A recent Channel Insider report suggested that one of the most difficult aspects of the unified communications market is having more companies adopt the technology. While the platform is considered beneficial for a variety of reasons, businesses have not migrated to a UC infrastructure without first testing it. However, cloud computing may help accelerate UC use moving forward.

"Rather than begging customers to devote resources to setting up complicated unified communications systems on premise and then finding the funding for the network upgrades that almost always required, unified communications as a service promises to be a lot more accessible," the Channel Insider report said.

The news provider added that the shift to UC-as-a-Service has been in the works for years, but now that more vendors are offering such solutions, broader adoption is expected to take place. However, some challenges will remain, including convincing organizations to upgrade from their current systems.

Small and medium-sized businesses have already begun adopting technology like unified communications. Market analysis firm IDC said it expects U.S. SMBs to spend more than $138 billion for information technology this year, including for solutions like cloud computing, UC, PCs and software.

Not all hosted contact center technology is made equal, however, there are ways for a company to figure out which hosted solutions will work best for its specific needs. According to Call Centre Helper, several factors go into choosing a cloud-based unified communications or VoIP service: voice quality, security, reliability, support, flexibility and capacity. In order to best assess which option will provide the best service for the business, IT leaders need to establish the company's daily operational needs, and how to best match those requirements.

Exploring various cloud VoIP PBX options may seem like a daunting task, but with clear goals established for meeting operational needs and the business demand for security, those varied solutions can be narrowed. Additionally, the long-term plans for a business should also be considered carefully – does the contact center plan on expanding anytime soon, and will it need the flexibility that the cloud offers in this area?

By establishing these needs before looking at cloud options, a call center not only improves its chances of finding the best solution for its needs, but also in making its search far more efficient.

A business that adopts a cloud phone system needs to examine a variety of different aspects of the solution it chooses. Beyond cost and benefits like increased productivity and efficiency, customer satisfaction and bonuses for employees like teleworking, a company has to consider security and reliability before deploying a cloud-based communications network. However, another aspect also requires careful consideration – ownership of data in the cloud.

According to Business 2 Community, this is one of the top questions companies looking into cloud options ask today. However, the answer is simple – if a business deploys a service to a cloud network that it created, such as a custom unified communications solution, it retains all copyright legality. The only controversial issue remains with data created within the cloud.

Due to differing international laws, ownership of data like files from call recording or email saved in the cloud, could be dependant on where the cloud is located. Countries like China have vastly different copyright laws than the United States, for example.

In order to operate  the safest cloud-based system with full ownership, a company has to make sure that the cloud system it chooses is located in a country whose copyright laws match the business' needs.

No matter what the initiative, the deployment of a company-wide system must be smooth and structured in order to succeed. Unified communications is no exception to this rule, but has a few advantages that make it easier to do.

According to Voice and Data, the goal of any UC solution should be simplicity. However, no matter how easy the system is to use, implementing it can be complex. In order to make the process as trouble-free as possible, a business needs to approach it with goals and a structure in mind.

It is important to not only know the end-goal of the business UC service, but also the individual needs of employees that need to be met with the solution, according to the news source. UC can be broken into various aspects like voice, video and text, which make this easier. If a company does not need video conferencing support, this service can be cut, removing one aspect of the complexity.

Once these needs have been addressed, reaching structured adoption is easy. A business needs to prioritize the different aspects of the system, then begin deployment.

As unified communications solutions become more popular, one of the biggest decisions that a business must face is whether to deploy a UC system in on-site or as a cloud-based model. According to FierceEnterpriseCommunications, many companies are looking for a solution that will not tie up their own resources, instead relying on a hosted PBX and VoIP system.

Hosted UC products allow a company to take advantage of all of the benefits integrated communication tools bring without the headaches and costs associated with operating and managing that system itself. According to IT New Africa, choosing a cloud-based solution allows a business to start using UC immediately without worrying about setup and installation, reduces administrative overhead, helps to consolidate telecom bills, and allows for easier upgrades in the future. Benefits commonly associated with UC, such as cost efficiency, productivity increases and improved collaboration quality, are all still present in cloud-based options as well.

A company that chooses an on-premise UC solution has to deal with controlling its telecommunication network itself, paying more for upgrading and maintaining that system and employing highly trained IT professionals to oversee the network.

One of the most important aspects of a cloud-based UC system for a business to remember is that the entire system is managed by the vendor, which while making the solution hassle free, also removes some control. In order to overcome this potential problem, a company must explore different vendor options, choosing the solution that best fits not only the technological needs, but also the ideology of the business.

