Phone Systems Featured Article

The rise of the smartphone has permanently changed the calling landscape. Still though, there’s a need for an office phone - even with corporate bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies and as employees rely on smartphones for both personal and business calling. Today’s business phone systems need to integrate with corporate resources, and no firm wants its phone numbers walking off with employees who change companies.

Yet the traditional office phone system no longer will suffice, as it doesn’t integrate with cloud apps such as Salesforce and LinkedIn (News - Alert), nor does it provide the mobility and cost-effectiveness of modern IP calling.

The future of the office phone, like many technologies, rests in the cloud.

Here are four benefits that businesses can expect when they move to a hosted phone system.

1. Cost savings. Hosted solutions are far more cost-effective than their on-premise counterparts. First, service is cheaper because calling uses the Internet instead of copper wires. Second, there’s no telephone closet full of hardware to buy and maintain. Third, businesses can get just the amount of phone service they need without having to pay for excess capacity—one of the benefits of the cloud in general.

1. Mobility. Hosted solutions are even more mobile than mobile phones. That’s because hosted phone systems not only work through smartphones via a dedicated app or the web. Hosted solutions also work wherever there is Internet access, even where cellular coverage is sparse or when cell batteries have drained.

1. Voicemail anywhere. With a hosted phone system, voicemail can be checked from any web browser. While this sounds like a minor reason to use a hosted phone system, it can have a huge impact in practice.

1. More functionality. Hosted solutions such as that offered by Vonage Business Solutions come with just about every calling feature a business could need, and usually without additional cost. This can include call screening and cloud-based PBX (News - Alert) services to simultaneous ringing on multiple devices and dynamic caller ID functionality. Not to mention integration with other web services such as Salesforce.

Business is rapidly moving to the cloud, and the office phone system is no exception.