In 2018/19, according to Gartner, roughly 1/3 of companies reported issues and dissatisfaction with their cloud VoIP solutions.
The key to a successful cloud transition is in proper planning, to get a system that fits your needs, from the right provider, at the right price.
With a successful cloud implementation:
- Employees appreciate the seamless integration of their office and mobile phones allowing them to work anywhere and keep in touch with their customers and fellow workers. Collaboration is easier.
- IT Departments appreciate the outsourced application, allowing them to spend time on priority projects rather than maintaining/updating a legacy phone system and managing the vendors.
- Management appreciates the increased employee productivity, improved customer relations, and flexibility offered by cloud systems.
With an unsuccessful or problematic cloud implementation:
- Employees will bypass the office phone systems, telling customers or suppliers to “use my cell number”.
- IT Departments will need to devote priority time and effort to sort the issues out with the vendor and the company data network. They’ll also likely be blamed for the problems.
- Management is unhappy with the employee dissatisfaction and customer relations issues and if necessary the cost to transition again to a new system or provider.
Needs Assessment
What system features do you need and would like to have in a Unified Communications system?
- i.e. Mobile integration, multi-location, call center requirements and reporting, employee collaboration tools, and conference calling.
- What are your growth requirements over the next few years?
- How important is redundancy and back up?
Pricing can vary considerably depending on the features selected.
Resource – Managed vs. Outsourced
How much responsibility do you want to retain in house or off load?
It is important that your Unified Communications system integrates effectively with your data network and security protocols.
Some vendors will offer a completely separate network for your communications, so that there is no interference between your voice and your data applications.
Data Network assessment – The Network Is the #1 Failure Point for UCaaS
In planning you need to start with a proper network assessment, not only what you have now but what your data/voice requirements will be a few years out.
Potential Network Issues: Enough Bandwidth, Latency and Jitter, Misconfigured Router/Firewall, Internal Network Problems, Internet Fail Over
The solutions may be more bandwidth or a separate voice network to ensure that you have the right provider for the quality you need. The selected VoIP-UC provider needs to have the expert network techs to work with your IT department to plan and resolve any issues.
Finance Considerations
Today many Unified Communications are cost competitive, even with traditional telephony when you consider the phone line costs plus the licensing and maintenance costs for a traditional phone system.
Capex or Opex ? You often have the choice to purchase or rent your phone hardware.
Contract terms? How long are you prepared to contract your system for?
Vendor Selection
Do your research carefully on any vendors to be considered.
- Do they have sufficient rollover facilities to avoid any network failures?
- Customer satisfaction?
- Do they have adequate project management and follow up support?
- Do they monitor call quality?
- How do they handle system and feature upgrades?
To schedule a 10 minute phone call to explore cloud communications for your organization, click here.