When selecting a cloud communications system, whether it's hosted VoIP or video conferencing, many vendors offer a variety of choices. The three distinct aspects to explore are security, customizability and support. Some options provide for the ability to pick and choose features, improving the adaptability of the product to the buyer's specific needs. However, these solutions may be lacking in support or security. By choosing the best balance between the three, a business will not only pick the best option for its needs, but also get the most for its investment.

Cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions provide a number of benefits for a company, though often at the cost of retraining or hiring of new IT professionals. However, according to Zohar Gilad, writing for GigaOm, there are two primary factors that any company considering a cloud phone system or data management solution needs to consider.

Gilad states that Precise, the company he works for, managed to lower it's IT budget by 70 percent, over $2 million in savings for a business with only 200 employees. Precise focused on cash flow analysis, as well as how much customization the business really needed.

According to Gilad, a custom built UC solution is often overrated. Many off-the-shelf  SaaS and cloud VoIP solutions can work for a business with very little tweaking of its own systems. In order to do this, Gilad evaluated the needs of each separate department in the company and examined what each group of employees needed to do their jobs. Ultimately, the company was able to adapt its processes to the cloud solution it found, not the other way around.

The main benefit of many cloud solutions is their adaptability. However, when considering a complex system, such as unified communications, a company may be able to save a considerable amount of money by implementing a pre-designed solution, rather than putting together products for a custom one. Additionally, many of these benefits can provide increases for productivity and sales, increasing revenue while decreasing expenses.

A recent Techaisle survey found that many small businesses find cloud solutions for data and communication tedious. Much of this comes from managing multiple-vendor services. Gilad recommends off-the-shelf SaaS cloud solutions not only because they mitigate this issue, but also because they provide more uniform support for the product, decreasing confusion and aggravation.

It is not only the responsibility of IT directors, but also other department heads and company executives, to find the best cloud solution for the business. Different groups of employees may require varied products, and being fully informed of employees' needs, as well as the budgetary needs for the business as a whole, is the only way to maximize savings and deploy the best possible cloud-based system.

Video conferencing – part of many unified communications solutions – deployment has risen, according a survey by a leading networking company.

The annual State of the Network global survey found that current enterprise video conferencing has reached a implementation rate of about 55 percent, with an increase to 70 percent anticipated by the end of 2012. About two-thirds of the respondents to the survey said they have adopted video in multiple areas of their organizations, including employee PCs, conference rooms and telepresence systems.

Additionally, the number of businesses migrating to the cloud has remained about the same, at 60 percent. However, private cloud adoption and software-as-a-service (SaaS) has increased by 10 percent since last year, and many respondents expect to be running about 30 percent of systems in the cloud within the next 12 months, including voice over IP and hosted PBX systems. Many organizations have reported it being easier to implement applications in the cloud than in previous legacy systems.

While many businesses are increasing cloud communications and collaboration systems, concerns and issues have been frequently addressed.

"While IT teams embrace cloud services and video conferencing as a way to increase cost savings and business flexibility, these technologies introduce new components and environments which make ensuring positive end-user experience all the more challenging," said Brad Reinboldt, of Network Instruments. "The reported lack of monitoring tools, quality metrics and visibility create serious obstacles that prevent IT from effectively managing performance and jeopardize costly technology investments."

Approximately 74 percent of respondents said their main concern with cloud adoption is security, while bandwidth usage was also a major issue. Problems with video conferencing deployment centered around adequate training for professionals and system users. About 53 percent stated that user knowledge was hindering successful adoption, and 47 percent of organizations said they worried about proper bandwidth monitoring.

Ultimately, cloud solutions are ranked as less of a headache than virtualization, mobility and 10Gb networking, according to the survey, with only unified communications and a move to IPv6 being less stressful. With cloud VoIP solutions, companies pay for the amount of service they use, so minimizing costs is easier, as long as the organization accurately controls the system, and bandwidth management will play a large role in increased adoption of communications technology.

A recent Techaisle survey performed in conjunction with a leading computer vendor found that cloud application deployment among small and medium sized businesses is expected to increase over 200 percent in 2012. Cloud-based applications for business, such as contact center solutions and hosted VoIP provide a number of benefits cited by survey respondents, such as flexibility, increased productivity, overall low costs, faster deployment than physical systems and simplified access.

According to the survey, most businesses that use cloud applications plan to add an average of three this year, with customer relationship management tools seeing the highest adoption rate, at 55 percent. Cloud-based CRM provides useful options such as improved call analysis, call recording and efficient interactive voice response solutions.

