Six Myths About Cloud Phone Systems Debunked

Unless you want to reach out and hug your phone system, here are six myths that I would like to de-bunk once and for all about a premise system versus a cloud or hosted solution.

Cloud Phone System Myth # 1
If my old phone system works OK, isn't it cheaper to stick with it until the old system dies?

When you factor in PBX maintenance, increasing carrier fees, and the cost of changes made during expansion and relocation, as well as being unable to exploit many new VoIP features that integrate with office productivity tools, you might be losing money by sticking with outdated systems.

Waiting for a forced change, such as discontinued equipment or the closing or merging of your current telephony provider, can result in a rushed changeover and possible costly downtime. By switching to Cloud Phone System, you can stay ahead of the game and remain competitive without hitting a bump in day-to-day operations. Making the switch can be easy and far less painful than propping up an old, outdated system.

Cloud Phone System Myth # 2
Isn't VoIP just a consumer solution? I see ads for Vonage on TV all the time.

Today there are business-class VoIP providers with solutions specifically tailored for business use with high-quality IP phones and PBX features such as extension dialing, auto attendants, ring groups, conference calling and more. These solutions can now deliver crystal-clear audio anywhere in the world.

Integrating voice, video and data on a single, secure network keeps employees productive from wherever they work, without compromising security or quality of service.

Cloud Phone System Myth # 3
Why do we need a Cloud Phone System service? Can't we all just use our cell phones?

The best VoIP providers already have apps that connect your cell phone into the office phone system, giving you mobility and all the advantages of a full business phone system. You can then use your smartphone as a business extension whenever you want to, and reroute the calls when you don't. You never have to give out your personal cell number for business, and you can get business calls on your smartphone when you travel.

Cloud Phone System Myth #4
We can manage our system fine by ourselves. Won't it cost us less and be more reliable?

Actually, most premise based systems now are sold with almost mandatory maintenance agreements. The agreements cover software patches and hardware defects. They don't cover upgrades. They don't cover moves adds and changes. In most cases, they don't cover the labor involved to make basic changes. When you take a look at the total cost of ownership of a system, over the course of ten years, you will probably be paying as much in maintenance as procuring another whole system! If you factor in the cost of the labor involved, you are looking at a much larger cost of ownership.

Reliability is really where a cloud phone system shines through. Cloud companies house their systems in data centers. A data center has multiple forms of redundancy- power redundancy between multiple grids and failover to back up generators, multiple redundancy to backbone carriers, and proper ventilation and cooling. An average business cannot even begin to approach this level of redundancy economically. Additionally, data centers are secure from unauthorized physical access with sophisticated biometric security systems and manned 24.7.365 professional security personnel restricting entrance and egress.

As a result cloud service providers can provide a service level agreement that will guarantee quality of service to you- in writing and enforceable.

Cloud Phone System Myth #5
Won't I have to re-cable my premises to accommodate a cloud phone system?

Most IP phones today have built in pass through hubs so that you can install phones wherever you have a Category 5 or better network computer cable. Additionally, most cloud providers now have apps that you can install on smartphones like the iPhone or Android platform that will make your network enabled smartphone operate as a cordless set-frequently at no extra cost.

Cloud Phone System Myth #6
A phone system is a phone system. They're all the same. If they go down, I am out of service, right?

If your premise based system goes down for whatever, you will have to redirect your main number to a cell phone from your carrier. If you experience a cable cut, you will be down. If you experience a equipment malfunction from hardware or software, you will be down.

On a hosted platform, with 99.999% reliability in writing from the cloud service provider, you can have your extension ring to a cell phone and frequently that is either done through an online user portal or via a quick call to customer service. On many hosted systems, you can log in remotely via an app on a smartphone or via a dial in from a plain ordinary telephone line. Net result: you are never down.

VoIP and Simultaneous Ring Phones

Today's employees have a large number of devices at their disposal. In addition to the office phone, they have their own personal mobile device, a tablet, and several laptops. No longer is a traditional 9-to-5 job the only time when a person is in contact with their office. Unfortunately, the PSTN phone system has not kept up with this changing environment. Telephone numbers are still tightly connected to single devices with each having a separate one. Migrating from one to the other is not seamless and there's no getting around the 1 to 1 ratio of telephone numbers to devices.

What we need is for our telephone addressing system to be as flexible as that used by e-mail. It should be accessible from any device anywhere in the world and not be tied down to any single network. Your e-mail depends on the Internet and doesn't care about which telecom carrier you're obtaining service from. It works seamlessly over Wi-Fi, Ethernet connections, and mobile data. It's high time we brought regular phone calls into the 21st-century and imbued it with the features that we've come to expect from an advanced communication network.

While it'll be a long time before the telecom carriers themselves change the model, businesses have the option to jump into this new system right away using the power of VoIP. There are many different types of VoIP service - the well-known ones are geared towards the retail customer instead of the professional. Business organizations will need to obtain service from an SIP provider. Once they do so, each user will be allotted what is known as a "SIP address". This looks very similar to a regular e-mail in structure and indeed the architecture of the two systems bears many similarities.

