TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS WITH HOSTED COMMUNICATIONS

VOICE FROM THE CLOUD

Technology has boosted efficiency – and even opened new doors – for many businesses. But it has also changed the way they work. Employees are more mobile, getting the job done from points near and far; data is available in or near real time; customers expect – and increasingly demand – quicker, easier, and more satisfactory interaction with the companies they deal with.

Businesses need to ensure that the technologies they choose help – not hinder – these new ways of working. And nowhere is that more vital than when it comes to their communications. Traditional voice systems and newer hosted voice solutions offer very different capabilities – and can have very different costs. Many businesses will find that cloud-based voice, while less familiar than the systems they may be used to, better meets the needs they have today – and those they will have tomorrow.

To help businesses better understand hosted voice and its unique advantages, Comcast has created this multi-part guide. Here we will cover topics including:

- The need for a new model for voice communications

- The case for cloud-based voice solutions

- Analyzing total cost of ownership of traditional and hosted voice solutions

- The importance of evaluating needs and goals before choosing a voice service

- Common business scenarios that are particularly well suited for cloud-based voice

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Today’s companies are doing business on an all-new playing field. Workforces are more mobile than ever. Technologies are rapidly evolving. Economic uncertainty is driving a need to cut costs while boosting performance. Consumers – well versed in social media and real-time communications – expect ready access to the companies they work with, and quick action.

These are trends businesses can’t ignore. Indeed, the companies that succeed will be the ones that best tackle – and leverage – them, improving their accessibility, their productivity, and their customer service. Do it right and you gain a competitive advantage. But getting there will require rethinking some traditional notions of how companies and people work.

Case in point: voice communications. For a long time, on-premises systems – typically built around a company’s own private branch exchange, or PBX – served users well. But these systems were designed in a different era, for a different workforce. In the new business landscape, they can struggle to meet the needs – and support the opportunities – of today’s companies and employees. On-premises platforms that were state of the art five years ago are now showing their age, lacking cutting-edge features. Upgrades and maintenance can be complicated and costly – diverting resources from projects that are core to growing the business.

Also, many traditional voice systems weren’t designed for mobility. When employees hit the road, their office phones stayed put. Instead of getting an answer, customers and co-workers would often get voicemail.

A new way of doing business requires a new kind of business communications. That’s where hosted voice solutions come in. Operated, housed, and maintained by a service provider – instead of the company itself – hosted voice lets companies focus on their future, instead of their infrastructure. It replaces large upfront capital outlays with predictable monthly charges, and offers advantages of particular relevance in a business environment where mobility and availability are crucial. Employees can be reached via a single phone number no matter where they are – or what device they are using. Advanced features such as voicemail-to-email and mobile applications are possible. New offices and users can quickly be added to the system.

Easy to use, easy to scale, and easy to afford, hosted voice gives businesses a sophisticated phone system without the complexity – or the headaches.

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With the cloud, companies get access to cutting-edge capabilities without having to make large capital outlays. For small- and medium-size businesses, that can be a particularly compelling proposition, as it lets them leverage technologies they might never be able to develop, operate, and support on their own. But the cloud’s benefits don’t end there. In fact, services like hosted voice offer an array of important – and for many businesses, game changing – advantages.

- Managing capital expenditures – without reducing functionality. In a cloud-based solution, the core hardware and software is owned, operated, supported, and updated by the provider. So not only does the user avoid large upfront expenses, but it does not have to worry about using an out-of-date system. Since the provider’s business depends on offering state-of-the-art technology, it has a powerful incentive to keep its systems current. For users, the result is a win- win situation: they pay predictable, manageable monthly subscription fees while getting advanced functionality.

- Total Cost of Ownership (TOC). While hosted solutions eliminate significant upfront investments, they also cut many recurring expenses. Since maintenance and support are now the provider’s responsibility, the associated costs are saved as well. Not only does that lower the Total Cost of Ownership, but it frees up funding for other uses. For companies with multiple sites, the savings can add up especially quickly.

