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Gartner has predicted that cloud-based telephony will be the fastest-growing category of Unified Communications (UC), with a forecast of 17.8% market growth in 2021.
This is unsurprising given that driving mobility in the workforce is key for many organisations and adopting a communications platform that allows accessibility from anywhere is fundamental to achieving this.
However, a cloud-based phone system offers more than just cost savings and mobility; it offers greater control and flexibility, as well as simpler management.
Whilst implementing and using cloud calling is relatively simple, you’ll want to ensure you’re choosing the right vendor for your organisation and that the solution you enable offers connectivity with your existing UC solutions.
Therefore, when it comes to minimising risk when moving your business telephony to the cloud, you should evaluate the companies you’re considering as you would any supplier before a purchase. You can do this by questioning:
- How reliable is the service provider?
- Is the phone system scalable and does it have the capability to grow as your business expands?
- What kind of support does the provider have available in case you need assistance?
You’ll also want to evaluate how these solutions solve for your individual organisation’s requirements.
To minimise the risk of taking up a new solution, you’ll want to maximise how confident you feel in the decision you’re making. You can do this by increasing your understanding of the solution and having the answers to any questions your stakeholders may ask.
When it comes to moving your business telephony to the cloud, there are five common factors your organisation will want to consider:
1. User Experience. What applications and features do your users need to become more productive? What are their priorities? Do different groups of users within your business need different tools and services?
2. Long-Term Strategic Planning. Many organisations use a cloud-based phone system along with other applications and services from multiple vendors. In addition to an implementation plan, you need to have a roadmap in place to ensure disparate platforms can be integrated and performance can be holistically managed.
3. A Phased Migration. This is a big factor that can assist with minimising risk. You don’t have to move all users to the cloud at once. Migrating to a cloud-based phone system in phases allows you to move small groups of users and/or services to the cloud and gradually increase as you work out the kinks with minimal disruption.
4. Application Integration. Users should be able to access all applications in a cloud phone system through a single interface. If not, this could result in inefficiency and management complexity.
5. Security and Compliance. Your provider should be able to prove to you that your data and applications will be secure and minimum compliance requirements will be met.
What does a low-risk, easy, and secure migration to cloud calling look like?
TIPT with Webex is an all-in-one unified communications solution that offers carrier-grade IP voice, video, instant messaging, and more with a consistent experience across devices and locations.
When it comes to reliability, you know that with TIPT you can rely on the performance, reliability, and security of the Telstra Next IP® network and Telstra Mobile Network—Australia’s largest integrated national IP platform.
The phone system is scalable, allowing you to add new services and users as and when you need to, via a self-serve portal. This means that you don’t have to migrate all your users to the cloud at once, minimising your risk. You can also scale back at any time.
Whilst the self-serve portal is intuitive—allowing you to manage your own adds, moves and changes—support is never far away with a 24/7 help desk you can phone or email.
If you’d like to find out more about migrating your business telephony to the cloud with TIPT, contact your account executive or submit a request and we can call you back.
Ready to get started yourself? Request a login for the UC Self-Serve Portal.
