Businesses are moving global and scaling themselves with each passing day and expanding their reach to customers at the same time.
If I was referring to such a scenario a decade earlier, it would have sounded like a big problem for any business to reach out to a large number of customers globally and think of establishing their offices in different locations of the world.
Even scaling their businesses was a big problem as a large amount of business hardware had to be moved or added which in either of the cases left another problem of space management in companies.
The other problems were much obvious; first the unimaginable cost and second, the management of a large infrastructure at a global scale. The companies that managed to sink in the costs in their budgets suffered by being tangled in the management and well being of such large infrastructure.
But thank God, we are here in 2017 and have technology at our rescue. Technology has bestowed many boons upon us that have not only changed the way we live but also made the world an easier place to live.
We are today talking about one such phenomenal technology of cloud telephony, which has changed the way companies do businesses in modern times.
Cloud telephony is much like cloud computing and is a virtually hosted service. Through the medium of cloud telephony, all your businesses’ data and the information is stored on the cloud, which includes your software applications as well.
Cloud is just a term that is used to mention an off site virtual server. Cloud can be accessed through any computer just with the use of an internet connection. The cloud telephony service provider usually manages your virtual server and lets you move your business to the cloud.
This has helped businesses in various ways and facilitated their growth and better reach to audience.
You might have heard that moving to the cloud has many advantages for your businesses but if you are still confused on how cloud telephony can help your business grow, you are at the right place. Cloud has as many advantages for big organizations as it has for small and medium businesses.
Here are the three most important ways by which cloud telephony is helping businesses that will also help you make up your mind to adapt this phenomenal technology.
1. Nothing beats the factor of cost efficiency |
Costs are one of the top most factors that get affected once businesses move to the cloud. Gone are the days when companies employed traditional PBX telephony systems that not only had a large infrastructure involved but also huge costs.
Now think about it, if an organization thought of scaling its business it had to invest a considerable amount of money on hardware. And not only this, the traditional telephony system also involved a huge maintenance cost and a lot of manpower that also needed an organization’s attention.
What I am focussing here is that a large part of the company’s revenues was being invested into the infrastructural or business hardware costs, that could otherwise have been utilized for other business critical strategies.
Cloud telephony has made all of this easier by able to scale up your resources as per your businesses’ requirements. The costs have been cut down considerably since you only pay for what you use.
The hardware is much less as compared to the traditional telephony and requires much less maintenance as well. The only costs are that of the handsets and a central router, the costs of the service being quite less.
2. Serves multiple purposes at one time |
Cloud telephony not only serves the purpose of replacing your traditional telephony system but performs many other functions that too, in a hassle free manner. Apart from serving as the remedy to reach out to a large number of customers, it can also be used to store all your business related information.
It can also help businesses by hosting their software solutions as part of the SaaS agreements. As part of it, your software automatically gets updated whenever a newer version is available.
Cloud telephony services can also be used as a mechanism for data backup in times of crisis. In case of a disaster or software failure situation, you can store your data in the cloud that can be retrieved later as it is available on an off- site cloud environment server.
This can help you maintain productivity in your business as you can virtualize your systems and run them even though your in-house infrastructure is damaged.
Another advantage of cloud telephony is that since it can store your customer’s information at one place, it can help businesses provide better customer satisfaction to their prospects.
Cloud telephony services reduce the waiting time of the customer over the telephone line and work progressively to route them to the best available rep for earliest resolution.
3. Business growth and easy integration |
Cloud telephony can also be easily integrated with your ongoing business software. Since traditional telephony systems are isolated systems they cannot be integrated with other business tools.
But cloud telephony, on the other hand, can integrate with CRM and customer success tools that can contribute to the success and growth of a business and also impact the employee productivity.
This means that a customer representative can have all the details of the customer including their name, issue, history of contact with the organization that can help him/ her assists the customer in a much better way.
This can reduce the time that the representative would have otherwise required to asking unnecessary questions to the customer, also reducing the customer frustration level.
Ultimately cloud telephony is serving as a great option for business growth by letting a business expand its services to the customers without expanding its infrastructure.
Thus cloud telephony is a complete package that can cater to many needs of a business. It is as much beneficial to a small business as it is to a large business.
So, if you haven’t moved to the cloud yet, it’s the time that you consider its benefits and adopt cloud telephony for your business.