- More efficient use of IT staff. Small- and medium-size businesses don’t typically have expansive technology staffs. And large companies that do have the IT talent want to deploy it the most productive way possible, favoring projects that support innovation and growth over troubleshooting and maintenance tasks. With cloud-based services, the provider’s experts keep the system running. That frees up a customer’s IT staff for other tasks.

- Support for mobile workers. With cloud-based services, the user experience is the same no matter where that user is physically located. Indeed, location becomes irrelevant. Whether they are at a desk at the company’s headquarters, working from home, or traveling across the globe, a hosted voice user has the same phone and messaging features, and can be reached via a single phone number. Accessibility is enhanced – as is productivity.

- Business continuity. The cloud also enhances disaster recovery – a growing concern for companies of all sizes. Top- tier cloud providers invariably implement sophisticated backup platforms that kick in automatically, and seamlessly, in the event of trouble. With their business depending on their systems being up and running, always, you can be assured that they have plenty of redundancy in place.

Not surprisingly, these benefits are getting noticed. According to Frost & Sullivan, “Hosted IP telephony and UCC services adoption is growing at a steady pace with the installed user base expanding at about 25 to 30 percent year-over year.” Although these services initially appealed to small- and medium-sized businesses, research firm IDC states that “a shift has occurred in the market whereby many medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, particularly those with distributed workforces and thousands of employees in hundreds of sites, are showing increased interest in hosted IP voice services.”

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When evaluating new voice services, companies naturally will look at the price tag. But often they’ll stop looking too soon. They’ll analyze and compare the up-front capital outlays of potential systems – identifying the necessary hardware and software costs. But they don’t explore the on-going expenses: The operational costs required to keep that solution running for its full service life. That’s a mistake as, over the long run, these recurring costs actually can be greater than the initial investment. A solution that seemed reasonably priced at the start can turn out to be unexpectedly – and perhaps prohibitively – expensive.

It’s important, then, to examine any potential ‘hidden’ costs of voice communications systems – and to do so before a system is selected. These outlays can include:

- The costs of supporting and managing the voice system. On-premises solutions like PBXs will require users to perform regular upgrades and maintenance to keep them running smoothly. The ongoing expenses associated with these activities as well as moves, adds and changes (MAC’s) can be as much as 30% of the initial investment per year. Additionally, in house staff is required to manage these activities which can be even more time consuming when they involve multiple locations.

- Associated costs of running the system. Hardware alone doesn’t make a voice system. It takes IT personnel, training, and even electricity to ensure its continual, reliable operation. That means costs related to salaries, professional certification, and utilities. Over the months and years, this will add up, as well.

- Opportunity costs. Keep in mind, too, that every minute your IT staff is tweaking an on-premises voice system, and every dollar that is diverted to its operation, is a minute and a dollar taken away from something else. A voice system that requires a lot of care and resources can put other projects on the back burner as well as the opportunities – and the revenues – they might have made possible.

- Downtime. When a core business system like voice communications goes down, companies can’t function at peak efficiency. That can hurt their productivity and their customer service, which in turn can harm their reputation and their bottom line. Downtime may be an intangible cost, but all too often, it’s a substantial one.

- Scalability. When building a premises based system, it is often sized for the current business environment. Sizing it for growth may involve paying too much up front but if you underestimate it, you may be looking at an entire platform upgrade.

By taking a holistic view of costs – understanding all the factors that contribute to a solution’s total cost of ownership – businesses can make choices that better fit their needs, budgets, and goals for the future. They’ll see, for example, that hosted voice solutions eliminate many of the ‘hidden’ costs of traditional on-premises phone systems. Since cloud providers are responsible for upgrades, maintenance, and even the electricity, users don’t have to factor them into their cost calculations – or worry about unpleasant surprises. Service costs are predictable and transparent, coming in the form of monthly subscription fees.

With cloud-based voice, long-term costs can be calculated easily – and companies that have a plan for the future can rest easy. They’ll know that the funding they’ve allocated to growing the business won’t suddenly be diverted to operating the business.

