Why the Cloud is Good for Call Accounting
January 12, 2015
By Susan J. Campbell
TMCnet Contributing Editor
If you’re a little more seasoned in your career, you might be looking around at the corporate communications you use and wonder what happened to the habits of yesterday. Gone are the siloed systems that lacked integration opportunities, and mobile support was little more than the payphone at the closest gas station. The enterprise is communicating in vastly different ways today and call accounting has to keep up to ensure optimal efficiency.
The good news is these new ways that enable integration also support unified communications, especially through the cloud. When the majority of your business happens outside of four walls, it’s critical that you can stay connected. According to Standard & Poor’s 2013 Global Sales Report, 46 percent of S&P 500 business is occurring outside of our borders, requiring that your connections support a global reach. A recent Wired examines the trend.
To answer the demand for local, mobile and global support, the enterprise is changing its role in communications from that of consumer to carrier. With access to unified communications software and cloud communications, small organizations are outsourcing what they need, while the larger enterprise is insourcing. As these companies become their own Telcos, it’s changing the rules of the game. These players have access to much more functionality, lower cost and management that allows for increased efficiency.
For the larger organization, there is much attraction to unplugging PRIs and replacing them with data networks that are globally aggregated. When coupled with outbound calling and inbound DIDs, multi-national organizations have access to what they need on the fly. Plus, they no longer need to procure local PRIs and keep their costs down. Such a move is great for call accounting, leaving more room in the budget for other capabilities.
At the same time, whether the organization is outsourcing or insourcing, they have access to complete visibility and management in the cloud, which enables much better monitoring for performance. Call recording, quality assurance and other tools are readily accessible and data is easily stored and mined for later use. Such capabilities give organizations access to important regulatory features, as well as business intelligence that can deliver on the desired competitive advantage.
For the truly ambitious, federating communications is another trend gaining attention. Enterprises are banding together to create federations that enable industry-wide communication. When voice and video are federated across enterprises based on shared and interoperable UC platform vendors, more on-net calling is enabled. Long distance charges are also eliminated, while more sophisticated calling capabilities are created.
The point is the enterprise is getting smarter when it comes to communications, eliminating the barriers that once kept connectivity at bay. Whether you decide to insource, outsource or federate, the capabilities enabled go far beyond what was available just a generation ago. And given that the local phone booth is now hard to find, it’s time to set your sights on unified communications in the cloud.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi