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Cloud Based Hosted Phone System Buyers Guide

VBS IT Services

Cloud Based Hosted Phone System Buyers Guide

If your business makes use of a traditional on-premise phone system with multiple telephones lines, you might be paying too much.

Today, businesses can host their own phone system in the cloud. It has more features, it’s more cost effective, and works seamlessly with any employees you might have working from home. 

We wrote an e-book talks about what’s involved and how business benefits from cloud based phone system. Click here to download.

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We’re past the days of purchasing an expensive phone system and paying for ongoing costly maintenance. Cloud phone systems are much more affordable, feature rich and flexible, which is perfect for work from home employees.

VoIP has come a long way

Voice of Internet Protocol (VoIP) was not always so reliable. You may have experienced choppy voice, hearing your voice echo, or audio jitter with VoIP in the past. Cloud-based PBX offers improved quality of service (QoS) today.

Better compression rates and faster internet speeds have dramatically improved IP communications. Solution providers dedicate bandwidth and configure QoS to prioritize voice communications. They can also establish data packet loss resilience schemes to guarantee excellent call quality.

CONSISTENT COMMUNICATION

Is your business one of the few that has returned to all on-premises work? Lucky you. Across industries many businesses have employees working from home. With hosted PBX, your people can continue to make and receive phone calls as if working in the same building. The customer won’t even know the difference.

Hosted PBX services can also include:

  • call forwarding – forward a call to the right department, it’s answered at anywhere on any device
  • toll-free calling – workers can receive the call on-site or remotely
  • queue management – reduces customer waiting times by implementing rules to route calls
  • call recording – great for companies with agents to train or compliance requirements
  • auto attendant – transfers callers without their having to interact with a receptionist

COST SAVINGS

Traditional telecoms price their services based on their monopoly over supply. Customers had few choices of providers, and doing without a business phone is impossible. Plus, the business wanted its own dedicated phone lines. So, the company could charge for expensive hardware installation, maintenance, and upgrades.

Cost savings begin with a cloud-based PBX at the hardware level. Instead of the big upfront capital expense, you budget a monthly operational expense. You also regain space on premises previously taken up with the phone equipment and reduce your power bill, which contributes to sustainability efforts.

As for the phones themselves, there are several handset options, but you can also choose from soft clients (like apps). They work on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, or PC and Mac desktops.

With hosted PBX, you also get more value out of your data network, as you’re now using it for voice, too.

You can also save with a voice communications solution that is not limited by geography. When your workers are global, get a plan including unlimited and international coverage. Finally, with hosted PBX, you’re only paying for what you need, when you need it. We’ll talk more about scalability next.

SCALABILITY

Remember having to wait for the telephone repairman? It can take days. When it comes to business phones, you can’t afford voice communication downtime.

One big advantage of cloud hosted PBX is that it is quick to install and scales up and down easily. You no longer need to pre-allocate space to accommodate expansion. The business can commission new lines for a busy season or before a major event, then decommission those lines when the peak period ends.

Provisioning a new phone can be as simple as a few clicks on a desktop dashboard.

CONTROL

A dashboard gives you the ability to manage your business communications from anywhere. A cloud-hosted system provides easy-to-use Web portals to check and maintain the network.

These systems also provide access to real-time data. You can track activity from ongoing or missed calls to call rates and active or available agents. You can also dig into individual employee activity, review call recordings, and analyse all traffic to make informed decisions.

Industries with audit and compliance needs gain recording and various reporting tools, too.

One more area of added control? You now have the flexibility to move your communications to another vendor when you want. The traditional telecommunications vendor locked in your business. Since provisioning is so much simpler now, it’s easier to make changes as needed.

BETTER DISASTER RECOVERY

The traditional telephone system had a single point of failure, but hosted PBX is dependent on the internet, so you no longer rely entirely on actual phone lines that can deteriorate, be vandalized, or, worse, rendered inoperable for days due to a flood, fire, or other natural disaster.

Hosted PBX providers establish a redundant infrastructure to ensure consistent service. They will have many data servers spread out over geographic locations to ensure availability of another option. When there is a natural disaster in one area, the communications can be switched to a healthy server.

In addition, if an internet service fails, calls can be answered on a smartphone or you can go to a location with a live internet service and carry on business as usual.

WORK SMARTER WITH CLOUD-HOSTED PBX

Ultimately, a cloud-hosted PBX solution gives you reliable, secure voice communications. Enjoy greater flexibility, costed savings, and improved data insights. A virtual PBX offers a competitive advantage, while setting you up for everyday calling and resilience, too.

Interested in moving to a cloud-hosted PBX solution? We can help you identify the best solution for your business needs. We can take responsibility for getting the system installed, too. All you need to do is make a call to 416-900-685 | TF 1-877-709-2656 or click here.

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