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While cost is an important consideration in selecting a voice solution, businesses also must ensure that the system they choose best supports the way they work – and their plans for the future. That means thinking about factors that go beyond the price tag. For instance, a company may have a large number of mobile workers, or anticipate opening satellite branches in the near future. Those factors would make a hosted solution far more preferable than an on-premises system, since cloud-based services are not location-independent: They work – and can be seamlessly integrated – with the most far-flung of organizations.

Choosing – and leveraging – the voice system best suited for your business goals and user needs lets you maximize the value you get out of that solution. You can communicate and collaborate better, spur innovation, and provide better customer service. That translates into a compelling benefit: competitive advantage.

In homing in on the ideal voice solution, the following factors should be considered:

- Plans for expansion, including the potential opening of remote offices and sites

- The role of telecommuters and road warriors in the organization – will many employees be working away from a traditional office setting?

- Security and compliance requirements

- In-house IT skills and staffing

- Ease of use and management

- How use levels and capacity requirements may vary over time – is the business seasonal, or dependent on external factors that can change suddenly?

- The demographics of users – are they younger workers accustomed to, and expecting, the latest technology?

How you answer these questions will determine the optimal voice solution for your business. For many other businesses, however, the need for flexibility, scalability, and easy integration of mobile workers will make cloud-based voice the better option. The key is to understand your needs and goals – and let them steer you to the right choice.

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A careful analysis of voice features and cost – and how they meet business needs – will lead companies to the solution that makes the most sense for them. For many businesses, hosted voice will hold the edge right from the start. That’s because the advantages of cloud-based voice mesh particularly well with certain business scenarios. Three specific – but increasingly common – types of companies will see that the cloud-based model for voice provides far greater value than the traditional on-premises approach. These include:

- Small Businesses and Small Sites. With no large capital outlays required, and with providers taking care of maintenance, hosted voice levels the playing field for smaller businesses and branch offices. In the old days, getting high-quality voice service into these locations was an expensive proposition – in many cases, prohibitively so. The investments necessary to install the system and the in-house IT skills needed to maintain it often didn’t make sense for a small group of users. As a result, businesses either didn’t get the communications capabilities they needed, or devoted too much of their available capital to them – funding that could have gone to revenue-generating projects. The cloud changes that. By paying predictable monthly subscription fees, and leaving the upkeep to the provider, smaller businesses and offices get the communications systems of their bigger peers – without the big price tag.

- Distributed “Virtual” Organizations. With hosted voice, location becomes irrelevant. As the actual voice infrastructure is housed in the cloud, all employees – no matter where they are – have 24/7 access to communications features. This brings financial and support advantages to a far-flung organization since there is no need to manage separate infrastructures for different offices, or install complex hardware at a user’s home. It brings significant productivity gains, too, enabling companies to embrace – and leverage – growing trends like telecommuting. With cloud-based voice, employees are accessible and efficient in whatever environment best suits their needs. That helps a business meet its own needs – and goals for the future.

- Organizations with Strained Capital Budgets. For many types of organizations – from small- and medium-size businesses to educational and non-profit institutions – making large up-front technology investments is not always possible. In the past, this has prevented them from accessing some of the powerful communications capabilities of their brethren with deeper pockets and could all too quickly put them at a competitive disadvantage. The payment model of cloud-based services – replacing up-front capital expenditures with recurring, manageable monthly subscription fees – opens the door to cutting-edge features that previously were out of reach. For these organizations, hosted voice doesn’t just meet their needs, but their budget constraints, too. That’s a win-win that steers them towards growth and success.

The ways employees work are evolving – and businesses must evolve with them. Trends like mobility and telecommuting offer the potential to boost productivity and competitive advantage. But for optimal results, companies need to embrace the technologies that best leverage these new models. In many cases, these technologies will look a lot different than the tools businesses are accustomed to. But new approaches can often bring new – and significant – advantages. Cloud-based voice is a perfect example. By shifting initial investments, upkeep, and upgrades from the user to the provider, hosted voice takes the technical burden and large capital outlays off a business’s shoulders. It lets them do more with an increasingly mobile workforce, while devoting more of their time and budgets to the core tasks that let them stand out – and ahead – of the competition.

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For more information, contact your local Comcast Business Solutions Provider.

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© 2014 Comcast Business

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