How Cloud Telephony Has Changed the Business Landscape in India
Today, the cloud has become a regular topic of conversation in the business landscape. Companies are evaluating, understanding and adopting cloud infrastructure in the ways suiting their growth plan.
A research projection shows that the cloud computing market is expected to reach $162B in 2020 attaining a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19% from 2015 to 2020. This prediction of cloud market is a clear indication that in the upcoming years, companies will continuously be incorporating cloud technology to re-orchestrate business operations.
Since business communication is one of the most critical business areas which directly influences the brand image and customer experience. Thus, among all the operations, business communication is going to be significantly impacted by cloud adoption. This application of cloud technology is also famously known as cloud telephony.
As the name suggests, in simple words, cloud telephony is the technology where the telephony infrastructure is hosted on the cloud of service provider instead of the organization’s premise. It means, unlike traditional ways, companies no more need to worry about searching and buying the right communication infrastructure which aligns with their business needs. Instead, they only need to look for a cloud telephony service provider who can understand their business and provide quick services.
Apart from eliminating the headache of infrastructure, cloud telephony is revolutionizing the process of communication in many ways, let’s understand them below in detail.
1. Drastically Reduces the Over Head Cost
In the case of a traditional PBX system, a company invests a considerably large amount of money to get started. From buying E-PABX box, landlines, routers to additional space to install the infrastructure, everything is paid by the business.
Whereas in the case of cloud telephony, hosting the telephony system over the cloud cuts down the cost drastically. Companies no more invest their effort and money in search of the infrastructure. Instead, service providers take care of this process with their expertise.
Moreover, the cost of a dedicated department or staff to handle the telephony system also gets eliminated as the maintenance of the system is no more company’s concern.
2. Quick & Affordable to Scale
Cloud telephony ensures that the growth of a business is never hindered. To scale their telephony system, a company does not have to wait for days if they have opted for cloud telephony. They merely need to request the service providers to increase the number of calling channels, and within hours, the whole system gets scaled to use.
Cloud makes the scaling process quick. Moreover, as the infrastructure is hosted on the cloud, the expense of adding or removing the additional channels is affordable.
3. Offer High Reliability
With on-premise systems, the primary point of concern is resolving a sudden failure of the data center. To handle such emergencies, businesses need to be well-equipped with disaster recovery plans which include real time data backup, redundant server and network infrastructure.
However, when it comes to cloud telephony, the probability of these failures is reduced to a large extent. The service providers always have a disaster recovery plan in place, i.e., they have multiple servers working at a different location where the data is continuously backed up. So, in case of any natural disaster or server failures, cloud service providers have all the recovery strategies in place.
4. Enhances Business Efficiency with Call Analytics
While using an on-premise system, keeping track of all the calls is difficult and inconvenient for the business. On the other hand, cloud telephony makes it easier for companies to handle a large amount of data generated every day.
Apart from automatically storing the data along with the call recordings, cloud telephony service providers also make sure that the data is structured and could be easily comprehended. Thus, they provide dashboards which makes it convenient for the business owners to remain updated of their calls and business activities round the clock.
These dashboards provide insights into active, missed and answered calls, along with additional details such as caller’s name, agent’s name, the total time of the call and more. Moreover, these dashboards can be easily accessed over phones and tabs which makes it easier for the business owners to remain updated of their processes on-the-go.
5. Automatically Updates Your Telephony System
Technology is always expanding, and thus businesses need to stay up-to-date with the new features. In the case of on-premise systems, system upgrade with every technological update becomes difficult as it would demand replacement of the infrastructure with new equipment regularly, which is not a practical and feasible solution for any business.
However, with cloud telephony, updating your telephony system is not a challenge, as cloud telephony providers are always implementing the newest changes in the system without affecting the users. Moreover, these service providers have dedicated experts to handle such vital upgrades.
6. Makes Remote Working Possible
Another research stated that 68% of job seekers who are millennials said, they are more interested in employers who offer the option to work remotely. Hence, there is no denying the fact that flexible working is experiencing a rise in demand and is expected to grow more in the upcoming years.
Cloud telephony seamlessly caters to this request of millennials. As the whole setup deployed over the cloud, the company employees can access these services from anywhere at any time. The employees can easily access the communicating system remotely by logging into the web portal from their homes. Moreover, with call forwarding option the arriving calls can be easily forwarded to the personal numbers. With this flexibility, employees are no more required to remain glued to their seats for attending phones.