4 Amazing Cloud Phone System Benefits

Cloud computing is helping to accelerate the growth of today’s organizations by providing more flexible and cost-effective solutions to businesses.  Business communications, a critical cornerstone of every organization, is rapidly converting to embrace this innovation. 

With the increasing popularity of cloud-based communication solutions, on-premise telephone infrastructure is becoming less and less important. Cloud-based communication solutions are showing themselves to be more versatile and cost-effective.

Cloud voice solutions for organizations of all sizes are more available due to the growing number of service providers. From understanding what a cloud phone system is and how it works to understand why and how to pick the best solution for you, this blog post will guide you step-by-step through the process.

What Is A Cloud Phone System?

Also known as a cloud PBX, hosted PBX, or hosted phone system, a VoIP phone system is connected to the internet through a cloud-based IP network.

Since it is entirely offered through the Internet and maintained wholly off-site, it reduces the need for upfront expenditures in telecommunications equipment. The deployment and setup are fast and simple, allowing businesses to reduce their reliance on IT staff. 

Most of the time, you will be required to pay a monthly or yearly membership fee to a service provider to use cloud telephone service.

This type of system turns sound waves into electrical impulses, which are then sent through a cable to a terminal for further processing. The signals transit via terminals, offices, and fiber optic cables (or copper wires), which transmit the signals in the form of light pulses (or electric currents) as they move throughout the network before arriving at their destination.

Upon reaching its destination, the light pulses are transformed back into electric signals before being translated back into sound waves, allowing the caller on the other end to hear your voice on their end of the line. 

Landlines have been a part of our civilization since the 1800s, and some workplaces continue to use them today, but their usage has been steadily declining over the past decade.

In contrast to conventional phone systems, a cloud-based phone system, commonly known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a phone system that works over the internet. 

A cloud-based phone system is defined as a system that transmits your voice and other data (such as time and date) via the internet and keeps that data in the cloud, where users may share and access it from a variety of devices.

What exactly do we mean by a diverse range of devices? Smartphones, PCs, tablets, and even classic office landlines may all be connected to a cloud-based system over a secure connection. For the most part, any gadget with an internet connection qualifies.

Read more: How To Set Up A Customer Service Process Flow That Delights Your Ideal Customers

Cloud Phone System Benefits

The majority of on-premise phone systems need the purchase of network hardware and software licenses at the time of installation. As a result, most firms treat these transactions as though they were capital expenditures (CapEx). 

The physical requirements and installation of on-premise systems make it necessary for organizations to plan more carefully for future needs.  As a result, organizations often purchase more units than present need dictates to handle anticipated future growth in their operations and revenue.

A cloud phone system requires just a few pieces of gear, including the phones themselves and maybe a business-class network. Further than that, there are no other expenses. 

Businesses may thus function on an operational expenditure model thanks in part to cloud phone systems. IWhen you choose this approach, you only pay for what you need at the time of purchase and may add additional licenses as needed. 

This can help minimize the long-term total cost of ownership while maintaining control over cash flow. A cloud solution, in contrast to premise-based systems, where the infrastructure hardware has a set life span, might potentially give more durability over time.

Additional advantages of cloud-based phone systems are detailed in the next section.

Gain more insight on the parts of a call flow here!

Scalability

Since the cloud is often easy to connect to and operate by a third-party host, you just pay for and use what you need while using it, which helps to keep costs down.

When using a conventional phone system, adding a new user might be a time-consuming process. With a cloud phone system, this is not the case at all. You just create a user and then proceed. 

It is this ability to grow with your firm that has made the cloud such a popular tool for many businesses who are just getting their feet under the table. You may easily scale your phone system to meet the demands of your company at the exact time that they are required to do so. 

This eliminates the need to wait for an overburdened IT staff to connect more phones or phone lines, or to download critical phone data, enabling your company to move and develop more quickly.

