As small businesses change and grow, the ability to quickly scale up — or down — becomes a necessity. Adding new employees, for example, requires the company to adapt its phone system to accommodate the need for more lines.
Today, organizations are interconnected. So they need a lot more from their corporate communication solutions in addition to dial-up capabilities. To meet these demands, companies are increasingly adopting collaborative communication solutions that bring together all the essential elements of business communications, including voice, messaging, video conferencing and contact center, in a single, easy-to-use solution.
The ultimate goal is to enable mobile and distributed teams to communicate and collaborate in the way they choose, from any device, from anywhere. Only the cloud can meet these expectations.
The implementation of telephony in the cloud represents great benefits in terms of savings and flexibility for all types of companies, also allowing them to respond more efficiently and effectively to their customers' calls.
Why move your corporate phone system to the cloud
A traditional telephone system generally has a considerable initial cost. These capital expenditures include servers, phones, network upgrades, and deployment costs. Moving the phone system to the cloud is not that demanding in terms of budget. In most cloud phone system installations, the only capital expense is the purchase of IP phones.
A cloud phone system is a basic or standards-based product. That means you can use equipment from different vendors.
Today's communications setup in most offices requires two separate lines: one for voice and one for data. Moving your phone system to the cloud allows you to consolidate those lines into a single network. Voice transmission over your data line increases the traffic over that connection and better utilizes all capacity.
Traditional phone systems have unpredictable costs. Costs change to accommodate organizational changes, usage patterns, and aging or obsolete components. A cloud phone system allows you to accurately predict telecommunications expenses. Other variable costs don't come into play either, such as software updates, licenses, and hardware maintenance.
Most on-premises systems charge for each feature. That's because, in many cases, the features are not native to that system. To support the latest features, you must modify your existing solution with additional hardware, software, or license costs. With a cloud phone system, all functions are natively integrated into the system. Major cloud service providers can offer all voice features at a single, transparent price, with no per-feature add-ons or hidden charges.
With a cloud solution, the responsibility for keeping the infrastructure up-to-date shifts from the customer to the service provider. Software updates are also under the responsibility of the vendor, allowing you to enjoy up-to-date technology without spending budget and resources to maintain it.
A cloud phone system hosts your service in secure data centers. When service from one data center is interrupted, your provider can easily redirect calls through other data centers. Therefore, your voice service continues without interruption.
In the cloud, you can access a wide range of business voice features. Leading providers offer unlimited features like voicemail mailboxes, automated attendants (IVRs), dial plans, conference bridges, and more, at no additional charge to your basic monthly price.
A business phone system in the cloud eliminates technological limits. Because these systems are cloud-based, they can route phone traffic to any device with an internet connection. It's just as easy to route calls to your worker's central office as it is to your office phone. Additionally, office-associated voice features and functions can be used remotely, including voicemail and call transfers to other business extensions.
By moving your company's phone system to the cloud, mobility becomes an option for all employees, not just remote workers. Employees are increasingly using their personal devices for business tasks, a trend called BYOD (“Bring Your Own Device”). With the applications