Many of the businesses that responded stated that the main draws to cloud-based applications like hosted PBX are the flexibility of the systems to adapt and the integration of numerous tools. Approximately 74 percent said that they were also able to use in-house IT professionals rather than outsourcing.

One of the last benefits mentioned in the survey was the increase of efficiency and productivity. The majority of small and medium businesses that have deployed cloud solutions reported seeing a 38 percent increase in efficiency and a 39 percent productivity improvement, both due to the reduction of manual processes and automation of basic tasks.

In addition to the benefits businesses receive from implementing cloud-based services, research by IDC in conjunction with Microsoft found that cloud computing and communications will create about 14 million new jobs by 2015, with revenue increases from cloud innovation reaching $1.1 trillion.

Shifting to cloud-based system, including both data and PBX phone systems, creates the need for more specialists to create new products and run those products in a business. Research analysts at IDC believe that these jobs will be created equally between small and large businesses, as the small and medium size ranges show faster adoption rates. Communications, banking and discrete manufacturing industries expect to have the largest job growth.

Ultimately, cloud adoption will lead to improvements in the global economy, according to the report, through job creation as well as the benefits, lower costs and increased revenue that businesses will see by deploying hosted solutions.

A recent study by a leading telecommunications company found that businesses that deploy a purely hosted VoIP and PBX solution save up to 43 percent of communications budgets. According to the survey, which polled 1120 senior communications staff at companies in Brazil, China, Germany, India, Russia, Sweden, the U.K. and the United States, the average annual operations expenditure per employee is about $434. However, VoIP service can reduce that cost to $248.

According to the survey, this savings is based on a comparison between 100 percent hosted PBX and traditional telephony infrastructures. While only 16 percent of respondents say their companies have already deployed a cloud solution, 45 percent say they will before the end of 2012. About 90 percent state that their plan focuses, or will focus, on web collaboration, unified communications and video conferencing.

Cloud-based communications systems provide a number of benefits other than cost savings as well. Mobility, telework and productivity improvements have also been cited as primary reasons to shift to the cloud. The survey found that one out of five endpoints for phone calls are in the office, while the majority route to cell phones or a remote location, such as a home office. Additionally, 30 percent of call center employees work from home on a regular basis – a benefit made possible by a cloud phone system.

These solutions can assist with non-communications related issues in the workplace as well. The survey recommends that a cloud VoIP system assist with low staffing issues by increasing productivity and collaboration, as well as decreasing overhead, allowing for more training for current employees. The cloud can also help address mobility and bring-your-own-device demands among workers. Many companies struggle to find a solution to allow professionals to use their own mobile devices to do work, but many cloud-based systems provide for mobility and have applications for smartphones and tablets.

By implementing VoIP PBX systems, a company can not only lower costs, but improve revenue, service, productivity and customer and employee satisfaction. With a younger, more tech-savvy generation entering the workforce as well, many companies will see cloud deployment get easier as well. These systems can go a long way toward improving a business overall.

While many companies see the advantage of adopting cloud VoIP and other communications solutions, it is imperative that these businesses use the proper type of cloud. Many do not realize there are three different cloud services: personal, development and business. In order to gain the maximum benefit from a hosted phone system, it is important that the company uses a business model.

It can be easy to go for the most attractive cloud solution, and personal clouds tend to be much less expensive than a business service, but the personal cloud does not offer the same security and support options that a business model does. According to ZDNet, moving critical IT services to the wrong type of cloud could not only negate its benefits, but also cause even more problems, including loss of revenue.

The main factors that contribute to successful cloud solutions for business communications are expert support and high security. Without these basic factors, the cloud deployment can be more of a problem for a company than a solution. Proper hosted VoIP for business provides near constant support, as well as improved safety features to eliminate data loss and provide high quality service.

Development cloud models provide both of these as well, but are often more complex than a business needs, and focus on infrastructure, according to the news source. However, a company needs a focus on unified communications application and VoIP, and not having this can negate the benefits like increased productivity and lower costs that the cloud can supply.

One thing for a company to look for to find the best business model cloud solution is integration. Full mobility integration increases opportunities for employees to telework, as well as use their own personal devices to access work. Mobility improves tablet and smartphone usability and increases cost savings benefits.

In order to get the most out of any cloud-based solution, it must provide for all the telecommunication needs that a business has, as well as include high quality support and security. If any one of these factors is absent, the service will not perform as it should, and will not bring any improvements to the company that deploys it. Ensure that IT professionals are knowledgeable on what the business wants and what the solution provides, and success will be around the corner.