Is it Time to Switch to a Cloud Phone System?
April 26th, 2017 by Trent Smith
TOP 5 REASONS TO SWITCH TO A CLOUD PHONE SYSTEM
A company’s phone system is often an integral tool in the pursuit of business. It, along with other methods of communication, connect the company to its customers. So, it is vital to keep the business phones up-to-date with the latest or greatest features, to advance an overall corporate plan.
When it’s time to replace or upgrade the phones, many IT departments weigh the pros and cons of keeping their existing premises-based PBX or replacing it with a cloud phone system. They ask themselves:
- Which type of phone system best supports our long-term business plan?
- Which features will help employees be more productive?
- Do we have the resources to support and maintain the new system?
The answers provide critical guidance for a complex decision, and it’s imperative that business leaders interpret them correctly.
Survey Says
According to a No Jitter survey, respondents who have made the switch already say agility and cost are their top drivers for choosing the cloud. Here is a detailed look at the survey’s five most-cited reasons for moving to a cloud phone system:
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Agility
tops the list with 18% of No Jitter survey respondents naming it the most compelling reason for deploying a cloud phone system. No matter what industry you pursue, businesses need the ability to react quickly to competitive market changes or they risk losing ground to both competitors and market disrupters. Companies are more competitive when users can add new features and functions easily, gaining the flexibility to respond to business needs without fuss and adapting easily to both opportunities and challenges.
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Total Cost of Operations (TCO)
Over time, a cloud phone system creates significant cost advantages for a company, even when you factor in costs for training, maintenance and managed services. That’s why 16% of the respondents cited it as a top reason to move to the cloud. With lower capital and operational expenses, a cloud phone system is often less expensive than an aging PBX. But be sure to which can add to the total cost of operations.
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Resiliency/Disaster Recovery
If your business relies on its phones to drive revenue, you can’t afford even a few minutes of downtime. A cloud phone system built on a distributed architecture minimizes the risk of falling offline. With failover and the ability to switch calls to home-based offices, the right system can enable your business to continue taking calls, even during the storm of the century.
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Lack of IT Resources
Today’s lean IT teams are finding it increasingly difficult to properly support and maintain on-premises equipment and wiring. That’s why 9% of No Jitter’s respondents say they look to cloud phone providers to troubleshoot their systems and keep them repaired and operational when required expertise is not on staff.
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Scalability
When product sales suddenly surge, your contact center must handle the volume. With a cloud phone system, adding new licenses can take only hours, not weeks, so you can scale up or down in line with demand. Expanding to new offices, employees can be easily added in every location and benefit from the same features and collaboration tools.
Cloud Business Phone Systems from Van Ausdall & Farrar, Inc. and ShoreTel
When it’s time to re-evaluate your IP phone system, understanding why other businesses choose the cloud can provide real-world context and support for your decision. If your internal research aligns with one or more of the five reasons above, a cloud phone system is likely to be the solution you’re looking for. With the right business telephone partner, you can experience significant savings over a five-year time horizon.
ShoreTel's Cloud Unified Communications, also referred to as UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) from Van Ausdall & Farrar has become a popular choice for modern enterprise communications and collaboration. Rather than purchase, install and maintain an office phone system, users of cloud phone services and UC solutions subscribe to a monthly service from a cloud VoIP provider. These services are delivered from the vendor’s secure data centers and the vendor takes responsibility for owning, configuring and managing them. Businesses connect to these communications services and applications through the Internet or private connections – and the benefits of the cloud phone systems are plentiful.
Posted in: Insights from VAF Blog, Communications, Cloud Solutions
