01 January 2016

Monica Visconti-Patel, senior director EMEA sales & marketing, RingCentral

For a century, the desk phone has been a staple of every business. For some purposes, like conference calling, there was simply no substitute. Until a few years ago.

Over the last decade, we’ve seen a shift in how and where employees work. Wi-Fi and cellular technology have ushered in an explosion in mobility. Many employees are no longer confined to an office.

Companies have leveraged the power of cloud technology to branch out, setting up distributed office locations while still connecting staff with shared resources such as cloud-based productivity software, document storage and collaboration suites.

While many now work exclusively using a mobile, a lot of organisations still rely on conventional on-premise PBX-style landline desk phones to keep staff connected. 

Many of these traditional on-premise systems are siloed and proprietary, and adding new locations or users can be costly and time-consuming. Conventional landlines simply don’t work at the pace of modern businesses.

Cloud technology is answering the call to be the phone of the future. It makes calling, faxing, voicemail and other conventional telephone tasks accessible anytime, anywhere and on virtually any device. From a management perspective, setting up new locations and users on a cloud-based system is as simple as installing software or an app.

Offering flexible and scalable technology, ease of use and minimal management, cloud-based communication solutions are better value over on-premise PBX technology. They are also pay-as-you-grow systems, with subscription fees based on the number of users and features. 

IT is viewed as a cost centre, a necessity of doing business, enabling ‘real’ enterprise drivers such as sales, marketing, manufacturing and customer service to do what they do best. Initiating a strategy to evaluate and switch to a cloud-based communications platform saves time, money, and supports business growth.