Collaboration between companies has shifted since the rise of letterbox companies and remote work. Yet, speaking on the phone remains the most important and direct form of communication (particularly with customers). Using the right phone—reliable, clear, and easy to use—can make all the difference in maintaining strong professional relationships.
Moving away from traditional phone lines and expensive infrastructure, broadband now provides enough bandwidth to be a reliable backbone of our phone calls, and with low enough latency to be efficient.
This shift has opened up the door to many internet-based features, but it’s also resulted in lots of competition, particularly because your phone systems provider can also be remote, unlike before.
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The core value proposition of cloud telephony
Cloud telephony isn’t just having a simple Voice over IP – it’s about unlocking operational agility. True scalability is what it offers, both in terms of its pricing model and its features.
Business phone systems allow businesses to add or remove users remotely and instantly, but also to adapt to seasonal business peaks and accommodate rapid expansion. This makes it less likely to outgrow your provider, or worse, front up a large investment only for operations to scale down.
From a financial perspective, cloud systems shift from capital expenditure on traditional hardware to predictable operational expenditure, which is done via subscription models. Yes, you don’t own anything unlike before, but you don’t need to, because you already have the hardware (laptops, desktops) and already pay for broadband. You may believe costs should therefore be higher in the long run, but the truth is that hardware requires maintenance, upgrades, and installation upon expansion.
Must-have vs nice-to-have features
Unified Communications as a Service is quickly becoming the expected standard, which means going beyond voice and towards a deeply integrated suite of tools like high-definition video conferencing, persistent team messaging, and even secure file sharing.
One must-have will be the capability to integrate with your existing CRM or ERP system, which will often take priority as it’s less easy to change. It’s not just the ability to integrate, but the depth, ease and ongoing support for this integration, along with easy app-switching.
AI is currently a nice-to-have, though the way it’s targeted could be a deal-breaker. For example, summarisation and call transcription might be required, either for internal quality control or compliance, and AI may well play a role in this.
Ultimately, it’s important to figure out what your must-haves are (useful for immediate elimination) and keep these separate from the nice-to-haves for later analysis.
Doing your due diligence for the right phone system
Choosing a cloud phone system provider isn’t just about picking the best features, it should be seen more as selecting a long-term strategic partner. Deep scrutiny of their network architecture should be done to help determine reliability protocols and security measures.
It’s worth inquiring about the Quality-of-Service mechanisms they employ to prioritize voice traffic and ensure call clarity. After all, many businesses are heavily dependent on these systems for constant communication, so having the right phone system is vital. Security certifications such as SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 might be useful, depending on location, but also compliance with GDPR.
Service Level Agreements will be the core of your reading, and these will outline uptime guarantees. Beyond uptime (it’s safe to assume most will guarantee around 99.99%, look into support response times and the remedies (or possibly compensation) offered if these SLAs are not met.
The quality of customer support is something that can be difficult to judge before entering a relationship, and so this shows the value of seeking out testimonials and reviews. Here, common issues, even outside of customer support, may begin to appear.
Strategic selection and implementation
Making the right choice requires knowing your own needs first, before assessing the options. A comprehensive needs analysis will do, which is where you ask key stakeholders from various departments to map current communication workflows and identify pain points. If your startup is too small for this step, simply ask others in your network if they have any, and make sure to consider the size of your operations over the next few years.
You should have a shortlist of options that meet your must-have features. But it’s best to plan for data migration before landing on a decision, because this may help foresee issues with potential candidates and how they go about onboarding and integrating with your current setup.
The future of business communication is cloud-native
The decision to implement a cloud phone system isn’t just an IT upgrade, but a clear strategic endeavour that looks to future-proof your communications from rapid scaling up (or down) of operations.
There are various platforms to consider, so don’t get sidetracked with glossy AI marketing speak. Instead, focus on the core offering and due diligence, before then landing on a pricing model that matches up well with the proposed nice-to-have features.
By considering the vendor for the right phone service and not just the product they’re offering, you can ensure that support and pricing will remain consistent for years to come.
