Viewing entries tagged
Cloud PBX
When small business managers think about their IT infrastructure, they think about their employee’s mobile devices, cabling, Wi-Fi, laptops, a printer, and Internet connectivity. These are the basics of their IT infrastructure. However, there is one other aspect of a modern corporate IT infrastructure and that is an internal phone system that can connect “voice” over the internet, rather than traditional copper wires. Once upon a time, every office had an internal phone system that connected to the world via wire/cable/fiber. That wire/cable/fiber then connected a person in your office to a person somewhere else via the local phone company and a long distance carrier. And they did it for a per minute fee. And a very high per minute fee if you called internationally.
A VoIP phone system eliminates the phone company’s per minute connection, sidestepping them and running the voice call over the Internet.
Talk to NetDirXions about this money saving addition to your firm’s technology backbone.
Yes, today’s blog is about office phone systems. You have one. They are dull, necessary, and no one wants to deal with them. They need to be re-configured for new employees, they’re confusing, and the telco lines probably cost you more money than you’d like.
Like everything else, office phone systems began transitioning to fully online/digital well over a decade ago. The proper term is “ Voice over Internet Protocol” or “VoIP.” In a practical sense, it means that your phone lines are no longer coming in over traditional, “plain old telephone” lines, or other standard protocols from the 1960s to the 2000s. Instead, voice signals are now being carried to your phone from the telco via the internet, such as your broadband connection.
Why do this? There are a few simple benefits.
- You cut the higher landline charges, especially for international calls
- Old fashioned systems are becoming obsolete, and parts aren’t available
- You don’t need 2 separate cabling systems anymore. One for telco, one for internet is no longer necessary.
- They rely less on hardware to do the job, so reconfiguring for a new employee or a major office shift is much, much easier. It is now a software change, not a hardware issue.
- Your employees are no longer tied to the phone at their desk. VoIP allows integration with mobile devices.
This is just a quick summary, but it gives you a starting point for understanding why most firms are moving to VoIP systems and abandoning the old traditional PBX.
Recently, we talked about ways the cloud brings value, business protection, and economies of scale to the smaller firm that they could never achieve by themselves. Today, we look at a final benefit of the cloud.
Protection against on-site disaster – If a disaster strikes your physical business location, on-site resources can be damaged, destroyed, or become inaccessible for a period of time. Even if it isn’t a major disaster, if you have a failed server your business could be down for an extended period. When everything occurs in the cloud, you are vaccinated against this type of business calamity. You can still access and use computing resources from anywhere.
In summary, left entirely on its own a small firm just does not have the resources and capital to fully support its own technology infrastructure. The cloud turns that upside down, enabling firms to enjoy the benefits of a fully supported tech foundation without levels of expenditures that are just not feasible for smaller operations.