Looking At UCaaS? Start With The Forrester Wave™ for Unified-Communications-As-A-Service Platforms, Q3 2025
Hey IT champions, let’s talk UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) and why the latest insights from Forrester Research matter for your next‑gen comms stack.
If you're steering the ship for your company’s communications platform, voice, chat, meetings, and contact center, you’ve likely felt the pressure. The vendor dice roll is intense. New features, AI promises, and uptime SLAs dominate the slide decks. But does what analysts are saying really matter?
Enter The Forrester Wave™: Unified‑Communications‑As‑A‑Service Platforms, Q3 2025. This report evaluates twelve of the most significant UCaaS providers and benchmarks them across critical dimensions. If you're currently comparing vendors, building the RFP shortlist, or lining up demos, then this is a must‑read.
Here are two key insights you can bring to your decision‑making right now:
1. Reliability and resiliency still sit at the top of the scoreboard.link to this section
Too often, UCaaS discussions become all about flashy features such as “look at our AI bot,” “we have meeting‑transcript analytics,” or “we integrate seamlessly with everything!” But Forrester underscores that underneath all the gloss is a simple truth: systems must work. They must stay up. They must fail over. They must keep your people connected. One notable call‑out: local backup/site survivability devices (failover support) are no longer optional; they’re expected.
What this means for you: During vendor evaluation, don’t let uptime SLAs and backup mechanisms slide. Make sure the vendor covers phone, messaging, and video in failover scenarios. Ask: “What happens when the primary data centre goes down? How fast is the recovery? Do we have documentation/proof of prior events?” These are the kind of inquiries Forrester says separate the field.
2. AI and integration are no longer “nice to have”. They’re baseline competitive must‑haves.link to this section
You’ve heard it: “AI is everywhere in UCaaS.” But Forrester goes deeper: it’s not enough to claim AI. The real value comes when the AI connects intent to action, automates real work, and unifies across modalities: meetings, chats, voice, and CCaaS.
Similarly, cross‑vendor and cross‑modal integration is gaining serious weight. In a world where your contact center may be one vendor, collaboration another, voice yet another, the ability to bridge those silos wins points. Forrester flags that, while some progress has been made, there’s still significant work to be done on true interoperability.
In your role: Drill vendors on their AI roadmap. Ask: “What AI‑driven outcomes are standard versus premium?” “Can the AI pull data from our CRM and automate next‑step tasks from a meeting?” On integration: “Can this platform tie into our existing CCaaS system seamlessly? What about our legacy voice infrastructure?”
Why this matters now.link to this section
As hybrid and remote work models continue evolving, your UCaaS platform isn’t just an IT utility anymore; it’s one of the key enablers of productivity, experience, and agility. If you pick a platform that keeps faltering, or only delivers AI fluff but not real action, you risk:
- Wasting budget on features no one uses.
- Creating user frustration (which leads to shadow IT).
- Getting locked into a platform that can’t integrate into future needs.
On the flip side, pick one aligned with the Forrester‑highlighted standards, reliability, action‑oriented AI, and integration readiness, and you get a platform that scales, adapts, and supports your future‑proof strategy.
How 8x8 fits—and why you should click through.link to this section
In the report, 8x8 is recognized as a Strong Performer, meaning it delivers solid capability across UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS — a well‑rounded option. For you, that means you’re not just buying “phone + chat”—you’re buying a unified communications ecosystem built for the modern enterprise.
But the full story is in the report, the full breakdown of how the providers stack up across vendor reliability, integration, AI, global reach, and more. You’ll get:
- A detailed scorecard of the twelve providers.
- Comparative strengths/weaknesses so you can match to your own requirements.
- Insights to bolster your RFP grid and vendor scrutiny.
What to do right now.link to this section
If you’re in the final stretch of evaluating UCaaS solutions, don’t fly blind. Download the report, review the vendor scorecard, and add it to your vendor conversation.
➡ Access the free report today. Fill out the form, grab the document, and make it a decision‑ready resource for your team.
By leaning into Forrester’s data, you’ll step into your next vendor meeting equipped with questions, insights, and benchmarks, not just a gut feel. And that’s exactly the kind of strategic move your role calls for.
Happy evaluating, your comms stack (and your end‑users) will thank you.
