features like local recording, calendar service integration, and advanced security. In addition, they also offer a variety of paid plans that each come with additional features: 

• Webex Meet: $144 per year; additional features include an AI assistant, 10 GB AI-powered cloud recording, and live polling. 

• Webex Call: $183.60 per year; additional features include international calling, advanced noise cancellation, and cohost privileges.

• Webex Suite (Meet and Call): $270 per year; includes all features offered by Webex Meet and Webex Call.

The Enterprise plan, with its extensive feature set, including unlimited cloud recording with FedRAMP authorized security, can only be purchased through an authorized Cisco partner through a sales engagement process to help you build a package tailored to your needs.

Zoom

The original gangster — or OG — of UCaaS, Zoom, was everyone’s first port of call during the COVID-19 pandemic. In what was a “right time, right product” scenario, Zoom owes much of its current market position to its agility during the mass adoption of remote working and early UCaaS infrastructure. There are three ways to connect Zoom to the PSTN: 

• Zoom Native Calling: Zoom provides a full-featured cloud-based phone system across over 45 countries, allowing businesses to access local numbers, direct inward dialing (DID), and a centralized platform for managing inbound and outbound voice communication.

• Cloud Peering: This method allows organizations to connect their existing carrier to Zoom's cloud PBX using a direct, cloud-based link. It offers flexibility and cost efficiency by maintaining preferred telecom relationships.

• Premises Peering: Designed for hybrid setups, this option connects Zoom's cloud telephony services to on-premise equipment through a session border controller (SBC). It's ideal for companies that want to keep their existing hardware while taking advantage of Zoom's VoIP features.

Zoom’s user-friendly interface remains a strong selling point. It can be easily integrated with major platforms like Microsoft Outlook and Office 365. Standard features of Zoom include: 

• Phone;

• Mail and Calendar;

• Meetings;

• Mobile and PC App;

• Team Chat;

• Whiteboard;

• Workspace Reservation.

Zoom maintains a high number of compliance certifications, which enable it to operate in a wide range of industries and global markets. Some of the key certifications held by Zoom include: 

• ISO 27001;

• SOC 2 Type 2;

• SOC 2 Type 1;

• SOC 2 + HITRUST;

• CSA STAR Level 2;

• FedRAMP Moderate;

• U.S. Department of Defense Impact Level 4 (DoD IL4);

• State Risk and Authorization Management Program (StateRAMP);

• Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS);

• Common Criteria;

• UK Cyber Essentials Plus;

• Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP);

• National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN);

• Esquema Nacional de Seguridad (ENS);

• BSI C5;

• Standardized Information Gathering (SIG);

• Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire (CAIQ);

• TruSight;

• CyberGRX;

• Center for Financial Industry Information Systems (FISC). 

Along with the limited free plan, Zoom offers four paid service tiers with different bonus features and varying rates. The ideal tier for you depends on the size of your business and your operational needs:

• Pro: $13.33 per user per month;

• Business: $18.33 per user per month;

• Enterprise: To be negotiated either with Zoom or a Zoom-authorized partner via a sales engagement process.

With a maximum of 100 participants per meeting and 10 GB of cloud storage, Zoom Pro may be enough for freelancers and small businesses. Zoom Business and Business Plus offer higher user limits and larger cloud storage options, as well as enhanced analytics and reporting tools. Zoom Enterprise may be the best choice for large organizations, since it offers unlimited cloud storage and allows over 1000 participants per meeting. 

RingCentral

RingCentral is known for its analytics, API flexibility, and contact center options. It supports full global coverage, enables artificial intelligence (AI)-powered contact routing, and integrates with Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace. PSTN options for RingCentral include:

• RingCentral Native Calling: RingCentral offers a robust cloud-based phone system that supports global calling, advanced call handling features, voicemail transcription, and intelligent call routing through a single unified platform. Businesses can manage numbers, extensions, and settings through a centralized admin dashboard, enabling streamlined voice communication.

• Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC): For companies operating across multiple regions or with existing telecom agreements, BYOC allows them to retain their current PSTN provider while integrating RingCentral’s features. This setup uses on-premise or cloud-based gateways to route calls, offering flexibility and preserving prior investments in telecom infrastructure.

