Business communications are changing. While there was a time where teams congregated in centralized office locations, the mode of today’s operations is much more on-the-move. Nobody can be tied to their desk phones anymore, and in order to stay agile and ahead of the competition, businesses need to enable their employees to accomplish their tasks, collaboration or customer service initiatives from anywhere.
Flexibility, mobility and accessibility are the name of the game for the new era of business communications — and when the world goes looking for those advantages, the cloud is a popular destination.
Cloud-hosted, internet-based voice capabilities (sometimes known as VoIP) are gaining momentum as a valuable business tool for organizations shifting to hybrid models — or enterprises that just want to add more agility to their operations. With the cloud, teams are able to forget physical distance and enjoy uninterrupted collaboration.
In this model of communications, advantages abound, but here are the top three reasons why everyone should be considering leveraging the cloud.
1: Simplicity
Traditional phone frameworks, which leverage the public network to connect calls and utilize analog phone lines, copper cabling and other legacy equipment, can pose unnecessary complexity for evolving organizations. Communications strategies are constantly changing and optimizing for new levels of productivity and efficiency — but traditional voice and its time-consuming manual updates and maintenance can be a big bottleneck.
Cloud-based voice uses software on existing desktops and mobile devices instead of traditional, external phone hardware, which means that installation costs, maintenance lead times and other challenges are averted. Plus, cloud-based voice delivers truly unified communications across all devices: desktops, handsets and mobile phones can all be completely aligned.
This simplifies and streamlines the entire business communications ecosystem for an organization, offering added efficiencies and value that keep teams ahead of the game. For instance, if an update to the cloud system needs to be made or an additional tool needs to be added, it can be done simply and simultaneously across all devices. Compare this to traditional phone systems, which need new hardware for each added feature. With the cloud, it’s all on one platform, which means updates happen with minimal disruption or time to deployment — plus, it’s turnkey and easy to use. Portals are often available for easy internal management, so users and system administrators can easily adjust features. Ultimately, no matter where your employees or business locations are, all that’s needed to connect in and stay in sync is an internet connection.
2: Robust Functionality
One of the major benefits of hosted voice is that updates can be easily made and new features can be added quickly — and that’s made even more exciting by the long list of functions that cloud-based communications deliver.
With the right provider, businesses can leverage a wide range of mission-critical capabilities just by integrating one cloud solution. This means giving employees the ability to bring calls and instant messages on the go with intuitive app interfaces on personal devices — alongside high-definition video conferencing, instant messaging or softphone tools. At Horizon, our hosted voice solution delivers more than 100 IP calling features, plus robust Auto Attendant
Functionality. That translates into a one-stop-shop digital transformation and collaboration tool.
This high level of feature-rich functionality also offers organizations the ability to adapt their communications strategies to their own needs — on top of enjoying practically unlimited flexibility in terms of keeping employees connected wherever they are. Adding lines and scaling this service use is also simple and quick, so organizations can scale as needed and extend their robust communications to more locations and teams without any friction. This is accessibility, mobility and reliability all in one.
3: Cost Efficiency
Along with the ease of cloud voice implementation comes cost savings. When you remove the purchase of initial physical hardware (plus the cost of any subsequent updates), organizations are already reducing capital expenditures. Plus, since the connectivity is accomplished via the internet, businesses are only on the hook for their internet costs rather than their phone service or on-the-phone minute usage.
Horizon’s Voice Connect product sweetens the deal even further with its competitive call plans, which offer advantageous rates that allow you to stay connected to your vendors
and clients. We offer tiers of service that help organizations tailor their usage and spend to their individual needs: Voice Connect Pro, Voice Connect Premium and Voice Connect Deluxe.
With our customizable plans, local support, and team training options, we make sure you get the most value for your money with trusted partnership and tailored service.
Are You Ready for the New Communications Landscape?
We know that a fast-paced, technologically driven world of business needs solutions that are just as inventive, innovative, efficient and powerful as the teams that use them. When it comes to communications, it’s clear that switching to the cloud helps businesses maximize their potential and streamline their operations — and the advantages listed above are only scratching the surface of what cloud-hosted voice can add to the corporate environment.
So, we’re on a mission to make sure every organization can benefit from scalable and powerful voice, talk, and text solutions that cater to the new world of mobile, agile collaboration.
To learn more about Voice Connect, you can download our full brochure or explore our full feature list.