Over the years, many businesses have begun moving away from physical telecoms hardware and infrastructure, opting instead for the more modern and advanced cloud phone systems. With this in mind, does your company’s choice of telecoms hardware still matter?

Cloud phone system: defined

Any service or computer program which is operated through the internet, as opposed to ones which are installed on your computer, are referred to as cloud computing. This has led to the term ‘cloud’ being someone synonymous with the internet, or at least a non-physical yet omnipresent entity.

This means that a cloud phone system is just how it sounds- a phone system which is operated through the internet, or cloud. These software programs such as Cloud Phone Systems by Gamma allow access anywhere, anytime, as they are operated through a web portal or applications on a smartphone, laptop, or other technological device.

Cloud phone or traditional phone?

As cloud phone systems function by allowing users telecoms services over the internet, through any device, this begs the question of whether telecoms hardware still matters at all. With a cloud phone system all you need is a smartphone, laptop, PC or tablet, and the right software, and you will have the same telephony capabilities of a traditional phone.

However, your hardware can still matter, especially if it is so outdated that it runs over physical phone lines, otherwise known as PSTN and ISDN services. This is because the UK’s British Telecoms Openreach are planning to ‘turn off’ these traditional phone lines, switching to digital ones instead by 2025.

With all of this in mind, we might therefore redefine what we think of as telephony hardware in the future, thinking of this as any hardware capable of telephony functions as opposed to just physical handsets. In this sense, telephony hardware is anything capable of hosting a cloud phone system.

Benefits of a cloud phone for business

Cloud telephony has many benefits for businesses, which is why it is proving to be so popular. These benefits include working from anywhere in the world with no geographical constraints and flexibility of your workday, all which have been very useful during the working from home period that went alongside the coronavirus pandemic.

One thing which might be considered a negative is that your employees can use their personal laptops or smartphones at home, though they might be encouraged to use their work computers whilst in the office. However, shareholder data is stored in the cloud rather than on the phone, which makes it less open to a cyber hack, though antivirus and malware software are a must for any hardware which might use the cloud phone system.

Another benefit is that all of your communications can be unified. This increases employee productivity, as they do not have to sift through everything to find what they need, and this also means that it is easily scalable when your business grows.

Overall, your choice of telecoms software seems to be the most important choice your business might make regarding your communications. However, cloud-based phones need hardware in order to operate, so your choice in hardware definitely matters.