More effective customer Engagement

Your phone system is an important component of the whole customer experience. A cloud-based solution may improve this customer experience while also enabling your firm to completely connect with your customers at crucial touchpoints throughout the customer journey path.

For example, a cloud contact center system may send a text message to a customer to notify them that their bill is due. Alternatively, it may be integrated with your CRM (customer relationship management system), laying the groundwork for trend analysis and business intelligence. 

Operations may utilize this information to determine which periods of the day get the highest number of calls and ensure that they staff the department at appropriate levels. 

Following up with prospects or customers is made easier with these insights – for example, when a prospect phones, the CRM immediately combines the information so that a salesperson may follow up with a more personal touch (for example, “I saw you phoned the other day.”)

Cloud phones may be much more than simply a phone system; they can swiftly transform into a strategic emphasis and a competitive advantage if they are appropriately used.

Discover what ACD or Automatic Call Distribution is!

Mobility

Another cloud phone system benefit is Mobility. It allows users to be located anywhere on the globe while still using the same phone system. As a result, you will never miss another call, and all users will have access to the same features and capabilities regardless of their location or device.

Aside from that, some cloud phone systems enable users to access desk phone capabilities from their smartphones and tablets. This promotes consistency and professionalism among mobile staff as well as across and within different geographical regions.

Call transfer, extension dialing, conference calling, and other functions are available on a cloud phone system in the same way as they are on a regular phone system, and they are accessible from both the handset and a mobile device.

Employees who travel often and firms with several sites throughout the globe both benefit from having the ability to move around. With a cloud-based solution, your staff may conduct professional, dependable conference calls, online meetings, and video meetings from any location where they have a solid Internet connection.

Reliability

In today’s corporate world, having a dependable phone system is vital to success. Cloud phone systems are characterized by the three “R’s”: they are reliable, resilient, and resilient again. Consider the following example. The majority of clients will believe they input the incorrect address if your company has a power outage and emails cease going through or bounce back. 

People, on the other hand, think that a firm has gone out of business if they phone and receive a rapid busy signal when they call. With the majority of cloud phones, this is never an issue. 

Learn more about What is VOLTE and What You Need To Know!

The Benefits Of Cloud PBX

Here are six reasons why cloud-PBX is more enticing than conventional PBX: 

Cost-effective

Most cloud-based phone systems enable businesses to operate on a “pay as you go” basis, which means they only pay for what they use. The ability to pay just for what you need at the moment of purchase is provided by these models. 

The addition of advanced features and user licenses may be done at any time as required. As a result, businesses may save a large amount of money by not having to acquire superfluous equipment or hardware for their staff.

No expensive hardware installation

The fact that a hosted PBX system is supplied as a service means that you are not forced to acquire any costly physical gear. The only piece of equipment you may need is a set of desktop phones that are capable of supporting VoIP.

The majority of service providers have online portals via which you may manage your phone lines, software upgrades, and maintenance requirements.

More Secure

Because all of your information is stored on the cloud, your system should suffer little or no downtime if there is a problem with the system.

Maintenance-free Virtually

Traditionally, all of the infrastructures were built on physical premises. Every handset necessitates the use of a phone line. It also implies that you will need to hire a telecommunications professional to do maintenance and updates regularly, which may be expensive. 

With cloud-based PBX, system upgrades, network routing, VoIP codec adjustments, and other tasks may be performed remotely by the hosted provider, who is located in a data center.

More dependable, depending on your internet connection speed

Calls made over a cloud PBX are made over the internet. The quality of your voice is only limited by the power of your internet connection, which is a rather small limitation.

A cloud PBX, on the other hand, may frustrate users who do not have access to high-speed internet, do not have a dependable online connection, or cannot appropriately defend their internet connection.

Wider geographic reach

The use of the internet to conduct telephone calls practically eliminates the need to pay high international calling costs.

Here are 5 Reasons Why A Call Flow Is Crucial To Your Customer Satisfaction Ratings.

What Is The Difference Between VoIP and Cloud Telephone?

