Cloud Based Telephone Solutions Vs. On Site Telephone Systems

The internet has completely revolutionized the way of our living. The most significant impact of internet, without any doubt, has been the way we communicate. This is true not just for casual conversation between friends and family, but also business communications between organizations. The internet has had a massive impact on the ways two businesses, big or small, interact, with the internet based technologies rapidly replacing the conventional and archaic systems. Simple voice communications, classically seen possible only through the telephone have also morphed into new modern age technologies like VoIP.

VoIP, acronym for Voice over Internet Telephony is a technology that enables voice communication over the internet instead of the conventional wired telephones. Businesses both big and small have found this technology to their liking and are replacing their onsite telephone systems with cloud based telephone solutions. Cloud based telephone solutions are systems that to the naked eye would look completely like the conventional onsite telephone system. However instead of telephone instrument being connected to an exchange or PBX, they are connected to the internet. There is no need for having an exchange system with VoIP as this heavy lifting is taken care of by the providers through cloud computing. There are self-hosted VoIP solutions too that enable you to setup your own network with a small machine known as the PSTN gateway. However the cloud based solutions has many advantages that are discussed below.

First advantage of cloud based solutions is that a switch to cloud based telephone solutions could cost your company almost nothing, depending on the size of the company and the infrastructure already present. You would just need an internet connection, with a bandwidth suitable to your needs and VoIP certified plug and play telephones. There is no need for you to invest in expensive hardware for setting up a small exchange to route the different calls to the correct telephones. All of this is taken care of by your service provider located off site and working over the ‘cloud’. The VoIP is also very affordable. Every call cost much less than the wired telephones and the price difference is even more significant while make long distance and international calls. Another advantage of cloud based solutions is in its scalability. With the changing needs in your business, it is practically a child’s play to add more or less lines to your network. This enables you to skip buying expensive new hardware to add more lines to your network. All you need is new SIP enabled phones and the providers take care of the rest. Mobility is another major plus for the VoIP technology. All major providers have systems through which you can even send and receive phones through your smart-phone or tablet PC. This makes it possible for you to stay connected even when not physically present in the office.

There a few drawbacks of cloud based solutions that one must keep in mind. The first is that there needs to be internet connectivity for sending and receiving calls. If your internet connection is out or unstable, the cloud based telephones would not work. The call quality is also dependent on the internet connection, but most users find it to inferior to the voice quality of conventional telephone systems. Lastly, the cloud based systems do not have emergency calling. 911 numbers do not work in such systems and if available, they are typically charged a premium and not offered free of cost.

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