Like any UCaaS provider, RingCentral must demonstrate compliance with relevant laws and industry standards. This helps demonstrate a commitment to user privacy and allows RingCentral to legally serve customers in a wider range of markets. Major compliance certifications held by RingCentral include: 

• ISO 27001 Certificate;

• ISO 27017 Certificate;

• ISO 27018 Certificate;

• ISO 22301 Certificate;

• SOC 2+ FINRA CSR, HIPAA Report;

• SOC 3 Report;

• C5 English Version;

• C5 German Version;

• HITRUST;

• Cyber Essentials Plus;

• SOC 2 Type 2;

• Payment Card Industry (PCI) certificate (as a merchant);

• Engage Voice PCI Certificate;

• Engage Voice PCI Attestation of Compliance (AoC);

• Contact Center EU — PCI Level 1;

• Contact Center EU —  AoC PCI Level 1;

• Contact Center EU — Matrix of Responsibility PCI Level 1;

• PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) with AOC.

RingCentral does not offer a free plan, just a straightforward set of tiers, beginning with Core ($30 per user per month), progressing to Advanced ($35 per user per month), and culminating in the fully equipped Ultra ($45 per user per month).

What To Consider When Comparing UCaaS Providers 

Going with UCaaS eliminates the headaches around choosing multiple providers for different services, voice/email/etc, but there are other factors to consider when picking a UCaaS provider, and the provider landscape is vast. When comparing UCaaS providers, you should consider these five questions: 

How Will Users Interface With the Telephony Systems? 

A big benefit of UCaaS is having a single software interface that allows end users to efficiently access all of their services. But that software interface had better be easy to use, or the productivity and efficiency gains that UCaaS is supposed to provide won't materialize.  

Going into the process, you need to understand how much interface training and other support might be needed from your provider. Platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams have surged in popularity on easy-to-use interfaces, making them strong choices for users integrating telephony services over the same platform, although this may not be true if you want telephone hardware. 

Research firms are a decent place to check quality ratings for UCaaS offerings, and in the area of ease of use, both Google and Vonage earned special mentions in Gartner’s 2021 UCaaS Magic Quadrant. 

What Other Applications Need To Integrate With Your Telephony? 

Telephony is just one of many services that may be needed, and each service has the potential to be packaged with other third-party applications and tools to provide added value. Companies sizing up UCaaS offerings need to carefully consider the range of other applications they want to support above and beyond telephony and other basic services UCaaS providers offer. 

Since early 2020, video meetings have become immensely popular, along with collaboration tools that can be integrated with meeting applications, making them top priorities for users. But applications that integrate with and enhance instant messaging, email, voice mail, transcription services, click-to-dial capabilities, CRM systems, and more are also worth considering. 

Most UCaaS providers prominently list out the applications that their platforms integrate with. Novocall Integrations, Zoom App Marketplace, and Apps in Microsoft Teams are just a few examples of third-party offerings.

Do You Want a Desk Phone? 

As a starting point, consider how married you are to dedicated telephone hardware. Gartner, in its Magic Quadrant report, predicted that 75% of enterprise users globally will not use a desk phone by 2024. Comparing UCaaS services presents an opportunity to think differently about using telephone services. Some UCaaS providers sell telephones under a one-time charge, while others rent them out. Some providers make this process easy (Vonage being one example), and others want you to buy particular platform-certified phones (the "Teams-certified phone," for example). 

An alternative to these hardware bundling options is letting users download smartphone applications that alleviate the need for a physical desk phone. Some UCaaS providers don’t even offer desk phone options. 

How Will The UCaaS Systems Be Implemented? 

Configuring UCaaS involves a dedicated amount of programming and plugging in of devices. 

Some providers let their customers do the heavy lifting, and businesses with DIY ethics and a desire for more control and flexibility — as well as an understanding that self-installation will save them an extra installation charge — are fine with that.

If you want something like a “white glove” implementation, expect to pay an extra fee. If you're utilizing a managed service provider, the installation cost could be amortized over the life of the contract and included in the monthly bill or monthly recurring cost (MRC). Before procuring UCaaS, you should determine your implementation capabilities and whether you'd prefer to handle it in-house or outsource the implementation. 

