If you’re a small business with a legacy phone system you haven’t changed in a while, you’re likely experiencing some obvious and some not-so-obvious problems.
A legacy phone system uses traditional phone lines, connected to your local phone company. Legacy hardware can be both analog and digital, the latter offering a digital display and added functions. Legacy systems are generally on-premise, with a locally provided dial tone, with analog, digital, and sometimes VoIP phones.
What makes it a “legacy system” is that the phone system is tied to a single site, requiring onsite hourly support for moves, adds, and changes. Additionally, that local dial tone is generally more expensive, with higher LD costs, and cannot support non-local telephone numbers because of certain federal regulations.
There are a number of benefits of hosted VoIP phone systems for small businesses and compelling reasons to get rid of your older devices. We’ve listed some of them here.
Increased Productivity
One of the biggest advantages of updating your legacy phone systems, applicable even for smaller office spaces, is improved visibility into your employees’ phone usage and daily productivity.
Call Reporting & Analytics
VoIP phones can offer you detailed call reporting and analytics on your company calls, allowing you to pinpoint areas where you’re underperforming. It’s an essential feature for any company that has to handle a lot of customer calls, but can also be surprisingly useful for small businesses.
Extensive Phone Features in One Application
Hosted phone systems not only retain traditional phone features like line appearances, but build on them by offering functions like intercom, off-hook call announce, group paging, and more.
When you look for a VoIP provider, look for a company that can help you update the above features, offering advanced collaboration tools like conferencing, call presence, voicemail-to-text, chat and file sharing, to name just a few. These are useful features that keep creating efficiencies for your workers every day all in one application, and that, over time, add up to significant, measurable productivity gains for your organization as a whole.
Lower Costs
Predictable monthly budgets are critical for small businesses and hosted phone systems offer you exactly that.
Line Costs
Reduce the need for multiple phone numbers and reduce your line costs when you update your system. With VoIP, your customers and clients all call into the same number, with the ability to have an auto attendant or to add a receptionist on staff to help delegate incoming calls.
Goodbye, Long Distance Charges
While some hosted providers do include a minimum amount of long distance coverage, many still do charge for overages. Our package options at Class5 Technologies all include long distance. Advanced VoIP phone systems work off a web interface that enables your employees to call, connect, and collaborate via traditional phone receivers, a mobile app, or, in the case of Wildix VoIP, through the Chrome browser, thus eliminating long distance surcharges on domestic calls.
Maintenance Agreements
You can save on maintenance and upgrade costs when you don’t have on-premise hardware. Features like video conferencing, e-faxing, and advanced call management come built-in with a hosted VoIP platform. These items would otherwise become large upfront costs billed as “upgrades” with a traditional on-premise legacy phone system.
Traditionally, options like video, e-faxing, and call reporting add-ons required additional cards or servers, each with their own annual maintenance agreements. Those yearly agreements would sometimes be as much as 10-20% of the original system’s cost. When you make the switch, you reduce or remove the inconvenience of multiple pieces of equipment to pay maintenance or support fees on.
Support Costs
Some of the most significant problems with older phones are not being able to find a technician who is familiar with your older system, or that when you do find support, it may cost upwards of $150.00 to $300.00 an hour to make even the simplest of changes to your small office phone system. Support such as password changes, programming auto attendants, or adding speed dials are generally all provided free of charge with VoIP hosted systems.
When you add your local dial tone costs, onsite and remote maintenance hourly fees, and yearly maintenance agreements, and fixed long distance costs, a hosted system becomes cheaper year-over-year than a legacy on premise phone system, in most cases.
Greater Accessibility
Whether you need a phone system for dispersed small offices, one large central office space, or even a completely remote setup, VoIP gives you unmatched accessibility and total location independence across devices.
Traditional Phones
We understand you may not want to or be ready to switch completely to mobile or web-based telecommuting, and that’s okay! We can update your system to work effectively and efficiently with the latest VoIP platforms, without compromising or losing your existing setup.
Register a traditional VoIP desk phone anywhere and communicate with anyone in your organization with ease. You can still enjoy the same benefit of your older legacy system features, just with the added benefit and updated technology that modern phone systems can provide. VoIP is just a different way to connect a deskphone to a remote phone system and provide you with all the standard desk phone features you have become accustomed to.
Computer & Cell Phone Applications
The definitive advantage of cloud telephony is that you’re no longer restricted by location or device. Advanced VoIP phone systems can work off a web interface that enables your employees to call, connect, and collaborate via a mobile app, or, in the case of Wildix VoIP, through the Chrome browser on any computer or mobile device.
The definitive advantage to cloud based phone systems is its software. Android and iOS cell phone apps that are constantly updated provide you with every feature of your phone system while out of the office. Cell phone apps allow easier after-hours call coverage. An example of where this is particularly useful is medical office phones, where doctors may need to call patients without sharing their cell phone numbers, and much more.
Any desktop operating system where you’re using the Chrome browser allows you to control your desk phone or add a headset and become a web phone. You can enhance your multitasking and improve your productivity while making calls, dragging and dropping calls to transfer them, texting other users, and so forth: the options are limitless!
Security
Cyber-security is also a real problem with outdated legacy phone systems. Small businesses are particularly at risk, given 43% of cyber attacks are aimed at them. On-premise systems can be vulnerable to sabotage or infiltration. When you host your communications on the cloud, your phone provider assumes the responsibility for your security.
Database Encryption & TLS Encryption Encryption for Phones
Wildix VoIP is secure-by-design, offering robust protection against potential attacks with TLS encryption for phones and AES encryption for your phones database.
WebRTC Encryption for Applications
You can expect built-in encryption for WebRTC-enabled video conferencing via Collaboration. HIPAA compliance and 2-factor authentication for Collaboration log-ins are also part of Wildix’s built-in security measures.
Improved Scalability for Your Business
If you’re a rapidly expanding small business, legacy phone systems may throw a wrench in your growth plans. Even if it’s not physical expansion you’re targeting, but just increased customers, your existing phones may still not be able to support the additional call volume, limited by the number of incoming and outgoing phone lines.
When you’re working to scale up your company, it’s important to upgrade your communication systems to ensure you’re supported for higher call volumes and increased staff.
Add Users Easily
With the right provider, there is little to no training involved in switching to the new platform and the transition is seamless, as the new platform can be programmed to mimic your existing legacy phones.
Multiple, Seamless Talk Paths
VoIP is a network-based protocol for digital real-time talk paths, allowing your communications to seamlessly traverse any network across local, wifi, cellular, and the internet. These paths are hosted on the cloud and help cut down on the need for unnecessary infrastructure in your office while offering features you wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
Redundancies
A massive and often underrated advantage of VoIP phones is the flexibility they give you in the face of unforeseen issues. Say you have a power outage in your office, your on-premise phone hardware shuts down with the rest of your office systems. This instantly halts all communications for your workers.
Downtime can be crushing for a small business. Resilient phone systems that can survive localized issues aren’t optional. With hosted communications, your provider guarantees near permanent uptime.
Even if just your wifi should glitch out, VoIP enables you to keep operating over cellular networks and local networks, in addition to an AWS datacenter if applicable.
Adopting New Technology for Your Business’s Success
Businesses that persist with legacy phone systems, often do it out of a sense of perceived comfort with traditional technology. However, even a cursory glance at the pros and cons of cloud telephony reveals the efficiencies and conveniences that it brings.
Companies have identified the overwhelming benefits of upgrading to VoIP and are rushing to future-proof their organizations. When you’re ready to take your business phone systems to the next level, get in touch with Class5 Technologies for a free estimate.