No tags yet.
Telephony and communications systems for the business world are coming into their own, as unified communications (UC) vendors have started offering richer features and mobile access to their cloud platforms. Still others are beginning to look toward integrating their communications platforms directly within business software for greater efficiency gains. If your company is using a legacy phone system, now is an excellent time to consider upgrading. Not only can you enjoy cost and productivity benefits, but you will also be well positioned to take advantage of future innovation opportunities down the road. Here are four reasons to upgrade your older phone system in favor of current technology.
Mobility and Remote Access
If you’re using a legacy system, it’s likely that your options for mobile access are limited. If your staff need to access their office phone line while traveling, they may have to dial in and enter a cumbersome series of commands to access voicemail features. UC mobility apps allow users to send and receive calls from their office line on their mobile device of choice, and they also provide convenient access to voicemail as well as other standard voice over IP (VoIP) features.
You may also find that your options for providing remote access to telecommuting workers are rather limited and lacking in flexibility or that they require extra effort from the IT team to run the way you would like. Most of today’s UC and VoIP systems are designed by default to offer full access regardless of location and device. Anyone working from home or logging in from the airport can join a meeting via video chat or dash off a quick instant message just as if they were in the office, which enhances their productivity and makes their working life easier, as well.
Cost Flexibility
Legacy phone systems are not known for being budget friendly, and they are especially prone to causing sticker shock when the time comes to upgrade or significantly expand your systems. Cloud UC and VoIP systems are priced based on user licenses, with the provider including and managing maintenance and system upgrades automatically, so it’s easier to anticipate and plan for your expenses without encountering any unwelcome surprises. The licensing model is also scalable, allowing you to dial your implementation up or down according to your needs. This flexibility can be especially beneficial to businesses experiencing rapid growth.
Business Continuity in the Event of a Disaster
Most of today’s UC solutions come with a cloud option, which means that all of the telephony and messaging services run on the provider’s servers instead of pricey hardware located in your company’s data center. The cloud model offers some distinct business continuity benefits where emergency and disaster scenarios are concerned. Rather than having to implement expensive disaster recovery solutions that require significant management overhead to administer, your staff can still access the core communications systems—phones, instant messaging, video chat, and screen sharing—that they need to do their work in the event of an outage or an emergency event.
If a disaster arises, timely communication among staff, and then to key stakeholders will be at the top of your priority list. You can save yourself some headaches by ensuring that your communication systems, by being hosted in the cloud, will still be ready for you when you need them. Furthermore, this capability is included in the overall licensing cost. No additional fee is associated with it because it comes standard in all hosted UC plans.
Opportunities for Future Business Integration
Not only are UC systems becoming more sophisticated with mobile and cloud access, they are also at the point of becoming more integrated and meshed within business applications themselves. Some UC vendors are beginning to partner with enterprise software platforms—the recent RingCentral–Google for Work integration is but one example—allowing users to access their phones and messaging systems from directly within the browser tab where they are working. If your company is thinking ahead to future productivity gains and innovation it would like to bring to the workplace, you may also want to consider upgrading to a UC service for this reason.
Are you still using a legacy phone system at your company? If so, are you thinking of upgrading in the near future? What benefits are you hoping to achieve in doing so? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.