If you are completely fed up with blinking error lights and being on hold for technical support services, it could be a sign that you are ready to move your phone server to a cloud solution. No more bulky and expensive equipment taking up space in your already crowded IT room, which only ever breaks down when the technical personnel are on annual leave, and the freedom to expand and edit when you need to. You don’t have to wait until you are at the end of your tether though, here are some other signs your business is ready to move into the virtual world:
Business is booming and customer traffic is increasing: The phones are ringing and your staff are rushed off their feet, which is great news, but making sure you optimise these opportunities is vital. With a hosted phone system, you can add departments to an IVR, extra extensions, time of day routing requirements and call queuing options all with the click of a mouse. Augmentation of these services is all in real time, which will mean no costly downtime for your business.
You have multiple offices, or you are moving location: Ever spoken to a company with numerous offices and found that one was more organised and helpful than another? It’s not a good reputation to have as a company, and you would rather your customers and suppliers have the same experience no matter where they called. Through just one number you can route your calls to wherever you like, with the same intro message, and no one will be any the wiser. If you are moving premises then this is the perfect time to move your phone service to the cloud. The facility is fully scalable, so adding users in the future is free and easy and saves lots of money on new onsite equipment.
The contract for your onsite system is close to expiry: It won’t be long until the highly talented sales team from you current provider comes calling, fully armed with an arsenal of retention statements and charming witticisms. If you haven’t already started to look at another solution, chances are you’ll be tied in to a new contract before you know it. The monetary value of moving to the cloud can be judged by how easy and malleable it is to use, how cheap it is to run, and how simple it is to expand your network when you need to; not to mention that this is normally free to do.
Most modern businesses are now using cloud based servers for phones, data storage, video conferencing and even sharing calendars between offices. It is fast making onsite servers a thing of the past, and saving businesses plenty of money. A move to the cloud will help any size business become more connected, more flexible to growth needs and hopefully more prosperous as a result.
