Advantages of bringing telephony to the cloud

Since the advent of the Internet and new digital technologies in the early twenty-first century, there have been many sectors or services that have been impacted. Internet has changed the rules and has created opportunities for many businesses, some of which have had to reinvent itself -music or tourism, for example, and others have created opportunities to innovate, create value and gain efficiency (automotive, retail or consumer electronics).

In the telecommunications sector there have been two important phenomena that are transforming services for the business segment: on the one hand, the consolidation of IP voice with guarantees of quality and safety thanks to new protocols and standards, and on the other hand, the popularization of cloud models to virtualize systems businesses of all sizes. Both phenomena make the model of “cloud communication “a natural step in the context of digitization of the companies , for the many advantages offered over traditional telephony.

Flexibility and efficiency to changing competitive environments  

The main advantage of moving telecommunications cloud is flexibility. Having a cloud telecommunications system allows you to quickly activate new services on demand variably depending on business needs. Responsiveness in highly competitive environments, it is critical to reduce time- to-market of any company. As a result, these applications provide greater and better adapted to the needs of the company and its customers.

Another advantage of “cloud communication” is that its implementation is easy and economical. The usual payment model used by telecommunications operators in the cloud is “pay as you go” or pay per use. This explains why this technology is popularizing especially among SMEs, thanks to these systems access to advanced telecommunications services without having to face any initial investment.

Reduce concerns telecommunications infrastructure is another advantage that signals the “Pentheus 2015: Highway to cloud” report. The cloud systems prevent companies the obligation to acquire infrastructure and place them on their premises. In addition, the cloud infrastructure are fully scalable: react and adapt easily to higher capacities without losing quality at the time that the company needed.

The ease of use and mobility, one of the fundamental characteristics of telecommunication systems cloud, translates into time savings and increased productivity, especially in intensive services telephony by teams of professionals scattered geographically, as agents of an international contact center.

Finally, today based communications VoIP have comparable levels of quality and even higher than those associated with traditional telephony through the application of advanced techniques coding minimizing the bandwidth required to transmit voice , networking techniques that prioritize voice traffic or installing dedicated IP accesses (having an affordable cost for any company ) . Moreover, high levels of security are achieved, even in transmission over the Internet, using modern encryption techniques derived from the Web world.

Unstoppable growth in the next decade 

Research and Markets estimated that corporate investment in communication systems in the cloud will be multiplied almost 4 in the next 5 years, reaching almost 4.5 billion worldwide. According to this organization, this rapid growth will play a key role increasing mobile work (with BYOD – “bring your own device” as upward trend) and proven cloud communication platforms profitability. According to Research and Markets, the implementation of telecommunications systems in the cloud has gained weight in recent European companies. In Spain, the application of cloud systems is lower than the US and other European countries. However, 4 out of 10 companies already have hosted in the cloud more than 20% of their systems.

On the other hand, a survey by Frost & Sullivan, the main reasons why more and more companies are adopting communications in the cloud are summarized in the following points: 77% of managers said that allows them to support their mobile workforce; meanwhile, 74% responded that gives them fast access to new features; 70% say that communications in the cloud allows them to increase their staff IT / telecommunications to more strategic tasks; 66 % of managers responded that gives them greater flexibility in times of rapid growth or reduction; 66% eliminating the hassle of integrating products from multiple vendors; and 61% of executives said that the cost of hosted communications is much more predictable. The proven advantages of cloud communications suggest that grow in Spain, a country of small and medium enterprises, at least at the pace of other Western countries.