Since these will be paid accounts, your SIP addresses can be identical to your e-mail so you will have your own domain name for branding purposes. Depending on the specific provider and their pricing plans, you can link several devices to a single SIP address and have them all ring simultaneously or one at a time as per your preferences. This allows your employees to always be available and answer any calls using the most convenient device instead of being shackled to just one. It also means that clients need keep track of a single telephone number. In short, it simplifies and streamlines the entire calling process.

Simultaneous ring functionality is also known as "SIP forking". It is one of the key differentiating features of a VoIP system. Make sure that your SIP service provider offers it before signing up with them.

Determining The Correct Phone System To Secure Business Growth

The kind of phone system you have for internal company communication is essential in making you have smooth business operation. Various factors should be considered when choosing the kind of system to install. You should consider both your current capacity and plans. Including only what you have currently might turn out to be expensive in the long-term. After a few years or even months your whole system requires an overhaul.

Similarly, your system can give you problems and give you unnecessary costs if you overestimate future prospects. The right system is found in getting the right balance for your company and one that is within your budget.

Current factors to consider include the number of employees you cater for, the kind of internet and hardware connections you have, how much your budget can accommodate, the phone system expenditure and how much you or your staff understand the technology.

Prospective factors include how many employees you want to add in the next five years, how much business growth your project, the call volume you intend to get or capture especially for a contact centers. Note all these factors and write what you want before you make a purchase and contact a service provider.

You should also carry out research on the phone system available to know what is suitable for both your current and future needs. The most common include the VoIP, PBX and Key phone systems. PBX known as Private Branch Exchange system in full are systems suitable for an employee capacity of more than 50. They allow one to customize the system to get a unified messaging service and are highly advanced. Maintenance costs tend to be high hence should be factored in the overall purchase cost.

Key systems are simple and applicable for small upcoming enterprise that has all its employees in one place. It works effectively with a small number of 30 and uses routing technology using the PTSN. It resembles a typical office system and though quite basic is highly effective for internal communications only.

VoIP, which is the most popular of the three, uses an internet connection to place and route calls. It is cheap and effective and can manage a huge number of employees. The only thing is that you have to ensure you constantly have sufficient bandwidth to support the system.

Large companies can use a mix of two of the above systems, each with its own area of operation. For instance, one can be used for management and another for routing calls both in the company and outside.

Reaching Out to Hundreds of People Through Voice Broadcasting

Voice broadcasting has been used as an advertising method for a long time and it is a tried and true method that has many benefits to its credit. Using a simple phone messages and an attractive audio advertisement, you can communicate with potential and established customers to your business, while make others aware of specials or new services and products, or contact business leads without wasting hours out of your day cold calling.

If your business is looking for a way to reach out to hundreds of people in an extremely fast and efficient manner, voice broadcasting is the best option. Services offering voice broadcasting make it possible to deliver pre recorded audio files that are to the point and attention grabbing and then send it out to a huge number of people at same time. If you have a lengthy list of prospective clients or have accumulated a list of people who have shown an interest in learning more about your business or services, then you can have all of those people hit with your broadcasted telephone message at the same time.

Prospects can find out more information or take advantage of a special deal presented in the broadcasted message, customers will be able to simply press a number on their phone or call a given toll free number directly to your agents or company. Many communities have found voice broadcasting software to be especially beneficial when alerting citizens to emergencies. For instance, in a fire or other disaster, sending a signal over the telephone or the Internet can alert a building's residents. Alert messages can be sent to tenants in a building if there is a fire or disaster. Sensors that initiate an emergency phone broadcast by sending a signal over the internet or by phone can trigger this automatically. Other applications may be as simple as wake-up calls or weather alerts that are triggered automatically from your own computer systems or websites.

The VB software has the capability to detect busy signals and wrong numbers. Broadcasting programs enable inclusion of customized information into the message piece and allow an outstanding voice session through IVR mode. The modern version of VB setup comes bundled with telephony boards that can detect answering machines. The intrinsic logic of the voice broadcasting software, upon being executed by an answering device, will observe and recognize the exact moment when to initiate the message; or will disconnect if the company prefers to call the number later when the customer will potentially be available.

VoIP and Bandwidth Management

In the early days of the Internet with dial up connections, VoIP was something of a luxury. The latency and lag associated with slow speeds made voice calling an extremely scratchy proposition. Very few people used VoIP for anything and it was only a last resort when all other modes of communication over the PSTN phone system failed.

How times have changed! Broadband speeds in the US today are more than sufficient to handle the paltry traffic that VoIP generates. To give you an example of the speed comparison, some of the most high quality audio codecs used with VoIP in HD voice require around 128 kbs upload and download speeds. To put this in perspective, most people today have well over 2-3 Mbps connections if not more.

