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Why Switch to the Cloud?
Unsure how cloud communications differ from legacy on-premises phones, and why you should move your business phones to the cloud? We’ve assembled and answered some common questions that business owners ask.
Cloud Phone System
Scales with your business, so you are never paying for users you don’t need. You purchase service for the exact number of users you have. Adding a new employee is as simple as ordering service and plugging in another phone or using your computer as your phone.
On-premises phone system
Requires a server called a private-branch exchange (or PBX). Some are scalable (you can add more capacity) and others simply will not scale beyond a certain number of users. In some situations, you have to purchase phone lines in modules, e.g., you buy capacity for 12 users when you only need 9 lines.
Look for a provider that gives you flexibility today and ensures it can scale as your business needs change.
Cloud Phone System
Runs on your provider’s network, which should have multi-region datacenters and built-in redundancy that ensures an outage in one server or datacenter doesn’t bring the whole system down. Electricity or internet outages may impact your office’s phones, but not the service itself, which in the event of an outage would reroute calls to your desktop or mobile app. In that regard, they are highly reliable.
On-premises phone system
Shuts down when the power goes out or the phone lines are disrupted. Not very reliable. They’re also subject to whatever disaster strikes your office location, e.g., fire, flooding, severe weather, or theft can render your phones unusable or offline.
Look for a provider that offers financially backed service level agreements with uptime as high as 99.999% (which means less than 26 seconds of downtime per month). So long as you don’t settle for anything less, your business can definitely depend on cloud reliability
Cloud Phone System
Is easy to implement and usually doesn’t even require a visit from your vendor. Every phone or headset is shipped to you with simple instructions for how to plug them into your existing internet connection. Support agents or your IT partner can talk you through how to use the online dashboard to configure phone numbers, assign call forwarding, and more. The process takes just hours, not weeks.
On-premises phone system
Usually requires a specialized technician to install, set up, maintain, and make changes. And you’ll have to schedule the service, which can take weeks. Employees may be given a phone system “cheat sheet” that tells them how to transfer calls, conference someone in, and so on.
Look for an easy-to-use cloud communication system whose provider offers 24/7 support that’s been certified for quality by a third party.
Cloud Phone System
Is priced on a flat monthly fee per user and generally includes local and long-distance calling. Business features like voicemail, call forwarding, conferencing, video, chat, and other communication features are all included in the cost.
On-premises phone system
Usually requires annual contracts and additional charges for feature changes, moving or adding lines, maintenance, and more. Plus, you have to pay the phone company for phone lines and long distance.
By switching to a cloud communications provider and consolidating all of your communications features into one solution and one bill, you could save money and complexity.
You shouldn’t have to worry about this at all – your provider or IT partner should run network tests and pre-qualify your network before any kind of deployment to ensure call quality and clarity. Cloud phone system call quality should be as good as that on land lines.
Since cloud phones rely on your internet connection and network setup, you’ll want to look for a provider that rigorously tests your network (e.g., does a multi-day vs. a 15-second test) for bandwidth and redundancy and advises whether it should be upgraded to support voice calls.
“Biggest” depends on what matters to you. But cloud communications in general are more affordable, more reliable, and easier to set up than on-premises phones. They also scale with your business more flexibly and deliver communication and collaboration features that your customers and employees are used to having on their mobile devices. Last, they are usually integrated with a mobile app that gives your employees the ability to make and receive business calls from their mobile device, so connecting with customers or other employees isn’t dependent on employees sitting at a desk all day.
Consider a cloud communications service from a company that delivers fully unified communication and collaboration features like voice, chat, video conferencing, file sharing and contact center. You’ll be glad you did even if you don’t use the features right away.
You keep your existing phone numbers when you switch to the cloud. Moving phone numbers is called “porting.” Porting local phone numbers takes about 2-4 weeks depending on how quickly your current service provider responds, and porting toll- free numbers typically takes about 1-2 weeks. There is usually a bit of overlap time where your phone numbers are active on both services
Make sure you follow the provider’s instructions for a smooth number porting experience.
