What is a Cloud Communications Platform
The Complete Guide

1. Enterprise Unified Communications Solutions in 2021

2. Case Study: Rise to the COVID-19 Communications Challenge

3. Bria Enterprise

4. The Complete Guide to Enterprise UC

With a Cloud Communications Platform, picking up a phone and dialing a number is effortless and easy.  We often don’t consider the complexity of what is happening to connect us to another person in the next room, or across the globe. If you consider all the technology required to connect you to the right person it can be mind boggling.  

For an enterprise organization it’s often more complicated to connect team members to customers. There are many layers of technology and infrastructure required to route an incoming call to the correct person. Once the technology and infrastructure is in place, significant planning and logistics is still required to ensure the call gets to the right person.  Enterprise organizations spend a lot of money, time, and effort to build, and support, complex IT systems.

One of the ways enterprise organizations can get more out of their IT investments, and increase agility, is with a Cloud Communication Platform.  The requirements needed to run a communications platform, including the complexity of switching, storage, security and routing, is frequently not your core business. Rather than building the in-house expertise, and using valuable resources to operate yourself, a Cloud Communications Platform allows your business to access the benefits of highly scalable and cost effective solutions through the cloud.  

Cloud is a simple term we use to reference something very complicated — the interwoven computing platforms, networks and applications we connect with through the internet. Rather than needing to have a large computer (server) in office, in order to store and share files, all of the computing, storage networking, and application resources are enabled through the internet. 

Key providers provide an enormous resource of computing power, that your team accesses a small portion of. This allows your team to access just the right amount of computer power or storage you need at that moment, rather than being responsible for  running an enormous server. This frees up your IT team to focus on what’s important for running your business, not on the complexities of ensuring servers are secured, cooled and maintained.  Utilizing a Cloud Communications Platform significantly reduces your costs and dramatically increases your business agility.  

A Cloud Communications Platform offers a range of vital functionality such as voice and video calls, instant messaging, document sharing, conference calling, collaboration and more — All of which your team has access to through an integrated suite of software. With the functionality and tools living in the cloud, your business has access to the perfect amount of computer power or storage power — rather than paying for, and supporting, more than your business needs. 

The entire suite of software runs in the cloud, meaning your IT team is free from managing upgrades, security patches, maintenance windows, and provides an additional layer of security to protect your network from hackers and in intrusions. The best Cloud Communication Platforms also provide the added benefit of an easy to use, powerful, and highly secure administration interface. The administrative interface may not seem thrilling, but it provides an increased level of control for administrators to easily add users, remove them, change permissions, support end user technical issues and more. that let’s administrators easily add and manage users — given your team back valuable time and effort to redirect their attention to items that are core to your business’s success. The benefits of a Cloud Communications Platform are almost limitless, providing scalability, office and worker location flexibility, and access to the latest tools, updates, and technology that keeps your business ahead of the curve. 

With a Cloud Communications Platform, new features roll out at the speed of the cloud. When a new feature is available, or an enhanced security patch, it is automatically rolled out to your team. In addition, because the service is not tied down with physical equipment it is easy to scale the platform up and down — providing your business the ability to reduce costs, or quickly scale as needed. 

One of the key benefits of a Cloud Communications Platform is that as new technologies emerge, your platform provider is hard at work integrating and enabling them. Your platform provider has an enormous client base, so they’re always innovating to be competitive. As new devices or cultural trends emerge (say, a global pandemic forces everyone to work from home) your provider is innovating on the latest features to ensure you have an exceptional experience.  

At a high level, features fall into the following 3 categories. 

Platform Services

Platform services are the elements that enable you to administer, report, and roll out the platform to your team.  It includes web portals that enable you to create and administer profiles, connect services, and enable your security team to set configurations. Some platform services may include:

• Data services to allow you to create reports, monitor analytics and populate databases. 
• Carrier services that connect you to phone numbers, text messaging, and 911 emergency services. 
• User experience services to help with management and help desk inquiries get solved quickly, and allow your support team to track metrics. 
• Service integration services allow your IT team to integrate single sign on, automation services, and other items that make your team’s life easier and keeps your security team compliant.

Communication Products

Communication services are the ways your team will interact with the services of the Cloud Communications Platform. Cloud Communication Platforms provide a range of connectivity channels such as:

• UC voice applications allow you to automatically dial and connect from your desktop or mobile phone.  
• Cloud meeting services allow you to video conference, screen share, and message your team.  
• Business text messaging enables 2-way chat, automated messages, and campaigns. 

Core Services

The core services of a Cloud Communications Platform have core services, including being cloud native, carrier grade quality, advanced security, and scalability. The quality, security and stability of the cloud are core elements within a Cloud Communications Platform. Carrier grade services can provide geo-diverse redundancy that protects your uptime, and limits downtime. 

The suite of functionality and core services provided by a Cloud Communications Platform allows your business to reduce costs, while improving productivity.  Your organization will also benefit from dramatically simplified operations and an ease of management that can’t be matched with on-premise solutions.

At CounterPath, we understand that communication remains the heart of every business, particularly with remote working on the rise. As a result, we are empowering businesses of all sizes with our Cloud Communications Platform.

Bria Teams: For internal teams or small businesses, start communicating quickly with team voice, video, and messaging.

Bria Enterprise: For call centers or small to mid-sized enterprises, Bria Enterprise supports HD voice and video calling with any call server or VoIP provider.

Custom Solutions: Create a custom, branded solution for 200+ users.

Bria converges calling, messaging, presence, and collaboration tools into one secure, streamlined interface. Integrate your company’s VoIP service or call server to extend corporate calling with crisp, clear calls and access robust Unified Communication call control features.

All our solutions are scalable, secure, and cost-effective. By switching or augmenting your current communication system to include VoIP, organizations can realize immediate benefits including real-time collaboration and cost savings.