As the benefits of cloud services become undeniably apparent, and advances in technology allow us to sleep easy knowing that our information is secure, business decision makers and CIOs are increasingly making the move towards cloud communications. With businesses looking to streamline their processes, vendors are making their products “zero-admin” and possible to install without any downtime. Latest innovations are also making complete cloud installations possible in minutes so that businesses can make the switch without any additional installation of infrastructure.
Cost Savings All Around
Another main driving force for the switch to cloud, and one that goes hand in hand with easy deployment and management, is that of the significant cost advantages. Both smaller to mid-sized businesses as well as large enterprises can benefit from this, with larger companies realising the cost savings with a pricing model based on the number of simultaneous calls rather than the number of users.
Smaller organisations can enjoy enterprise level communications, with advanced unified communications features, bulletproof security, easy management and more, at a fraction of the price of traditional alternatives. Additionally, the time and money that would be usually spent on management can be allocated elsewhere, meaning that the implementation of such a solution will actually create a ripple effect of benefits throughout the business.
Since a cloud-based system requires no physical machine, businesses needn’t worry about purchasing and installing expensive and cumbersome appliances. With the ability to utilise existing infrastructure, not only are there going to be cost savings with regard to the overall purchase, but the time spent for implementation will be much lower and down-time will be avoided.
Flexibility & Control Go Hand in Hand
Traditionally, subscribing to a cloud service would involve entrusting one’s data and settings elsewhere. As technologies evolve, installation and management are not the only aspects of the PBX to improve, so too has reliability, flexibility and control. Although many cloud solutions still restrict the amount of control and flexibility, buyers and resellers should be on the lookout for solutions that allow them to self-host their installation on their choice of cloud provider, so that they can retain complete control of data, settings and customisation. It’s important to choose a solution in which each installation is hosted as an individual instance, meaning that they run completely unaffected by the insecure actions of others and without the there is no sharing of resources or data.
The level of flexibility that your PBX provides not only gives a greater amount of control, but also can allow you tailor-make a solution to perfectly fit your business needs, bringing significant gains in productivity as well as cost savings. In this regard, flexibility really can be the make or break between seeing a serious return on investment or not.. As a consequence, companies should choose solutions that allow them the freedom to choose their own cloud provider and SIP trunks to avoid being lockedd into pricey long-term contracts that charge per extension.
UC Features For Every Business
In modern business environments, companies should be looking to implement the latest technologies to gain a competitive advantage. With no room for compromise, the PBX feature set shouldn’t suffer just because a solution is more cost-effective and easy to administer or installed in the cloud. CIOs need to carefully evaluate a solutions UC feature set in order to fully benefit from all that it has to offer. Specifically, when considering a cloud solution they need to ask if it's as complete as its on-premise counterpart or other on-premise solutions. They also need to think about what features they will be making the most use of and whether or not these will be fully catered for in the cloud solution.
UC features such as video conferencing, presence, chat and more can do wonders for a business if used in the right way. Additionally, integrating a PBX with popular CRMs for a seamless experience will improve employee productivity and customer satisfaction.
Key Considerations
Reliability, security, and ease-of-use are the key selling points for any UC solution, whether it’s on-premise or hosted. Regardless of the features offered, without these qualities the value of a UC solution will be lost. A software-based solution, running in the cloud, can provide both the end user and reseller with an easy-to-manage UC solution that still provides all the benefits of an enterprise level, on-premise communications system. Businesses should look for a solution which is regularly updated and implements the latest technologies and innovations, so that they can be sure their system will allow them to grow and benefit from new features and improvements.
On a more granular scale, organisations need to consider their existing infrastructure and any additional solutions already in place. With a cloud PBX, businesses should be able to make use of their existing setup but interoperability needs to be ensured. They should seek out a system that gives customers plug & play compatibility with a wide range of IP phones, SIP trunks and gateways, and can be easily integrated with popular CRM applications.
Despite growing fears over our online security, more and more businesses are opting for cloud solutions in a bid to improve efficiency, increase cost savings, and boost productivity in the workplace. To accommodate this, vendors are developing ways to simplify installation; lightening the weight of deployment of a completely new system, minimising or eliminating downtime, and automating many processes.
