UCaaS Concerns/Challenges for SMBs

• In a report released by Synergy, 40% of SMBs cited that the top challenge to adopting UCaaS was an inability to secure funding.
• Supporting this statistic, a study by AT&T reported that SMBs are more conservative when it comes to investing in communications technology than larger enterprises due to limited access to capital.
• SMBs also cite a lack of an internal IT resources to ensure reliability of using UCaaS. However, modern UCaaS solutions do not require an internal IT department to set up and manage.
• Many SMBs do not understand the long-term benefits, cost savings and ROI of adopting UCaaS. Many UCaaS companies are targeting SMBs by focusing on educating SMBs of the benefits.
• A 2018 study by Intermedia found that the top UCaaS decision factors for SMBs were: Reliability (63%), price (57%), features (50%), quality (47%) and support (35%).

UCaaS Needs: SMBs vs Large Enterprise

• SMBs typically need standard UCaaS solutions that are found in pre-built integrations. Larger enterprises typically require great deal of customization and more specific, sophisticated integrations.
• The most requested features of UCaaS for SMBs are "voice, video, screen-sharing, messaging, document sharing, and persistent storage." In addition to these features, larger enterprises are more interested in "usage analytics and business insights" features as well.
• Since smaller businesses have fewer employees that tend to "wear more hats", SMBs require more tools to increase productivity and efficiency than their arger enterprise counterparts. SMBs are beginning to recognize the benefits of UCaaS as a means to increase efficiency and productivity, thereby leveling the playing field and making them more competitive.
•  Reliability is a major concern of SMBs when considering UCaaS. Larger enterprises typically have an emergency plan for disaster recovery. SMBs offer assurance of reliability during bad weather or other disasters.