Business Cloud Telecoms Explained

The pandemic of the past two years has dramatically changed how we work.  It hasn’t just changed where we work, but how people work remotely too. As more companies turn to hybrid and remote working environments, it’s little surprise that companies both small and large are turning to cloud-based solutions and services. 

As the list of cloud service providers expands at a dizzying rate, more businesses, even the most sceptical ones, are adopting cloud-based technologies and services, in some form or another. It’s not just a bunch of hype surrounding cloud telephony. Companies that adopt cloud and hosted telecoms are opening themselves up to a wide range of possibilities that help their workers work smarter, more efficiently, and from anywhere.

Savvy business owners know of the value of effective communication to a successful business. This value that companies place on clear communication is one of the reasons why the market value of the cloud and hosted telecoms industry is projected to reach US$ 20.7 billion in 2022.

For many business owners, cloud telephony brings immense opportunities to enhance their communications infrastructure, without any significant physical investment.

Adopting cloud and hosted telecom services allows companies to embrace modern solutions such as interactive voice response (IVR), call routing, and an array of modern phone functions, without operators and switchboards. Internet Telephony ushers in opportunities for greater efficiency and less overhead. For any company that deals with leads, vendors, and customers daily, a cloud telephony solution provides a competitive edge.

If you’re building work teams of the future, cloud telephony is the telephony of the future. 

Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about the cloud and hosted telecoms, and answer the question of, ‘does my business need cloud & hosted telecoms?’

What Are Cloud and Hosted Telecoms?

In this hyper-competitive world, communicating with customers in a timely and efficient manner can make or break your business. Being able to seamlessly communicate both internally and externally is a vital tool that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Also called Voice Over IP, or VOIP for short, with cloud and hosted telecom services, your business’s phone system moves to the cloud. All incoming and outgoing calls are routed online, and features such as IVR, call conferencing, call recording and even text messaging, can easily be controlled by the business.

Traditional phones have served businesses for over a century, but they’re not without their downfalls. With cloud and hosted telecom services, both businesses and their customers get to enjoy an improved scalable experience. Cloud & hosted telecoms offer considerable upgrades over their old-fashioned counterparts. Instead of having someone to answer phones, or relying on a clunky voice messaging system, with a cloud-based solution, your company can offer your customers who phone in, a professionally packaged experience.

Your service provider hosts the infrastructure and provides the services. For clients of cloud and hosted telecom services, the only difference that they’ll notice is the extra features, and quite often, the lower price!

How do Cloud and Hosted Telecoms Work?

Cloud and hosted telecoms work by digitally transforming phone traffic into data packets which are then transmitted via the internet to the telephone network. Hosted telecoms provide your business with high-quality phone services over the internet through a hosted telecom service provider.

With cloud and hosted telecom service, you don’t need to install, build, and maintain a series of servers and phone equipment within your company, and you don’t need to keep a dedicated phone technician on your staff to keep it going. A cloud and hosted telecom provider takes care of everything on their end, giving you easy access to the administration. The upshot is, businesses get to enjoy services that are not only cost-effective, but seamless too. It’s so seamless that phone quality is identical to that of conventional telephony. Consequently, you have more space in your office; pay less, with zero maintenance, and more features than ever before.

What are the Benefits of Cloud and Hosted Telecoms?

Cloud and Hosted Telecoms are Simpler:

When you use the cloud for your communications, your business doesn’t have to keep a phone box in the office. This means no having to find a closet to store server equipment in, and fewer infrastructures to worry about. Office moves become a snap, with no waiting around for phone technicians.

Cloud and Hosted Telecoms are Scalable:

Scalability becomes simple too. With traditional phone systems, adding lines meant waiting for the technician to make a visit, plumbing wires to the new office, and connecting the lines. All a growing business needs to do is call up its provider, receive a new phone, and plug it in. Instead of paying for a phone technician to come to the office, all that’s required is an affordable handset rental from your cloud and hosted telecom provider.

No matter the size of your business, cloud and hosted telephony can open up new tools for success. It’s the perfect solution for all environments, whether your team is always on the move, or working remotely.

Cloud and Hosted Telecoms are Portable:

Because there’s no central phone system, with a cloud or hosted telecom, your workers can stay connected no matter where their office is. If they’re working remotely, or in a hybrid-work environment, they can simply bring their handset with them wherever they go. Your employees can have their office phone redirected to another line, or even their mobile, all without having to disclose their personal mobile phone numbers to your customers or coworkers.

You can make and receive calls from anywhere with internet access. As long as their handset is connected to the internet, they’ll be able to enjoy all the features of your cloud and hosted telecom service, as if they were actually in the office! With available services like speech-to-text, missed phone calls can be automatically converted to e-mails making communication even easier.

With a cloud and hosted telecom service, your business can take advantage of the global talent stream, employing digital nomads and remote workers. Simply put, you don’t need to miss out on the best candidates simply because they aren’t able to come to your office.

Cloud and Hosted Telecoms Offer Unmatchable Features:

Like most technological advancements, the benefits of adopting cloud and hosted telecoms come down to features. Adopting cloud telephony provides more than just easier voice calls. Cloud-based technology enables a telecom solution that is accessible at all times in all places. Switching to the cloud gives users the confidence that be it locally, or around the world, their telecoms will go wherever they go.

Business enhancing features like automated SMS, engagement surveys, and real-time analytics can all be automated with a cloud service, giving businesses more insight, and control over their communications than ever before. With superior communications services, customer satisfaction will go through the roof. Using real-time analytics, businesses can ensure the most optimum use of their resources, and make sure their employees stay on track.

Cloud and Hosted Telecoms save You Money:

Another benefit of cloud and hosted telecom services is the price. Not only do cloud and hosted telecom services cost less than their traditional counterparts, but they offer many time-saving features, and as they say in business, time is money. Instead of relying on a dedicated team member tasked with answering calls and redirecting clients, a cloud or hosted telecom solution can answer and redirect calls to your team, no matter where they’re physically located. This means that even the smallest company can offer “big company” levels of service, without breaking the bank! As a bonus, many cloud and hosted telecom service providers even allow customers to use their own workstations or mobile phones as their phone handset, keeping costs even lower.

Transform Your Business Today

Switching to a cloud and hosted telecom service is a lot easier than you may think. If you want to stay competitive in our post-pandemic business world, enterprises need to take advantage of all of the cloud-based tools they have to choose from. With thousands of organisations adopting remote and hybrid work environments, business communication has never been more critical.

Cloud and hosted telecom services make it easy for team members to communicate with each other and your clients. We all know how essential communication is to a business strategy.

Your cloud and hosted telecoms system are cost-effective and easy to use, with a solution that doesn’t require expensive in-house infrastructure. There’s no large investment required, no massive startup costs, and as your business grows, scaling up your solution is simple.

In short, a cloud and hosted telecoms system is the perfect business solution, no matter how large or how small your business is. It simplifies communications, letting your business focus on what you do best.If you’d like IT support to transform the way your business operates, we’d love to help.

Get in touch with our friendly team today to speak to discuss your needs in more detail or to obtain a quote from ICT Solutions.