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| Top 5 reasons a small business should use a hosted phone system |
Replacing your old school traditional style phone system might be one of the smartest moves you ever make for your business.
A lot’s changed in the communication arena of business in the last few years. Everything has gone digital, and yet some businesses are still incurring costs than they should when it comes to their phone systems.
The cloud has arrived, and if you’ve ever used a computer, sent an email, surfed the web, ordered something online, or used Skype, then you’re already part of it, and you’re already using it.
Fortunately, as a business owner or as a decision maker for your company, that’s about all you need to know to reap the benefits of a hosted telephone system for your business.
The fact is that the majority of SMEs according to some reports are still using traditional landline PBX phone systems, and for them, phone costs are still a major expense on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis.
The great news is that a business with even a relatively slow broadband connection can still experience the benefits of (here comes the buzz word) VOIP technology.
For those who don’t know, VOIP simply stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol.
For some business owners, it’s not uncommon to still find that there is a lack of awareness about the potential for using the internet for hosted telephone services. There can exist the idea that using the internet to carry your phone calls will lead to dropped calls and an unreliable service where conversations will be sporadic and of poor quality. If were back in 2001, I’d probably agree with you.
But this is now 2016, and a lot has changed in the last 15 years or so. Remember, 15 years before 2001, very few people had ever heard of the internet, or the World Wide Web.
Besides in any case, even if your business is still using a traditional old model landline phone system, the chances are, are that your phone provider is taking your calls and routing them through the internet anyway, and it’s doubtful you’d even be able to tell.
But what are hosted phone services?
That’s a really good question, and probably the first hurdle most decision makers have to address and cross. Put simply, as I’ve said above, the only difference is that phone calls simply travel via the internet and utilise the cloud, rather than be tied down via physical switchboards and limited to specific physical locations.
Hosted phone services are just like regular phone services, except they reside in the cloud, rather than being tied to a particular location via a telephone line and physical switchboard.
Here are five of the top reasons businesses should consider using a hosted phone system.
Save your business money.
The moment you switch to a hosted phone system setup,your business is almost guaranteed to save on expenses. The costs involved when using a hosted system are substantially lower when compared to your existing landline setup.
Why? Because VOIP telephony all goes out over the internet. The phone system provider doesn’t have to support or rent out a physical infrastructure as they would with an outdated analogue system, and calls over an internet connection, and especially international calls, will be cheaper as well.
Quick and easy
While keeping running costs to a minimum is important, installing a hosted telephone system won’t cause any downtime for employees. One of the benefits of utilising VOIP technology is its simplicity. A hosted system can be up and running in no time, sometimes in less than a few hours.
Easy to expand your business and add more users
As your business grows and you find yourself expanding and hiring new staff, then you’ll needexpand your phone network. One of the great benefits of having installed a hosted system is that you can add users to the system yourself.
With some systems, it can be as easy as clicking a few icons with a mouse, or ironically, you can just call your hosted provider and then they can do it for you, typically in just a few minutes. And if you have sales guys on the road, and people working from home, as long as they have internet access, it can sometimes seem like they’re in the office down the hall.
All the features you need
Well, mostly anyway. The sheer variety and range of features a hosted telephone system can provide, can be a bit mind boggling, but choosing a quality solution that works for you shouldn’t be an issue when you find the right partner.
The right provider will make sure you have all the features you’d normally expect on a traditional system, and more. The right system setup should deliver things such as call transferring, decent hold music, dedicated hold messages and centralised phone numbers can all be found on the right system.A fully hosted telephone system should also allow you view all the call data on your system, and allow you to change system settings and policies from one central location.
Disaster proof
Not only can a hosted system grow or contract as needed, in the event that something bad happens to your physical premises, having a VOIP system in place can keep you business up and running when your office floods or the roof collapses.
Downtime in being able to communicate with your business base can cost you money, lost sales, and an awful lot of headaches. When it comes to being able to keep in contact with your clients and customers, and crucially, have the ability to keep them in touch with you, using a hosted telephone system could make the difference between staying in business and being out of business.
That’s because a hosted system isn’t tied to a physical place. Even if you just move office, a decent hosted service should be able to move with you without any delays.
Final thoughts
In business, continuously trying to keep the edge over competitors, especially in the SME sector can be hard. Technology and the way the world communicates has undergone a serious revolution in the last 10 years or so.
It’s now easier than ever to access and reaps the benefits from a VOIP telephone system, especially when you compare the advantages against a traditional hard line system.
Using one will allow easily impressing your clients and business partners, and continuing to build and solidify your reputation. So, in conclusion, there is more to gain from using a hosted telephone system for your business than simply saving on running costs, and you’ve certainly nothing to lose.
Home › Small Business Hosting › 5 Reasons to get a Hosted Telephone System for your Business Now
James Evans is co-owner of Telecoms and Energy firm Brighter Bills. In his spare time he enjoys writing about various topics and news from the telecoms industry, as well as writing for other online publications.
