10 Reasons to Consider a Cloud-based Phone Solution

by David Case

Would you rewire the electrical system in your house? Install a new engine in your car? Cut down a dying old oak tree and bulldoze up the roots? Probably not, unless you happened to like doing jobs that require specialized equipment and expertise. It doesn’t make sense for the typical homeowner to provide those services when there are specialists with the equipment and know-how to get it done at a better value.

By the same token, why buy, install and maintain your own on-site business phone system, unless you particularly want to. With a cloud-based phone solution, you can get advanced IP business communications as a pay-as-you-go service over secure Internet connections.

 

Here are 10 great reasons for putting your business communications in the cloud:

 

•  Save big on capital expenditures.
  With cloud-based VoIP, the brains of the telephone system are in a service provider’s data center. All you need on-site are the end-user devices and the networking to connect to the provider. You can get up and running with a cloud solution for a fraction of the start-up cost of an on-premises system. Save that capital cash for other, more beneficial uses instead of tying it up in phone system hardware.

 

• Budget and save money on fixed monthly expenses.
  Simply pay an easy-to-budget monthly service fee based on the number of seats and the calling plan. Calling plans typically include unlimited free local and long-distance minutes, or a bundle of minutes up to a certain threshold with usage beyond that (and international calls) charged on a per-minute basis.

 

• Eliminate budget surprises.
  There are no added costs for annual software maintenance contracts, software upgrades and other system support requirements. No more headaches and downtime of paying someone to service the phone system server and update system software. There are also no unexpected expenses for replacing or repairing aging or obsolescent equipment. The cloud service provider takes care of all of that.

 

• Reduce the overall cost of business communications.
  In addition to minimizing (or eliminating) costs for system acquisition and administration, you also do away with the cost of office space and energy to house, protect and power the phone system. And you further reduce network costs by running voice and data on the same IP infrastructure and the same trunk connection to the service provider.

 

• Get enterprise-class functionality at a business-friendly price.  Choose a solution that delivers such capabilities as advanced call processing, voice mail with unified messaging, unified communications, and the ability to use a PC or laptop as a multi-purpose communications hub. Since the cloud makes high-end capabilities affordable, any business can present an enterprise persona to the public and compete on a par with much larger organizations.

 

• Keep users in control.  Even though the phone system server is in a secure data center somewhere else, users can still have full control to personalize their own phones, call handling, messages and more, just as they would if the PBX server were in the office. The actual physical location of the server is transparent to them.

 

• Improve phone system performance.  Cloud-based VoIP services are managed by specialists in data centers that have power protection, redundancy and disaster recovery resources far beyond what most businesses could provide. You don’t have to worry about powering, maintaining or updating the phone system server. The service provider handles all that, and you always benefit from the latest firmware, software and features.

 

• Never miss a call.  How often have you experienced a power outage, or service outage, and stressed over your customers calling you and getting either a busy signal or a ring no answer? You’re hoping the customer doesn’t think you went out of business. No worries. If your office is off-line, a cloud VoIP solution can automatically re-direct your calls to another phone, such as your cell phone, per your instructions.

 

• Unify locations into one phone system.  Businesses with multiple locations can set up all their locations on a single system to support features such as internal dialing, hunt groups and off-hook call announce among locations. Employees can collaborate and communicate more easily. Customers see the multiple locations as one organization.

 

•  Become a more agile business.  With a traditional phone system, you could wait weeks to get a new trunk connection to the service provider. With a cloud solution, you can quickly add users and service channels or add another location and include it as part of the same phone system ‐ even networked with on-premises phone systems. Pay only for what you need today and expand on demand as your business grows. Employees can be fully accessible and productive from remote offices or on the road. With this adaptability, the business can respond rapidly to new opportunities and changing market conditions.

 

Is the cloud right for your business communications?

For many businesses ‐ especially those that expect to grow or have dynamic demands, such as high seasonable variability ‐ cloud-based VoIP is a very attractive and cost-effective alternative to an on-site PBX. Unless your organization is in the business of maintaining IT infrastructure, why not get advanced communications from a specialist?

For more information on Cloud-based phone system solutions please visit our website.

 

Since 1979, ACC Telecom has been serving the B2B telecommunications community with innovative products and services at a price point SMBs can afford.  Contact ACC Telecom today for your complimentary consultation on all of your business communication needs.