Telecoms is an industry that evolves quickly. New technology is introduced on a regular basis but with cloud have we reached a stable platform on which to grow with your business?
It used to be all about big investment in an on-site phone system, not suited to the smaller market who had to either invest or live with a multi-line and batch of cordless phones.
Cloud gives businesses of every size and industry an opportunity to get a huge range of features for a small monthly user license using Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology.
With the impending close down of the ISDN network, some businesses are looking upon cloud as having their hand forced into an IP solution. With broadband becoming faster and more reliable and the cost of Full fibre infrastructure dropping so dramatically alongside dedicated internet lines, now is a great time to ditch the old whirring PBX in the comms room for an off-site hosted solution.
There are various vendors in the market offering similar solutions, all feature rich, all with their own USP. But why would a move to cloud benefit your business? Look below at the advantages moving to cloud could give your business.
Lower Costs
Cloud offers monthly and upfront saving on almost all occasions.
- Cloud offers a cost per seat model, easy to scale up with a fixed cost.
- Upfront investment is low because its hosted offsite.
- No huge cost for “additional cards” or software updates.
- Inclusive calls to most UK Landlines and Mobiles.
Feature Rich
Cloud systems boast an array of features with an ever evolving and expanding portfolio. These are often included as standard with your system at no additional cost. Just a few examples are listed below.
- Automatic Call Recording
- Voicemail to Email
- Call Queuing
- Call Analytics and Reporting
- Integration into your CRM and Outlook
- Select Caller ID
- Conference Calling
- Integrated Fax Service
Unified Communications
Cloud gives you the benefit of a truly unified solution, encompassing phone calls, conference calling, instant messages and video call all on one platform across all your devices meaning you can work from anywhere.
Cloud solutions offer you the flexibility to take a physical handset and plug it in and use any where you have access to an internet connection, or if you prefer a desktop client or mobile app meaning you can be reachable and remain professional in the current climate and around everyday life.
Quicker Implementation and Better Support
Cloud can often be installed and up a running within a few days or even hours using soft clients, meaning the impact on migration to your business is often small. It could also be a great disaster recovery if your old PBX decides to pack in spontaneously.
New users can also be added at any time with minimal set up meaning time and productivity is not lost getting them set up.
Your provider will be able to access your system from anywhere, at any time to make changes and there is usually a portal you can access yourself to enable diverts and handle call routing. No more waiting around to leave the office waiting for that divert to go on.
Most providers have at least 2 data centres for back up so you can rest assured a service outage is a very rare occasion.
So, what are the downsides?
If your broadband goes down, you lose your connection. Rest assured though your service provider can have a divert up and running for you within a few minutes.
You may experience call quality issues if your internet connection is not good enough. VoIP calls require 100kbps of upload speed, if you don’t have Fibre connection available to your business your call quality may be affected without the required upload speed. You could always consider an additional connection for voice only, so your data usage does not affect your phone calls. With Openreach rolling out Fibre to at least 85% of UK premises by 2025, its likely you’ll soon have if not already the speeds required.