Cloud telephone systems are also known as managed telephone systems or hosted telephone systems. This basically means that the telephone system processor is located in a secure hosted environment offsite as opposed to being in your data cabinets or fixed to the wall onsite in your business.
With a cloud-based telephone system, you would still buy the telephone, setup and training but instead of purchasing the telephone system processor, you simply pay a monthly rental for ports on the offsite telephone system. Your office telephones would then connect via the Internet using VoIP to the telephone system that is offsite.
About 75% of businesses globally have shifted to some kind of cloud service with business analysts predicting that the worldwide market for Cloud services could reach a value of more than £90bn this year.
Listed below are some of the main benefits why Cloud telephony is taking the business market by storm:
- Any number anywhere – a cloud telephone system it gives you complete flexibility with the numbers you choose for your business. You can keep existing numbers or get new ones. This means that you can use any local area number no matter where your office is based. You could be working out of an office in Preston but with a London or any other STD phone number.
- Cost – you get state-of-the-art technology at a fraction of the cost because you are renting ports from a high-spec fully functional telephone system, as opposed to making an investment in an on-site system to offer you the same features.
- Flexibility – If you have offices in multiple locations a cloud-based phone system can connect your entire company to the same phone service. For example, you may have employees that are often based in different locations or work from home but with a cloud-based telephone system, it works as if you were all in the same building. You can answer and transfer calls between all your staff regardless of their location and have it managed by a single administrator from any location. Whether your business is growing or downsizing, a cloud service will provide the flexibility with your business needs today and also for future growth.
- Scalability – increasing or reducing the number of telephones you have is very simple with a cloud-based telephone system. All you need to do is request an additional port and a VoIP telephone that you can plug into the Internet. With a traditional telephone system, this would require an engineer to attend your site and possibly upgrade your phone system and install/program a new user locally.
- Disaster recovery – in the event of a disaster affecting your normal place of work, it is vital that you can still communicate. With a cloud telephone system, you can divert all your calls to ring straight to your mobile or any other landline.
- Energy Saver – overall, Cloud PBX uses less equipment which means less energy and a lower power bill.
- Reduced carbon footprint – Cloud telephone systems can dramatically reduce energy costs and carbon emissions making them a much better option for the environment.
A hosted cloud PBX phone system offers many benefits over traditional PBX phone service. Whether you’re managing phone service for a small, medium or large business, we will seamlessly migrate your old, inefficient phone service and support your new, highly responsive, hosted cloud PBX solution.
If you are considering your options and want some advice on which type of telephone system might be most suited for you, please contact us at 0800 505 3350. All we need is 10 minutes of your time to offer you some free advice and an idea of the costs for the different options available.
You may also find our article on what is a hybrid telephone system a useful read.
