Innovative communication technology can mean the difference between frictionless collaboration and sluggish old-school processes. The rise of unified messaging platforms is driven by the growing need for businesses to consolidate their communication channels – messaging, voice, and video – to create a holistic view of the world. Unifying multiple channels streamlines workflows, boosts productivity, and enables real-time collaboration across departments and locations, including with remote and field-based employees.
Here’s a look at the top 10 unified messaging platforms to help you evaluate which solution best fits your business.
Criteria for evaluating business messaging platforms
Let’s start by reviewing the key criteria that you should consider as part of your evaluation:
Platform integration
A key factor is how well a unified messaging platform integrates with existing business tools like CRM systems, project management software, email, and office productivity applications. Strong integration helps to automate workflows to boost productivity, and helps centralize information so employees can access all the date they need without constantly toggling between different applications.
Messaging features
Features like group messaging, file sharing, and threaded conversations allow teams to work more efficiently, enhancing communication by keeping conversations organized. The best business messaging platforms facilitate collaboration, allowing users to track discussions and quickly find the information they need. A good messaging platform should also offer customization options like tagging, mentions, and message prioritization, ensuring that critical information is easily accessible while not overloading users with too much data.
Video and voice capabilities
Although messaging is useful as a standalone tool, it is far more effective when it’s seamlessly integrated with telephony and video meetings. As remote and hybrid work has become more prevalent, it’s more important than ever to empower employees to switch between modes of communication easily. Users should be able to transition from messaging to a phone call or video meeting, without losing any time or information in the process. Platforms that offer high-quality video and voice features reduce the need for third-party conferencing tools and vastly simplify communication workflows.
Security & compliance
Data security is a key concern for every organization, especially given the prevalence of cyberattacks and a growing body of regulations governing personal data privacy. Today’s businesses need platforms that offer end-to-end encryption, robust access controls, and compliance with various regulatory standards like GDPR, GLBA, and HIPAA. Ensuring the safety of business communications protects sensitive data, builds stakeholder confidence, and helps organizations avoid costly compliance penalties.
Mobile and remote work support
With the rise of remote work and mobile-first environments, it’s essential that unified messaging platforms support mobile devices and remote access. 5G technology provides lightning-fast connectivity, transforming workers’ productivity in the field. Employees should be able to access messaging, video, and voice tools regardless of location or device. Platforms with robust mobile apps and cloud-based solutions provide the flexibility and accessibility necessary to support remote, hybrid, and field-based employees.
Scalability and flexibility
As businesses grow, their communication needs evolve. The best unified messaging platforms are scalable – that is, they’re capable of handling a high volume of users, and flexible enough to adapt quickly to changing volume and new business requirements. Cloud-based technology supports rapid growth (or scaling back) of capacity, without heavy investments in infrastructure. Platforms that offer flexible pricing plans and customization options allow businesses to scale their communication tools as they expand, ensuring long-term value.
Top 10 business messaging platforms
Now that we have covered the key criteria, let’s explore today’s top 10 business unified messaging platforms.
RingCentral Messaging
RingCentral is a leader in unified messaging, offering a seamless integration of messaging, video meetings, and voice communications. It is particularly strong in supporting remote and hybrid work, with powerful mobile apps and cloud-based infrastructure. RingCentral integrates seamlessly with popular CRM systems, productivity applications, and more. It also offers robust APIs to enable integration with virtually any external system. RingCentral is well-known for its powerful AI capabilities and strong security, including for regulated industries like healthcare and financial services.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams has become a staple for businesses using Office 365, offering strong collaboration features such as document sharing, group chats, and video conferencing. Its tight integration with the Microsoft suite makes it a good choice for businesses already using Office tools. Some users report that managing Teams tends to be complex for large departments or organizations.
Slack
Slack’s intuitive design and extensive third-party app integrations have made it one of the most popular team messaging platforms. It offers channels for organized communication, along with direct messaging, file sharing, and customizable notifications. Having said that, it functions best as a standalone messaging tool, with limited built-in video conferencing capabilities.
Zoom Team Chat
Zoom Team Chat integrates Zoom’s video conferencing tools with messaging and file-sharing capabilities. For businesses that heavily rely on video communication, Zoom offers a streamlined solution to combine video meetings with everyday messaging. Its interface is simple and intuitive, and is likely to be familiar to many users. However, Zoom Team Chat has less robust features than most dedicated messaging apps.
Cisco Webex
Cisco Webex offers a robust unified messaging solution designed for large enterprises. It includes messaging, video conferencing, and file-sharing features in a single platform. Known for its security and scalability, Webex is a strong option for companies with stringent compliance requirements, but its price point may be out of reach for smaller businesses, and management can be relatively complex for growing teams.
Google Chat
Google Chat offers seamless integration with Google Workspace, making it an efficient tool for businesses using Google’s productivity apps. It provides simple, no-frills messaging and collaboration, suitable for teams that need fast, lightweight communication. There are tradeoffs for its efficiency and ease of use, though; Google Chat has somewhat limited features compared to other competitors on this list.
WhatsApp Business
WhatsApp Business is designed for small businesses that need to stay connected with customers globally. It offers messaging, voice, and video calls with end-to-end encryption, making it a good choicel for customer-facing businesses. While many users appreciate its simple, intuitive interface and its global reach, WhatsApp Business does not integrate easily with other business systems, so it tends to exacerbate the so-called “silo effect” by operating as a distinct, disconnected channel of communication.
Mattermost
Mattermost is an open-source messaging platform focused on security and flexibility. It is popular among enterprises that require private hosting and robust customization options. Although some customers will appreciate its open-source heritage and inherent customizability, that comes at a relatively high cost. Mattermost may require significantly more in the way of IT resources for setup and maintenance.
Flock
Flock combines team messaging with productivity tools like shared to-do lists, reminders, and polls. Its simplicity makes it an excellent option for smaller teams that need both communication and project management tools in one platform. The focus in this case is on task management and accountability. That’s useful for organizations aiming to address that specific problem, but it lacks the broader capabilities of a robust messaging platform, and it offers limited scalability that may rule it out for larger businesses.
Zoho Cliq
Zoho Cliq offers seamless integration with the Zoho suite of small business productivity apps, making it a natural choice for businesses already using Zoho CRM, Projects, and other tools. It offers messaging, video calls, and collaboration features. Because of its tight integration with other Zoho products, it’s the most efficient choice for companies that use that platform exclusively, but for organizations wanting to integrate with external systems, it is likely to fall short of the mark.
RingCentral: the right choice for business messaging
Unified messaging platforms are an essential tool for today’s fast-paced businesses. They streamline communication across multiple channels, improving collaboration and consolidating important information in one easily searchable place. Among the top 10 products listed here, RingCentral stands out as the favorite, with its unified suite of messaging, video, and voice tools to enable seamless collaboration. Its strong support for mobile and remote work, its top-notch security and compliance features, and its unlimited scalability make it a great choice for businesses of all sizes and in all industries.
RingCentral’s long list of published customer success stories tells the story well. The company’s customers routinely see improvements in productivity, collaboration, employee satisfaction, and customer service excellence.
Want to take the next step toward empowering your employees with tools for frictionless collaboration? Reach out to one of RingCentral’s business communications experts today.
Originally published Nov 04, 2024
