Communication is the lifeblood of every successful financial firm. But in a post-CoVID-19 pandemic business world, where meeting in person for business transactions has become impractical and remote working the new norm, how do financial firms and advisors stay connected with colleagues, employees, or even clients? Think Unified Communications for Financial Firms!
To the uninitiated, Unified Communications (UC) is a platform that brings all your business’s communication channels together into one unified application to help improve your business’s communication, collaboration, and productivity. UCaaS, a short form of Unified Communications as a Service, is a way of making Unified Communications services available from the cloud to businesses.
In the thriving market of UcaaS Providers, deciding which Unified Communications platform is best for your business isn’t a walk in the park. Every UCaas provider claims to be the best at what they do. As an IT Professional in the Wealth Advisor Industry, though, you shouldn’t leave anything to chance. Your metric for deciding which way to go should go far beyond the product’s features like API Integration, Phone and Video quality, and Team collaboration tools.
While those features are never to be overlooked, you should be more concerned about the vendor’s SLA time, the Platform’s security, and whether or not the vendor is FINRA COMPLIANT. Given this, we’ve compiled a list of five (5) UCaaS vendors to consider as a Wealth Advisor.
AND THE WINNER IS…
RingCentral Office:
RingCentral Office is a fully-integrated mobile-based business phone solution that offers business communication tools for video, voice, fax, and text. Like other UCaaS in this list, it has an SLA of 99.999 percent and it integrates readily with other applications and platforms.
Other Top UC Options For Wealth Advisors:
Nextiva VoIP Software:
Nextiva brings communications together with business applications, intelligence, and automation. It brings all communications channels– voice, video, collaboration, SMS, chat, and surveys – together in one place. Aside from having an SLA of 99.999 percent, its data centers are also ISO/IEC 20071 certified. Its platform is also compliant with SOC2 and its solutions comply with PCI and HIPAA.
Virtual Office by 8X8:
Virtual Office is a collection of comprehensive web-based business VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) by 8X8. Standalone PBX, mobile support, video conferencing, softphone, SIP trunking, and Internet fax, are some of the applications the system offered within the suite. Virtual Office is not only compliant with HIPAA & PCI but also FISMA. Plus, it integrates seamlessly with many other systems.
GoToConnect:
GoToConnect is a cloud-based phone system that delivers a cloud-based unified communication solution to organizations of all sizes across the United State. It offers a PBX call routing system, automatic call distribution, broadband internet, call recording, conference calling, internet fax, and softphone. Plus, its Jive video provides cloud-based video conferencing capabilities. And with the reporting and analytic solutions of its contact center, you can easily track your productivity.
Mitel:
If your business is already integrated with the Google ecosystem, then Mitel might be a good fit for you. Mitel is a unified communications system built on the Google Cloud infrastructure. It has similar features with GoToConnect.
By and large, when it comes to Unified Communications Solutions, there are a whole lot of options for you as a Financial Firm. But every platform is uniquely different. Having a yardstick clearly calibrated would help you to narrow down the options while selecting the best fit for your business.
We’ve done the research for you. We ranked the Top 4 Unified Communication Providers for Financial Services. Download a copy of the comparison chart for the recommended unified communication solutions for financial firms.