TouchPoint Networks Blog Articles

What is Cloud Communications and what are the Benefits

March 6th, 2012 by admin

In this current climate of economic uncertainty, your business is probably looking to save money everywhere it can. One option that's currently growing in popularity among small- and medium-sized enterprises is to use "The Cloud" to move their communication systems offsite, merging their phone and Internet services.

For many businesses, this is a great way to minimize their telecommunications expenditures. While it's not a perfect solution, in general, a hosted PBX system is a superior option for organizations looking to expand their telecommunications without investing in an on-site system.

Icon of a blue cloud surrounded by people

Hosted PBX Removes the Burden of Maintaining Your Own Hardware

Having your own on-site PBX is an expensive proposition. Generally, a local PBX will cost around $800-$1,000 per employee to set up, although this scales down with enough employees. However, the costs don't end there - the hardware still has to be maintained and upgraded as needed. This also makes your telecommunications difficult to budget precisely.

With a hosted PBX, the overall TCO is significantly lower. While the initial setup costs are often comparable to that of a local system, the long-term maintenance costs drop significantly. As you aren't responsible for the hardware, you don't have to worry about the cost of keeping it up.

Hosted PBX Scales As You Need It

Another problem with hosting your own PBX is that unless you have extremely detailed plans in place for future expansion, it can be hard to know exactly what sort of setup you're going to want. It's easy to leave yourself without room to expand, necessitating an entirely new system just a few years later.

With a hosted PBX, generally speaking, the only hardware costs involved with expanding your telecommunications are the new phones you have to buy. All expansion is handled automatically by the host. In many cases, you can expand your phone system to meet your changing needs in just a few minutes through a web interface.

Hosted PBX Brings Its Own Tech Support With It

If you have your own on-site system, you're going to have to pay someone to run it as well. You'll probably have to pay multiple someones, in fact. This is another significant factor in the TCO of an on-site PBX. In fact, the costs involved in hiring qualified people to manage and maintain your phone system are likely to be more than the monthly fee you'd otherwise be paying for a host.

With a hosted system, tech support and personnel are their problems as well. Support is included as part of most hosting packages, taking another burden off of your bottom line.

Advantages of an On-Site System

Using a hosted PBX isn't a perfect solution. You will still be giving up some measure of control over your communications, and if you have extremely specific needs, it may be difficult finding a host that can give you exactly what you want. Further, a hosted PBX will put a strain on your Internet setup.  You'll probably need to expand your Internet service to meet the new demands.

Also, of course, if your Internet goes down, so do your phones. However, some hosts now offer disaster recovery options and many can set up a landline to route your calls through in case of emergency.

Do The Benefits Outweigh the Downsides?

For a large number of organizations today, the answer to that question is YES. The loss of direct control and a small chance of outages are generally outweighed by the long-term cost savings and easy scalability of a hosted PBX system. If you're looking to expand, now may be the time to look into the power of Cloud Communications.

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