UCaaS & CPaaS: A dynamic duo

The nature of how we communicate with one another, and how companies communicate with their employees and customers, is rapidly changing. Many companies have already introduced UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) to improve collaboration across teams. In fact, the unified communications space is expected to grow from $14 billion in 2015 to $49 billion by 2023. While businesses are finding success or making the decision to move to UCaaS, a new player has entered the communications space – CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service).

Whether you are just getting started with UCaaS or have been using it for a while, new technologies such as CPaaS might make you rethink if you are getting the most of your solution. How do you determine which can better serve the needs of your business? The good news is, you don’t have to. While there are differences between them, UCaaS and CPaaS complement each other well. Keep reading to learn how can they be used together.

What is UCaaS?

Unified communications (UCaaS) is a cloud-based service that provides communication and collaboration tools which can easily be deployed across multiple channels and devices. UCaaS allows you to combine the functionality of multiple communications applications into one. With communication needs combined, your workforce becomes more connected to your business, so they can work more efficiently inside and outside of the office. Unified communications have gone from a nice-to-have to a necessity as 70% of the global workforce works remotely at least once a week.

The new kid on the cloud – CPaaS

Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) is also a cloud-based service that allows developers to create their own applications and workflows. Developers can program applications that fit their exact business needs and give customers the best experience available. Think SMS, voice, and video capabilities embedded in your customer-facing applications. This technology connects people with calendars, directories, and CRMs, giving them access to useful information and context while they communicate.

UCaaS vs. CPaaS

As the workforce embraces remote work structures, the need for dynamic communication tools grows beyond the realm of internal and external communications. Combining the abilities of both UCaaS and CPaaS gives companies the ultimate control over their communications. While UCaaS is built to connect your workforce, CPaaS give you the power of creating your own communications applications to fit the needs of your business. While UCaaS solutions continue to address companies’ internal and external communication and collaboration needs, CPaaS solutions have emerged to fill in gaps in business communications. CPaaS is not always meant to replace existing unified communications solutions, but to enhance them.

A company can build out their own communication flows using the APIs provided by CPaaS to best utilize their communication tools provided by UCaaS.

We’ll give you an example. Say there is a power outage at a major cable provider’s headquarters that shuts down the office and disables their service for some of their customers. Both employees and customers need to be informed as quickly as possible. The IT team can quickly create communication flows to trigger the notifications and capture employee and customer read receipts. The HR team can notify their employees with that communication flow through their UCaaS applications. The same flow can be used to reach customers or a different one can be created. With the help of CPaaS APIs and UCaaS applications, this cable provider is able to connect with the customers and employees quickly and seamlessly, helping employees be proactive and ensure customer satisfaction.

A Dynamic Duo

We’re here to help!

While the waters of cloud communications may be a bit murky to navigate, the benefits are clear. Combining UCaaS and CPaaS gives you the control and flexibility to create communications applications that are integrated into your business processes. Our Atmosphere Communications Platform was built to help enterprises get the most out of business communications, create a better customer experience, and streamline operations.

It’s easier than you think to get started, contact us today, our team of professionals are ready to help!