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Cloud. It’s a buzzword in business, but what is it? Cloud-based phone systems improve the productivity of your business while cutting costs by leveraging the cloud. We have gathered the top 10 questions we get at Select Communications about using cloud-based phone systems with helpful answers to put you at ease. And remember, we are always here to help. Below are a few samples questions.
of executives report user adoption as the primary challenge of their enterprise technology investment.
Your package can be scaled up or down at any time
Learn how your phone systems can become more than a dial tone.
Increase your brand recognition with a variety of phone number options to service your business phone system.
Integrate your cloud system with the apps you rely on most brings your business to a new level of connectivity.
Ensure you don’t miss calls and that your team has the most advanced features at their command.
Create and modify voicemail inboxes and greetings for large and small businesses with ease.
Now you can send and receive text and multimedia messages from your business number.
Work where and how you want with convenient smartphone features that put your business in the palm of your hand.
We offer easy-to-use, flexible business phone systems designed for small and medium businesses that work the way you do.
Select Communications offers a complete cloud-based phone system solution with big business features and mobility for a small business price.
With Select Communications, you get implementation advisors and free 24×7 support.
Cloud or hosted services are not new. Businesses have been using cloud-based solutions like Salesforce CRM or Webex virtual conferencing for years. Cloud-based phone systems leverage the power of cloud hosting and technology innovation to bring businesses of any size a complete enterprise phone system – with all the bells and whistles – at a fraction of the cost of traditional phone systems.
If you are like the majority of businesses out there, you have a basic phone service through your local carrier with a traditional hardware-based PBX. Along with a tiny room somewhere in your back office filled with wires that some IT expert needs to manipulate every time you hire a new employee or make a change. With the cloud, all of this hassle goes away. No more PBX hardware or dark, scary, wire-filled phone rooms. With a cloud-based solution, you can configure your phone system – add new lines, change your answering services or record a message played for all callers – all from an easy -to-use web interface or your smartphone. Every change you make, from setup to adding new offices, is instant and as simple as clicking your mouse.
Cloud phone systems provide 4 primary business benefits to businesses:
Yes. When you move to a cloud-based phone system you can transfer your existing numbers from your old system. This is often called LNP, or local number portability. That means there is no need to update all your business cards or ask your customers to learn a new phone number.
No, you do not need any special phone system hardware to use a cloud phone system. It is recommended that you get IP phones that are fully-supported by cloud services. With these phones, getting started is as simple as “plug-and-ring.”
Cloud solutions are extremely reliable and offer redundancy that is not available with non-cloud solutions. For example, if you experience a snow storm, a hurricane, or an earthquake, and your office is damaged because of flooding or just shut down due to snow, your cloud based phone system will not be impacted since it is not located in your physical office location. You can simply log in from anywhere and reroute your customer’s calls to employees working anywhere.
With most cloud providers, even if your home or office internet goes down, you can use your smartphone to access your system and re-route calls. Basically, you carry your backup plan – your trusty cell phone – in your purse or pocket.
Yes, that is the beauty of cloud-based solutions. They can grow and contract based on the needs of your business. Are you adding new employees? No problem. Do you need to add a new office? No problem, you add an office with the click of your mouse and never have to buy another PBX hardware box. Changing your business hours to take advantage of a busy season? That’s OK, it’s easy to update. Your service can change as your business changes, without the risk of losing investments made in PBX hardware or long-term contracts.
No. This is the power of cloud-based technology. Not only are cloud companies the leaders in technology innovation, but they never have to manage multiple versions of a product and all technology changes go live instantly to all customers using the cloud service. For customers, this means that they automatically experience the most advanced and current version of cloud technology without having to do anything. And cloud services benefit seamless feature updates because there is no hardware or software to upgrade. You’ll get the latest features as they become available.
Small to large businesses are reaping the benefits of cloud phone systems. A one-person IT consulting business can be on-the-go but accessible to his or her customers thanks to the cloud. A real estate office can easily add a line when a new agent comes on board and create an auto attendant to direct calls virtually. So, whether you are a 4-person business or a 400-person business spread across many offices, cloud phone system is right for you.