There is a common misconception among people that Business VoIP (Virtual PBX) and Cloud Phone Systems (hosted phone systems on the cloud) are interchangeably defined terms. 

Even though both corporate phone systems and on-premises phone systems may assist you to minimize your TCO (total cost of ownership) when compared to an on-premises phone system, they are not created equal.

The differences between a commercial VoIP system and a cloud phone system are substantial, with the majority of them being in terms of functionality. However, the most significant distinction is that the virtual PBX is an automated answering system that just routes the call, while the cloud-hosted corporate VoIP phone system is a fully-functional professional phone system.

Selecting the most appropriate cloud phone system is critical to the success of any business. The best cloud phone solutions are determined by several aspects that are vital to consider. 

Every cloud phone system provider has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. For this reason, before making a selection, you must determine precisely what output you anticipate from the hosted corporate VoIP phone system or cloud phone system provider’s service.

What Exactly Is VoIP?

As a starting point, we will discuss the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology.  Simply put, VoIP is the process of making phone calls over the internet.

Traditionally (and before the widespread use of VoIP), a company made calls using its telephone lines. Each telephone line was capable of carrying just one call at a time. Therefore, if you wanted to make three calls at the same time, you would want at least three phone lines to do so (if not more).

With VoIP, on the other hand, your calls are routed via your company’s internet connection. VoIP calling enables your company to make as many calls as it wants using your internet connection, eliminating the need for numerous telephone lines and saving your company money in the process.

You may want to learn more about automated answering services and how they work.

What Exactly Is A Cloud-based Phone System?

From VoIP to cloud phone systems, we have come a long way. Cloud phone systems are considered an off-premise telephony solution, which means that they do not need the installation of expensive gear on your premises to manage your calls.

Before the introduction of cloud phone systems, a company required a piece of hardware to be installed on their premises. A “PBX” is the name given to this piece of gear. Phone systems (PBXs) were in charge of routing calls inside a company, routing them to the appropriate destination, and giving each employee their own ‘extension’ of the system for dialing.

A cloud phone system performs the same functions as a traditional phone system, but instead of placing a cumbersome piece of hardware in your workplace, you just access the system over the internet. You may access your cloud phone system over a broadband connection, which eliminates the need for a PBX and the associated costs of upkeep and maintenance.

Click here for more additional information on how to connect the phone to the ethernet.

Is VoIP A Cloud Service?

Cloud-based VoIP services enable organizations to offer communications apps to their employees regardless of where they are located or how many branch offices they have, as long as they have an internet connection to the cloud.

Although voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology is used by almost all cloud telephony platforms, not all VoIP systems are hosted in the cloud. In its simplest form, the word VoIP refers to the method by which calling data is transmitted: via the internet, over IP’s packet-switched connections, rather than through the classic public switched telephone network (PSTN).

For a company to operate effectively, it must either house its VoIP system on-site (PBX) or outsource it to a third-party service provider (cloud telephony).

Businesses that want to employ both cloud-based and on-premises calling technologies frequently develop hybrid VoIP systems as part of a long-term cloud migration plan.

Hosting and cloud computing are both terms that indicate that the phone system is hosted off-premises and does not need any equipment or maintenance on-premises to work. It is theoretically possible to host VoIP services remotely without the use of cloud storage, but this overlooks all of the advantages of contemporary networking technologies.

Read more information about analog phone systems here!

Key Takeaways

How your company conducts internal and external communication has a substantial influence on everything from staff productivity and happiness to customer relations and customer retention. 

This communication is made possible by your business phone service, which is essential. When it came to connecting workers with one another, many businesses formerly relied on an on-premise Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system. It is also necessary to allow phone talks with workers as well as external customers, suppliers, and others.

Although cloud-based services are growing in popularity, many businesses may be apprehensive to make the switch. It is believed that migration, integration, and long-term usage will be complicated and expensive processes. 

Those who do make the changeover, on the other hand, generally discover that their choice has long-term advantages for their operations as well as their bottom line.