Today as I was reading through my geek-weekly articles, I came across this one and thought I would share it with you. It does have a lot of insight as to what I have been seeing over the last 10 years. As a "legacy" phone guy myself, it is true that to maintain some of the older systems out there, it becomes more expensive to find parts and technicians who can still work on these systems. It also shows that if you are not adopting technology properly for your business, you can be left behind.
Hope you enjoy this article.
By Cora Cloud
A recent survey by Hanover Research found that despite the rise of email, video, and social media, 74% of small and midsized businesses (SMBs) said that voice communication remains extremely or very important to their business operations. However, for the businesses that still have traditional PSTN phone systems (which is still the majority), there are 4 problems they are bound to run into eventually. Thankfully, all of them can be solved with a voice over IP (VoIP) solution.
1. Obsolete Hardware & Support
Phone system hardware becomes obsolete as newer, cutting edge technology becomes available. Legacy systems have the typical problem of parts only being available aftermarket, so the cost of repairing and maintaining them becomes overwhelming for businesses. Add on top of that the cost of support, as the technicians and engineers who were formally trained on these older systems are retiring and therefor harder to find- not to mention expensive. With heightened security risks, increasing demands from customers to communicate with businesses right away, and the need to improve productivity, the model of limited voice capability is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
2. Limited Capacity & Scalability
The good news is your company is growing. The bad news is, when this happens, many businesses outgrow their infrastructure and require a system that can handle the added call volume, extensions, and data being passed across the network. Adding new office locations can be a nightmare with a traditional system, as equipment is required in every new building location. With VoIP, because employees are all on the same IP network, no additional hardware needs to be installed at each location- saving businesses time and money. With a traditional PBX, adding additional lines for employees can take several weeks to install; with VoIP, the process takes minutes. This growth support works both ways with VoIP, so if your business has a tough year and your capacity needs shrink, you can remove lines and only pay for the extensions and minutes you use.
3. Inadequate Features & Functionality
Being able to route customers to the correct department without playing phone tag is essential. Why? Because other companies implementing VoIP phone systems have the capabilities to deliver superior customer service, so if your business doesn’t, the competition will steal them. Employees and customers need more functionality than the expected 3-way calling and caller ID. Video chat, instant messaging, presence, voicemail to email, call recording, and call analytics are all features that enhance productivity and customer service. These features and more are offered with a Unified Communications (UC) solution.
4. Monthly Charges
Businesses are always looking for ways to cut costs, but one that the large majority aren’t aware of if their phone bill. When new customers call us, one of the questions we ask them is how much their last month’s phone bill was. Nine out of ten of them have no idea, but they know they probably should know since a lot of money seems to be going towards their communications every month. Switching to VoIP can save up to 70% off your monthly communications costs, immediately. If you choose a hosted VoIP solution, you can have a feature-filled new phone system up and running within hours (not weeks) and with no upfront costs. Also, many VoIP pricing plans give the option of a metered or channelized payment plan, so you can pay by the number of lines or the minutes used- whichever makes more sense for your business model.
If your businesses are one of the many that is still paying to maintain a traditional phone system, you are bound to eventually run into one, if not all, of these problems. When you rely on your business phone system for everyday use and connectivity with your customers, the safest move is to invest in a phone system that is simple to maintain, scalable, feature filled, and cost efficient.
If you would like more information on how the TVS SimpleVoice solution can help your business, contact one of our consultants today for a free, no obligation communications analysis.