Unified communications has moved from a long-term ambition to an operational necessity for global organizations. In a recent article published by Comms Business, Steve Flavell, co-founder and co-CEO of LoopUp, shares his perspective on why this shift is happening now and what it means for enterprises trying to modernize how their people communicate.
Steve’s starting point is a simple observation. The way we work has changed faster than enterprise telephony ever expected. Remote and hybrid working are no longer exceptions, yet many organizations are still carrying the legacy assumptions of office-bound phone systems. That mismatch creates friction for both IT teams and end users.
Why unified communications matters more than ever
In the article, Steve explains how cloud technology has already transformed large parts of the telecoms industry. Phone numbers are no longer tied to desks or buildings, and users increasingly expect to make and receive calls wherever they are working. For many businesses, this shift is well underway.
However, adoption has been uneven. Smaller organizations have moved quickly, while larger enterprises have often been slower due to historic investment in on-premises infrastructure. The result is a landscape where collaboration tools have advanced rapidly, but telephony has not always kept pace.
Microsoft Teams and the missing piece
Steve highlights Microsoft Teams as the dominant collaboration platform for multinational organizations. With hundreds of millions of daily users, it has become the center of gravity for meetings, messaging, and collaboration.
The challenge, as Steve describes it, is that collaboration alone does not equal unified communications. Out of the box, platforms like Teams still require a separate approach to enterprise telephony. Without proper integration, calling remains fragmented, and the user experience falls short of being truly unified.
From cloud telephony to true integration
The article traces the evolution from early cloud telephony, where PBX infrastructure moved into the cloud, to today’s focus on integrating telephony directly into UC platforms. This is where Steve sees the biggest shift. When telephony is embedded into Teams, users can make and receive business calls as part of the same interface they already use every day.
For global organizations, Steve also points to the operational complexity of managing multiple in-country carriers. Geographically defined telcos were not built for centrally managed, multinational environments. As a result, enterprises are increasingly looking to consolidate telephony globally, in the same way they already manage Teams.
What this means for global enterprises
Steve’s message is pragmatic. Unified communications is not about adding more tools, but about reducing complexity. A single, globally managed approach to Teams-integrated telephony can simplify operations, improve the user experience, and better support the realities of modern work.
You can read the full Comms Business article featuring Steve Flavell here: https://www.commsbusiness.co.uk/content/insight/the-rise-of-unified-communications
About LoopUp
LoopUp helps multinational enterprises consolidate how they buy and manage their global Microsoft Teams telephony, offering phone numbers and full cloud-based, PSTN-replacement service in over 100 countries.
We liberate multinationals from the frustrations, complexities, and inefficiencies of working with multiple regional carriers, each with their own contracts, pricing, support teams, and management portals. LoopUp offers a single and consistent global solution, combining design, deployment, service delivery, and support – provided globally and all integrated with Microsoft Teams. LoopUp is headquartered in London with operations around the world.