What Are The Underlying Network Considerations? 

Making a point to touch on network considerations will help you choose the UCaaS solution with the highest MOS score: 

• Internet service provider (ISP) connectivity: Unless you buy hosted PBX or UCaaS directly from your ISP, your voice calls will traverse the public internet. This could flag quality concerns, as voice calls are very sensitive to latency, jitter, and packet loss, which reach the ears of end users as break-ups, echoes, and other annoyances. Businesses that don’t like the sound of that (pun intended) should seek bandwidth assurances from hosted providers, potentially in the form SLA-backed dedicated internet connection, and a means to prioritize voice packet delivery.

• UCaaS provider peering: Most UCaaS providers have built-in geographic network redundancy to keep services up and running as outages occur. Buying a UCaaS with this kind of resilience means businesses don’t need their own redundant architecture, saving them cost and management complexity.

• Softswitch proximity: The softswitch is the UCaaS equivalent of a PBX, processing calls over the platform from different endpoints. Businesses should choose UCaaS providers with softswitch locations near their own offices and users to reduce the likelihood of call quality issues resulting from routing calls to far-away softswitches. 

VoIP Implementation: Key Challenges and Solutions

VoIP serves as the foundational technology behind UCaaS, enabling voice communications to be transmitted over the internet rather than through traditional phone lines. This allows UCaaS platforms to unify calling with other digital communication tools like chat and video conferencing into a single, cloud-based experience.

However, implementing VoIP, central to UCaaS, can come with a host of issues. Here’s how to anticipate and overcome them.

Network Instability

VoIP relies on a stable internet. Without it, latency, jitter, and packet loss can lead to call drops, delays, and echoes. Luckily, there are a few ways to avoid these issues.

Prioritizing voice traffic using quality of service (QoS) ensures that voice packets are treated with higher importance over other types of data. Additionally, optimizing bandwidth through wide area network (WAN) tools helps manage network load more efficiently. Real-time performance monitoring allows for the early detection of issues, enabling quick resolutions. Another safeguard is having redundant internet connections to ensure failover capabilities in case the primary connection fails.

Internet solutions help ensure your network is VoIP-ready with customizable WAN designs and bandwidth prioritization.

Security Vulnerabilities

VoIP opens doors to cyber threats like eavesdropping, denial-of-service attacks, and unauthorized call access. Without proper safeguards, sensitive communications and business operations could be compromised.

To protect your infrastructure, implement a multi-layered defense strategy. This includes encrypting voice data using Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) to prevent interception, deploying firewalls and intrusion detection systems to block malicious traffic, and using virtual private network (VPN) tunnels to safeguard data in transit. Additionally, AI-driven monitoring tools can detect and respond to threats in real time, enhancing the overall resilience of the network.

Automating and optimizing network procurement can streamline the VoIP implementation process, helping avoid common pitfalls such as incompatible hardware, bandwidth shortfalls, and inefficient vendor contracts.

Compatibility and Integration

Older PBX systems, outdated hardware, and firewall settings often cause problems during VoIP adoption. 

There are a few common culprits behind these issues. First, legacy technology may be incompatible with VoIP protocols, making them unusable without adapters or replacements. Firewalls that aren’t properly configured can inadvertently block legitimate VoIP traffic, while aging routers might lack the bandwidth or processing power to handle modern voice data demands. Additionally, poor interoperability between existing software and VoIP platforms can lead to functionality issues and user frustration.

A network inventory manager lets you assess your infrastructure and plan upgrades proactively. This allows you to identify shortcomings, prioritize necessary upgrades, and ensure a smoother, more reliable VoIP deployment.

Final Thoughts

UCaaS represents a major step forward for business communication, but only if implemented correctly. Success depends on thoughtful planning, from choosing the right vendor to ensuring network readiness and legacy compatibility.

Understanding both the opportunities and the obstacles positions you to build a future-ready communication stack that enables scale, agility, and a superior user experience.

If interested in considering UCaaS options, chat with us at Lightyear today.