Under some circumstances however, bandwidth can still be a problem. For example if I'm downloading a large file that fills all of my available bandwidth space to capacity, the quality of the VoIP call will degrade. To compensate for this, most routers on the market today have inbuilt settings that prioritize real time traffic such as VoIP above all others. This allows regular Internet activity such as web browsing to take a backseat. This makes sense. No one really minds if their page takes 20 milliseconds more to load. But when you're talking to someone over the phone, that short period of time is enough to create a poor quality experience.

Perhaps the one place where we still face a bandwidth crunch when using VoIP is the mobile data scene. Even here, 3G technologies provide more than enough bandwidth to allow for a seamless VoIP experience. The limiting factor in this case is not the speed of mobile Internet, but the latency and lag associated with wireless connectivity. Wi-Fi so far has proved to be an excellent substitute as it is backed up by a regular ethernet connection and is much more reliable within its area of operation. Emerging 4G technologies however are proving to be ideal for VoIP giving rise to a new acronym - VoLTE - Voice over LTE.

Perhaps the biggest threat to mobile VoIP is not the technology itself, but the data caps imposed by carriers. While VoIP itself will probably not put a dent in your usage rates, it's a mindset that might prevent people from using it for fear of overshooting their data limits.

Putting Telemarketing Into High Gear Using Predictive Dialing

The best way for a business to increase its sales is through telemarketing. With telemarketing campaigns, a business can reach millions of prospects that are using telephone. However, the biggest obstacle for the business is to set up a facility where calling activities can be done effectively. Setting up a calling facility as well as maintaining a team of sales representatives, is not cheap by any means. For such a situation, a predictive dialing system could prove to be an ideal solution.

A predictive dialer is a sophisticated solution that makes use of a computer and a telephony system to dial out a list of telephone numbers effectively. It can dial out numbers in such an automated manner that it can predict the likelihood of the telephone user picking up that call. Although, a little expensive solution, involving big one time cost, predictive dialer, in the long run, can level out the costs by enabling the business to achieve better efficiency and productivity.

These days, with the advancement in technology, some contact center solution providers even offer hosted predictive dialing solutions. Hosted dialer is similar to predictive dialer, but is available in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS) over the internet. With SaaS predictive dialing solution, a business need not need to maintain the dialing infrastructure, including servers and ISDN lines. Furthermore, a business need not need to worry about maintaining and updating the dialer system itself since it lies in the responsibility of the contact center solution provider. Such hosted dialing system, indeed, can prove to a cost effective solution.

One of the core features of a hosted predictive dialer is its ability to provide call access to the sales agents even if they are not at the facility. Sales agents, no matter where they are, can connect to this system and proceed with their regular telemarketing activity. All that the sales agents require is a computer, calling equipment, and a simple internet connection to connect with the hosted system and perform their duty. Furthermore, the hosted system, just like a native predictive system, can effectively detect unproductive calls like an answering machine, busy tone, fax tone, and so on. These features can certainly improve the efficiency of the dialing process and productivity of the sales agents. The system even has the ability to eliminate the National Do Not Call Registry numbers. This indeed can eliminate unnecessary complaints and legal actions against the business.

Effective telemarketing is the key to improve sales, and intelligent dialing system can certainly put the telemarketing efforts into high gear.

Voice Broadcasting, Key to a Successful Business

Voice broadcasting has proven itself as a major tool in promoting and advertising a business. It allows your message to reach hundreds of people through their phones in an easy and effective way. Easily available in the market, this technology has become popular in promoting businesses. Marketing companies use this technology to promote and sell their products and politicians use this to conduct a campaign or win votes. It has made it possible to reach people within a short period of time that in turns save energy and time.

On average you can expect to see about 1%~2% return on the calls made by this technology. That may not seem like a huge percentage but you need to think of it in terms of numbers. If your voice broadcasting system is calling 100 people every minute in 5 minutes you may expect to see 20 people get in touch with you for business. That is 10 to 20 customers that you didn't have before, and you should think about it as getting two clients for every minute. That is actually a great return on your venture. Voice broadcasting is a unique technology that you can control the use of in any time zone. You can program the system to adjust for time zones, which means that you can actually increase your customer base to more of a national client. Moreover, if your voice broadcasting system runs into calls that are busy or go unanswered it will automatically reschedule the call to ensure that your potential customer is reached.

For a campaign that leaves messages on answering machines or voicemail, the numbers will be significantly lower, because the prospect must have enough interest to write the callback number down and then call it back, taking much more effort than simply "pressing 1" during a live message. These numbers are impossible for us to track, since the calls back to the broadcaster don't utilize the broadcast system, but marketers who use this method have informed us that the call back ratio is probably one fourth to one third of the live transfer rate for a similar message.

Many companies in the world are offering broadcasting related programs. Any businessman can afford this service to run his business successfully. Downloading, recording, saving calls and messages are some of the main aspects of video broadcasting. Most companies normally give introductory offers off certain number of phone calls for free. To get this offer, the company will request the customer to fill out the online application form that asks for some basic details to submit. Some trial versions are also available and we can make use of these to know about the product before purchasing to get some idea on their usage.