Industry research from Gartner and Nemertes consistently shows that a majority of unified communication (UC) rollouts underperform against expectations—often cited as roughly 70% failing to meet their goals. Companies invest heavily in the promise of seamless collaboration, fewer silos, and stronger productivity, yet too often adoption lags, employees grow frustrated, and executives question whether the investment was worth it. This is a reality many CIOs and IT Directors know all too well.

The critical question becomes: why do these platforms fail, and more importantly, how can you fix them?

Will the hybrid work model be just a passing fad? As pandemics fade into memory, will companies demand that workers get back into physical offices in the name of productivity and fostering interpersonal relationships? We can’t predict the future, but the reality is that hybrid work was already a growing trend thanks to technological advancements.

Twenty years ago, knowledge workers could telecommute (a now quaint-sounding term) with voice and internet access. The experience was less than perfect, as the integration of offsite staff into onsite meetings and activities was not quite there with the existing technology. The advent of unified communication and collaboration (UCC) solutions provided powerful and scalable tools for workers to have a common platform that worked not only in the office but anywhere with a solid internet connection.

These solutions, embodied by such platforms as Cisco/WebEx, Microsoft, Zoom, RingCentral, Google, and others, provide a rich set of tools for knowledge work, unifying voice, video, messaging, collaboration, presence, and meeting tools into easy-to-use software. Further, these solutions have all moved into cloud-hosted SaaS (Software as a Service) models, making them easier to administer, manage, and scale.

How does this unified communication as a service model impact hybrid work? Read on below for more