What is MultiCaaS and why is it the contact center of the future?

As a contact center or IT leader, you don’t need another acronym to add to the pile. But that’s the beauty of the newest acronym in the industry, MultiCaaS—it’s the only CaaS acronym you need to operate your entire business ecosystem. MultiCaaS represents the combination of Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS). What does this mean for your customer service organization? Well, once you embrace MultiCaaS, along with value-added AI capabilities, you have a future-ready contact center. 

Omdia's recent report 2024 Trends to Watch: Unified Communications and Collaboration found that “Zoom seems to be making more traction than other vendors thus far with its MultiCaaS [solution].”

Let’s explore why a MultiCaaS, AI-led approach will help you deliver exceptional customer and agent experiences in 2024 and beyond. 

More and more customers are moving to a combined UCaaS and CCaaS (MultiCaaS) solution to improve not only their customer service operations, but the operations of their entire organization. Here are some of the reasons why:

Having one platform for all your communications helps provide a consistent experience for internal teams and customer-facing agents. Agents can reach a subject matter expert without leaving the customer call or the interface they’re working in. This is especially useful when teams are typically more widely dispersed and working on a remote or hybrid schedule. Ultimately, it’s these efficiencies that can help with faster call resolution and can positively impact CSAT scores because customers feel their time hasn’t been wasted.   

Phoenix Franchise Brands is seeing the benefits that a combined UCaaS and CCaaS platform can bring. As Riley McEntire, director of marketing and advertising, shared:

Another bonus of using one vendor for both your UCaaS and CCaaS solutions is consolidating the apps your various teams rely on daily. Okta recently found that, on average, organizations with over 2,000 employees use 211 apps. Integrating essential apps into your contact center solution helps reduce time wasted toggling between programs and minimize friction. Your agents can collaborate and communicate cross-functionally and save time by getting real-time access to customer information, including CRM, support, and payments.

You can also say goodbye to the arduous process of training employees across multiple systems. If your contact center solution is an extension of your communications platform, your employees may already be familiar with it. As Phil Caiazzo, VP of Global Support Services at AVI-SPL recognized:

Consolidating your communications into one MultiCaaS bundle will please your IT team and your budget. Managing multiple vendors can be expensive and complex. With one vendor, you can help reduce your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), save resources, and give valuable time back to your team. 

In their recent study around how companies drive success with an integrated UCaaS and CCaaS platform, Metrigy found that businesses who take a MultiCaaS approach experience significant savings on average. Not only have they decreased their operational costs by 18%, they’ve increased their revenue by 22.6%. 

AVI-SPL experienced this boost to their bottom line. By adopting Zoom Contact Center along with Zoom Meetings and Zoom Phone, it has seen an estimated overall annual savings of over $70,000.

A combined UCaaS and CCaaS platform will allow your agents to maximize their time. They can reach back-office experts easily and ultimately be empowered to deliver better service, add value, and feel more accomplished on a single, integrated, easy-to-use platform. Adrian Swinscoe, Principal, Punk CX, recently commented on the importance of a unified customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) at last year’s Zoomtopia conference:

Moreover, with a single MultiCaaS bundle from an innovative and leading provider, you can benefit from advanced technology across your entire communications stack.

Take AI, for example. Generative AI is a hot topic, poised to simplify the lives of contact center agents and supervisors significantly. Capabilities like chat and call summarization, like those available with Zoom AI Companion*, give individual agents more context to handle transferred and returning calls quickly and effectively, reducing call durations and customer frustration. Undoubtedly, the AI revolution will be transformational when creating higher-quality customer and employee experiences. It sits at the center of the MultiCaaS, single-platform approach of streamlining workflows, empowering agents, pleasing customers, and ultimately boosting business. In fact, McKinsey’s research report The state of AI in 2023: Generative AI’s break out year found that of those surveyed, 10% reported that AI had helped increase revenue from their service operations by over 10%.

The rise of MultiCaaS is already in motion, with 64% of CCaaS customers looking to buy a combined UCaaS and CCaaS bundle, according to Omdia’s recent report.

But starting the process can seem overwhelming. A good first port of call is to evaluate your CX strategy and identify your need for a single-platform solution. Metrigy’s recent report on how to combine UCaaS and CCaaS for success, along with our contact center upgrade checklist, are valuable tools that can help you with your decision. 

At Zoom, we have a philosophy of working with our customers to guide our innovation and help us develop practical and familiar solutions powered by the latest AI innovations. We’re delighted that Omdia has recognized this dedication. As noted in the report: 

But what does MultiCaaS look like in practice? Combining your UCaaS and CCaaS with Zoom could look like your Zoom Contact Center agents reaching subject matter experts in real-time on Zoom Team Chat, jumping on team calls with Zoom Meetings, and staying more connected to company news and culture with Workvivo, Zoom’s new employee engagement platform. Ultimately, this leads to a more streamlined and cost-effective organization, driven by AI, that enhances connectivity and simplifies management.

We’d love to support you on your MultiCaaS journey. Reach out and one of our contact center experts will be happy to talk you through your options. 

*Note: Zoom AI Companion is included at no additional cost for customers with the paid services assigned to their Zoom user accounts. AI Companion may not be available for all regions or industry verticals.