Because of the pandemic, many businesses have moved to a Work from Home and remote access basis. The way they do business, the way they interact with customers and customers interact with them has radically changed.
New internal and external corporate communications have placed intense pressure on IT as they implement VoIP or Cloud Phone systems on a restricted budget.
Companies that have implemented VoIP Phone Systems have seen the financial and operational benefits of VoIP Phones.
There is the question of multiple software platforms to support different internal and external communications needs – phone calls, video conferencing, instant messaging, and conference calls for example.
Problems with In-House Legacy and VoIP systems
The issues with legacy PSTN systems are the reason why many companies moved to VoIP in the first place. They are inflexible, need physical equipment, their own cabling system, and resources to manage and support them. Finally, they are expensive in terms of capital and operational expenditure.
In today’s world, they just cannot easily and economically support remote and WFH environments, if at all. They cannot support Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS).
VoIP systems address most of these issues and provide enhanced software support for enhanced services such as automatic forwarding, hunting groups, call-waiting messages and music and auto attendants.
However, in-house VoIP systems can suffer from inadequate bandwidth, and jitter and latency. External communications will be unavailable if the internet connection is lost for any reason. As with legacy PSTN systems, they need continuous care and maintenance, implying resource costs.
The Solution
The current solution is to move to UcaaS and move to the Cloud. With this approach companies gather all their requirements onto a single platform,
supporting phone calls, video conferencing, instant messaging, conference calls, and file sharing. The first step is to move the VoIP service to the Cloud.
One option worth looking at is moving to a Managed Service Provider (MSP) hosting your online systems.
Moving to an MSP also offers the advantage of continuing with your current systems while the new UcaaS and Cloud Phone systems are developed. It is also likely to be much quicker.
Here are some signs that it is time for change.
WFH and Remote Access
Your organization is moving to a digital environment, perhaps e-commerce, but certainly is experiencing an increased use of work from home. You also need to provide customer access to some operational systems.
Costly Equipment Upgrades
New and upgraded security software and hardware to police the WFH and remote access connections are urgently needed. Perhaps your corporate website needs a make-over to enhance the company presence on the web. Both have financial and resource implications.
Using an MSP will pass the equipment and software costs over to them, and their assistance will be very valuable when planning the move to the Cloud.
Support resources are needed elsewhere
You need resources to rework the website and support the implementation of the new CaaS environment. They could be made available in-house but are currently supporting the legacy VoIP and applications environment.
Using an MSP to either manage the existing systems during the implementation of the new Cloud Phone systems or using the MSP to implement new UcaaS systems on their site provides an opportunity to use existing staff in that journey and provide them with experience and training.
If you choose to implement your new CaaS systems with an MSP, then you can carry out the implementation with minimum disruption to your existing operations.
Updated Disaster Planning
The reliance on e-commerce and online communications implies a very high risk to business stability and indeed business survival if the online systems fail for any reason or you lose the Internet connection to them. A move to the Cloud implies at least 99.99% uptime. An updated Disaster Plan is an absolute necessity, as are backup connections to your MSP.
Moving to the Cloud now will help you address future challenges without major changes in your in-house environment.
Moving to VoIP in the first place has significant Capex and Opex benefits. The next step, a move to the Cloud, perhaps with an MSP providing the software and infrastructure, is the next logical step.
Give Tri-Copy a call to discuss your business needs. We are a managed service provider that handles IT services, printing services, and much more.
