Beyond Licensing: A Closer Look at the Total Costs of the UCaaS Lifecycle

Once upon a time, it was common for businesses to use different providers for telephony, videoconferencing, and messaging applications. But thanks to the great cloud migration, unified communications platforms now offer bundled services with everyday features that businesses desire. Not only do modern UCaaS solutions streamline communications and foster greater collaboration between employees, but they also support hybrid workstyles and enable productivity from anywhere.

With so many benefits, it’s easy to see why all-in-one collaboration solutions are in high demand. But not all UCaaS solutions are the same. Before moving to a new provider, it’s important to understand the total cost of ownership that accompanies any new technology implementation. 

To gain more clarity on these expenses, Zoom commissioned Metrigy – a research firm specializing in employee and customer engagement – to conduct a study of more than 760 IT leaders for some insight into the deployment, training, and operating costs of several UCaaS providers. 

Upon its conclusion, Metrigy discovered that when compared to the industry average Zoom:

• costs 60% less to deploy
• requires the least amount of upfront training
• needs fewer IT staff to manage the solution

Read the full study in the “Lifecycle Analysis of UcaaS Costs” report.  

When researching UCaaS solutions, it’s easy to compare providers by the costs of licenses or lists of features. In addition to those upfront expenses, there are also indirect costs that extend beyond the initial rollout and include the resources required to: 

• implement and train employees
• operate and manage the solution

Implementation costs include the actual costs associated with installing and provisioning the solution(s) and the staff or consultants who train employees to use new software. Complex user interfaces can take longer for employees to adopt and may require additional hours beyond what you might have originally budgeted. When time is money and resources are limited, implementation costs can span several months and significantly impact your budget – and even customer service – if not planned for properly. 

Metrigy’s study found Zoom’s training time to be minimal, as our intuitive platform is familiar to users in both personal and professional settings. Of the surveyed participants using Zoom, 24% of their employees required no training (compared to 17% of employees using other platforms). Among the organizations that did require training, nearly half of their employees were fully operational with Zoom in just 30 to 60 minutes. Businesses that choose to deploy Zoom can incur lower implementation costs and experience faster ramp time to productivity.     

After your UCaaS platform is initially deployed, there are still recurring costs to manage and operate your new technology. These operating costs typically include the salaries and resources attached to IT staff, contractors, and third-party managed service providers who oversee the platform, measure its performance, and assist employees with troubleshooting and daily tasks.  

This can get costly, however, if employees struggle to learn a new platform. When IT admins spend more time resolving trouble tickets than focusing on more urgent tasks, your operating costs can increase. 

Zoom’s intuitive, easy-to-use solution minimizes the need for IT help by encouraging employees to self-serve simple tasks. According to Metrigy’s research, Zoom users require 1.98 IT staff members to manage the platform (compared to the industry average of 2.78); and companies using Zoom spend 55% less on management and operating costs than the industry average. 

The Metrigy study also found that 80% of the respondents who use Zoom rely on self-service to handle more than 25% of their administrative functions. When self-service isn’t an option, Zoom favorably leads other unified communications providers by having 43% of voice troubleshooting tickets resolved in one hour or less, whereas the overall industry average is 26%. Our UCaaS solution is easy to use, administer, and maintain for the long term, thus providing ongoing cost savings long after the implementation is complete. 

Choosing a UCaaS provider requires a thoughtful approach and careful consideration of several factors. It’s important to evaluate the entire lifecycle of any new technology and budget for one-time costs, ongoing expenses, long-term spending, and hidden expenditures that move the needle in your favor. 

To see for yourself why Zoom is easier to implement, more cost-effective, and favored among IT leaders across the globe, check out Metrigy’s Lifecycle Analysis of UCaaS costs.