We are at the cusp of a significant change in business phone systems. Cloud computing is transforming the way businesses communicate by providing innovative functionality without the complexity and cost of legacy on-premise systems.

While businesses have modernized, on-premise business phone systems stored in closets, they have remained largely unchanged, making these systems obsolete. These legacy systems were designed for an era when all employees worked from a single location, without mobile phones, and before the advent of cloud computing. In addition, on-premise business phone systems traditionally cost thousands of dollars to set up and maintain—a financial nightmare for small businesses.

Now, with the power of today’s cloud-based phone systems, businesses can employ modern communication services that are designed to support any organization, including distributed and mobile businesses. Cloud-based systems also circumvent the need for hardware installation, contracts, maintenance, and fluctuating long distance charges, while providing robust capabilities that enable businesses to operate more efficiently with professional quality services.

Equal Access
Cloud computing provides small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) access to high-end business communication tools that have traditionally only been available to large enterprises. In one case, a real estate company needed a phone system that allowed them to connect to their distributed agents and clients with a single primary business number.

Cloud computing gave this company the ability to begin using a multi-extension business phone system, including unlimited calling and advanced voice and fax functionality, the very same day they signed up. There were no setup costs and no technical assistance needed. Calls were routed to mobile locations using virtual extensions instead of additional expensive lines or phone numbers. And with a fixed, minimal monthly fee, this company realized increased productivity with dramatic savings.

On-demand, Rapid Deployment
Legacy, on-premise phone systems can take several weeks to deploy and require hardware to be installed and maintained by technical experts. In addition, as businesses grow, so do the costs and complexity—additional lines, hardware, and entire systems to support new locations. Legacy systems are simply not designed to support a growing, mobile or distributed workforce, which limits the flexibility of a business.

Cloud-based business phone systems are designed to be independent of the number of employees and allow businesses to activate their services in minutes rather than weeks. This flexibility allows businesses to scale both their capacity and capabilities based on their needs.

Cost Reduction
Legacy telephone systems are expensive to operate. In addition to monthly service fees, fluctuating long distance fees, licensing, and support costs, it often takes IT resources to perform common business tasks, such as establishing routing rules for customer service or billing departments. This level of investment and reoccurring costs are not realistic for SMBs that lack an IT department.

A cloud-based system enables individual business users to set up and change rules via an online web interface without expert assistance, freeing businesses to focus their resources on operations and driving bottom line profits.

In addition, cloud computing significantly reduces the overall annual operating costs of business-class phone systems. With cloud-based systems there are no systems to purchase, deploy, or maintain. Cloud systems also scale dynamically, allowing the phone system to grow with the business with no capital costs.

Flexibility
Traditional phone systems lack the flexibility to meet the needs of today’s work force. The inability to integrate distributed and mobile employees into a single business phone system results in a plethora of numbers and overall inefficient communication.

A cloud-based system seamlessly routes inbound calls from the primary business number to all employees through the use of extensions or pre-defined calling rules. They also allow outbound calls from remote phones to appear as if they are being made from the primary business line. This eliminates the need for remote employees to provide personal or mobile phone numbers to their customers, delivering the image of a single large-scale business operation.

A Complete Communications Solution
Cloud computing eliminates the limitations imposed by expensive legacy, on-premise systems, allowing SMBs to easily take advantage of sophisticated business communication services. The efficiencies of cloud-based telephone systems enhance productivity by equipping employees with automated communication tools and innovative functionality, without having to rely on complicated technical installations or investing in expensive hardware.

Cloud-based phone systems level the playing field between SMBs and larger enterprises. Organizations seeking business-class functionality, flexibility and cost reductions in their telecommunications should consider throwing out what’s in the closet and start using what’s in the cloud. BTE

Nisha Ahluwalia is director of marketing, RingCentral. RingCentral offers hosted business phone systems that helps tens of thousands of customers worldwide to improve and manage their telecommunications better. Purpose-built for small and medium businesses, RingCentral delivers the professionalism and functionality of a Fortune 500 phone service with the flexibility to easily connect teams regardless of location.