Unified Communications & Collaboration Solutions

When voice and collaboration tools are integrated into a system that allows easy flow of communication among devices, it’s called unified communications and collaboration, or UCC.

Just as a line is the shortest distance between two points, unified communications allow businesses to make the fastest possible decisions and transactions. UCC allows users to communicate in whatever manner best suits their needs or situation. And the individual tools are interconnected so that access is streamlined and efficient.

Mitel offers industry-leading unified communication solutions for businesses of all sizes. All of our voice solutions can be expanded into full, feature-rich UCC solutions. And because we give you the option to run our powerful solutions on our hardware or on your servers through software, you can expand on your terms and your timing.

Mitel also offers voice and unified communication solutions as a service. Our cloud capabilities mean you can skip the hardware and servers altogether and instead subscribe to a UC system using our data centers. This means no long-term commitments or capital expenditures.

Mitel has been delivering business communications solutions for more than 40 years. Our solutions are simple yet comprehensive and include core software, phones, headsets and robust applications such as contact center solutions and a suite of mobile capabilities. Our solutions adhere to industry standards, offer the highest reliability and unprecedented freedom and flexibility. 

See our unified communications and collaboration systems >

Table of Contents:

• Unified Communications and Collaboration Defined
• Common Abbreviations
• UC vs. UCC
• UC and UCC Platform Elements
• Choosing A UC/UCC System
• Benefits of Unified Communications and Collaboration
• Impact of Unified Communications and Collaboration
• Unified Communications and Collaboration Results
• UC Installation, Maintenance and Services

Definition of Unified Communications and Collaboration: What Does It Mean?

Common Abbreviations

What does UC stand for?
UC stands for unified communications.

UC vs UCC: What’s the difference?

Elements of a UC / UCC Solution/Platform/System

The list of potential UC components, features and functions is potentially endless, but here are some of the most common and most important elements for unified communications and collaboration solutions:

• Core phone system / voice controller switch 
• Desk phones
• Conference phones
• Voicemail / Unified messaging 
• Auto attendant / IVR / Digital receptionist
• Presence indicator
• Chat tool / Software
• Group chat tool / Software
• Team collaboration tool / Software
• Audio Conferencing
• Videoconferencing
• Screen sharing

What's the Best UC/UCC System for My Company or Organization?

What’s the best cloud unified communications and collaboration system for small businesses?

What’s the best cloud unified communications and collaboration system for midmarket/midsize businesses?

What’s the best cloud unified communications and collaboration system for enterprises and large businesses?

The Three Major Benefits Of Unified Communications And Collaboration

When you embrace unified communications and collaboration, you can increase employee collaboration and productivity in three major ways.

1. Reduce time wasted

Unified communications and collaboration enables real-time presence across your organization, giving employees instant insight into their coworkers’ availability to connect via voice, IM or video. This at-a-glance information, which can be automatically retrieved from employees’ existing calendars, can reduce communications latency by making it easier to find the right person and get an answer to a business question.

2. Connect geographically dispersed employees

The reality is, today’s business is global. In order to truly leverage top talent across the globe, businesses can use unified communications and collaboration to make it easier for employees in multiple locations to work on projects. To bridge the geographical distance, unified communications and collaboration’s teamwork components are key to enabling real-time collaboration even when in-person interactions are not feasible or ideal.

3. Provide freedom of choice for maximum ROI

Adopting a complete unified communications and collaboration strategy lets your employees communicate the way they prefer by eliminating the need use a specific device or be in a set location. It’s becoming nearly impossible for businesses to operate without a solid BYOD policy, and the dangers of Shadow IT should be enough motivation for any organization to ensure it’s taking a proactive approach. A mobile-first, any-device strategy for business communications can greatly improve user adoption to maximize your productivity benefits.

What Impact Does Unified Communications And Collaboration Have?

Hyper-connected. 24/7. Always-on. Pick your adjective for today’s business environment. But no matter how you classify it, the current speed of business puts pressure on organizations like never before. And your ability to quickly find and communicate with the right people, access data, and exchange information can make the difference in business success or failure.

With unified communications and collaboration, you can address these challenges by helping people connect more efficiently and intuitively. You can use unified communications and collaboration to bring together multiple forms of real-time and historical communications, like voice, video and data services, and software applications into a single environment, making it easier to connect. Business processes improve as a result.

The Proven Results Of Unified Communications And Collaboration

Organizations that leverage UCC tools report 20-25% increase in productivity and save 3 hrs / week per mobile worker. 

Studies have shown organizations save time and money by:

• Reaching people on the first try

• Switching between methods of communication to improve information exchange (e.g., Turning a chat session into a multi-party conference call or video conference with a few mouse clicks)

• Reducing expenses and employee downtime due to travel

• Extending office applications to mobile workers
• Giving employees more flexibility to work from any location

Organizations that leverage unified communications and collaboration tools are more efficient, with 60 percent saving three hours a week per mobile worker. Companies also reported a 20-25 percent increase in productivity.

Collaboration tools can also save businesses money, as the cost of an inefficient communications strategy in a mid-sized organization is about $11,000.

Installation, Maintenance and Services for UC