Five Reasons for Adopting Cloud Telephony

Over recent months, many of us have been working from kitchen tables, living rooms or that tiny little box room that is usually used as a “temporary” storage area. All of which has led to the realisation that the world of the workplace has changed forever. But what has not changed is the need to communicate with colleagues and business partners.

Communication will always be at the heart of every business but the method in which we are communicating is changing dramatically. Cloud-based telephony services offer that change, from a potentially outdated, unsupported, and clunky infrastructure to a future-proofed, high quality and easy to manage solution.

Sounds all good to be true? Here are my top five reasons as to why your business should adopt cloud telephony:

Flexibility

Any device. Any mode. Anywhere.

These three simple statements sum up what Cloud Telephony is all about.

In the modern working world, we want the ultimate flexibility to work in the way we want without having to be shackled to a desk or even to an office. The majority of businesses have a mobile workforce – whether that is people moving around a building, working from different offices, home, a coffee shop or even in the car. So, in this hyper-mobile world, a phone that is tied to a desk or a mobile phone which doesn’t have the ability to transfer calls, is becoming increasingly defunct. With a cloud-based telephony system, you’ll have an extension of your office from wherever you’re working from, to whatever device it is you are working on – phone, tablet, laptop etc.

Now, I am conscious that many of you will be thinking “this won’t work for us as our telephony infrastructure is quite complicated due to hunt groups, call centres etc.” but I can assure you it is. There are many solutions out there such as Call2Teams or Teamslink, that enable cloud telephony services to plug into your existing telephony infrastructures. Simply put, though your physical PBX will remain in place, all your routing will be through the Cloud. So, you’ll have the benefit of a Cloud-Telephony solution whilst keeping the core essentials of your infrastructure in place.

Cost

Cloud Telephony is all about being feature filled but it can come with a high price tag.

Before you start to dismiss the idea, let us compare cloud telephony to a traditional infrastructure:

Although the monthly cloud telephony user cost may sound high, compared to your on-premise system, there are no 24×7 running costs, air-con to keep it cool and the need for separate network equipment and desk phones. Then there are no “hidden” costs such as mid-term upgrades, out of contract replacements and repairs, and to cap it off a maintenance contract for all these changes, updates, and repairs.

With Cloud Telephony you pay a single monthly price, with no hidden fees, as it’s all based on a simple per user pricing model. So, if you have a user that doesn’t need to dial out, then you don’t need a licence for them. It’s that simple.

Still not convinced? Like I mentioned earlier, many of us are still working from home and have redirects from our office desk phone to our mobile phone. Every time a call is redirected the likelihood is, you’re being charged, and how many of those calls are useful? Three out ten? Five out of ten? With a cloud telephony infrastructure, you wouldn’t be charged at all!

Provisioning

How many times have you had to rush around to find a spare working deskphone or set up a brand new extension number because a colleague has told you that a new starter has joined your business that day? Too many times to count?

It’s a regular comment that I hear. The provisioning of a new desk phone or extension number isn’t a heavy task, but it does require set-up time. But with a Cloud Telephony system, things can get a whole lot easier. The provisioning of an extension is literally a few clicks of a mouse button, and in many cases the person won’t even need a desk phone, they will just need a headset that can be plugged into their laptop.

Yes, it really is that simple!

Security

The security of your infrastructure is paramount. No business wants to become the victim of a cyber-attack but because your telephony infrastructure will be based in the cloud, does not mean it and you won’t be secured.

Cloud datacentres, such as Microsoft’s Azure sites are amongst the safest places to host some or all of your environment. Hosting in the Cloud requires several different permission and access levels, both physically and virtually before your infrastructure can even be viewed, and nearly all datacentres will be certified ISO 27001 and ISO 27018 as a minimum.

And it’s not just the datacentres that are protected. By hosting your telephony services in the Cloud you’ll always be up to date with the latest software and security patching, which is carried out automatically.

Productivity

As individuals and as a collective, we all want to be productive. But by tying people to an office desk in order to be near a phone can be counterproductive.

Many of today’s Cloud Telephony services link into existing collaboration apps such as Microsoft Teams. Collectively, this is known as Unified Communication & Collaboration (UCC) – the ability to communicate and collaborate seamlessly across platforms. Cloud Telephony enables your workforce to stay connected wherever they are, without needing to be in the office, or near a phone or handset.

To wrap up, these are just some of the reasons that businesses are adopting Cloud Telephony at a faster rate than ever before. The world of work has changed dramatically in a very short time and some things will never be the same again. For businesses who have depended on desk-based phones are well advised to start assessing the new modern alternatives, or risk being left behind.

For expert support in developing your cloud telephony solution or more information about BCN Group’s remote working solutions and cloud storage, please email info@bcn.co.uk or call 0354 095 7000