Cloud or on-premise? This is one of the most common questions for the majority of business owners in the present time. In this digital era, cloud communications are considered to be the best way to reach your customers, and keeping this in mind, communication managers of SMBs or large enterprises are upgrading their business phone systems to cloud-based.
The day-by-day increasing popularity of cloud-based services for businesses has made it an easy decision for business owners to go with cloud-hosted business phone systems instead of on-premise phone systems.
Thanks to the scalability provided by the cloud servers, around 96% of businesses presently make use of cloud-based communication solutions. This blog will help you understand the key differences between the on-premise and cloud-based business phone systems to help you make the best decision for your business operational model and as per your customer needs.
Traditional telephony systems include the installation of the phone systems on the premises of a business by linking all the phone extensions and their connections to the public phone network. The on-premise telephony system uses desk phones.
On the other hand, cloud-based phone systems link the entire network of the phone extensions of a business with the help of the internet. Cloud-based business phone systems use softphone technology.
8 Advantages Of Cloud Business Phone Systems That Make Them Better Than On-Premise Systems
Gain Visibility & Insights
Cloud-based business phone systems empower the data of an organization and give you a bird’s eye view of the operations among the various departments. Cloud business phone systems deliver detailed reports of the operations. These reports come in handy while discussing the productivity of the team or for improving the work processes.
Tracking of calls and KPIs for all the agents is not possible in on-premise systems. Cloud phone systems help businesses with tracking accurate details of all the calls and help in productivity improvement by tracking each KPI of all the agents.
Access The Latest Technology
A thing that an on-premise phone system will always lack is updated. On-premise systems get outdated quickly, and there is no way to update them except to spend all that time, money, and effort again on installing new connections.
But cloud VoIP/PBX phone systems service providers ensure to update the infrastructure continuously for easy and seamless working. The providers also keep on implementing the latest technology possible. This feature of cloud phone systems allows businesses to always use the best technologies for their business communications.
Easy Set-Up & Maintenance
The cloud-based business phone systems can be easily installed and will start working for your business within an hour. Whereas, you can’t expect the same with an on-premise phone system, which usually takes a few days to set up and start working.
It’s not only about the set-up process, but the maintenance procedure is also very time-taking for on-premise systems. This is not the case with cloud-based systems as they are easy to set up and have easy maintenance features.
The cloud business phone system providers also take care of the hardware and software requirements and thus save time for you to focus on your core business operations.
Instant Changes Possible
If your business uses a traditional phone system, it is nearly impossible to add or remove agents easily. A lot of time, money, and effort is needed to make these small changes that could be done instantly with cloud phone systems.
Cloud-based services empower you with flexibility and control over the system to add or remove an agent from the system instantly without any issues. It saves time and effort and increases work efficiency and team productivity.
Easy CRM Integration
The on-premise phone system is non-integratable with the CRM platform your business uses for daily operations. It is only possible with cloud telephony systems. Most of the cloud service providers make sure to have solutions that are easily integratable with the leading CRM platforms or help desk software.
This feature makes things super convenient for your agents to make, receive, transfer, record calls, or perform other tasks from the same dashboard.
No Requirement Of Infrastructure
One of the best benefits of having a cloud phone system for your business is zero cabling and wiring requirements. There are thousands of wires needed when you opt for an on-premise phone system which is not the case with the cloud/hosted phone systems.
There will be no need for infrastructure, freedom from wires, and no bulky hardware. All that you need are phones. It also saves a lot of space needed for storing hardware in the case of on-premise systems.
Enables Remote Working
With on-premise phone systems, all your employees must work from the office only as the phone systems are not mobile. If we look at the other side of the story, a cloud-based phone system promotes remote working as your employees can receive calls from anywhere and any time.
This feature is marketing remote working while enhancing the team productivity as your agents are available 24*7 and can help customers anytime and from anywhere. It also increases call pick-up rates.
Improved Scalability
It is easy for any business to fit all its needs seamlessly into a cloud phone system. It is much easy to accommodate all the business requirements in cloud systems at lower costs, less time, and less effort, which is impossible with on-premise phone systems.
Summing Up
This blog demonstrates why cloud-based business phone systems are better than on-premise systems. Everything has its pros and cons and the same goes with on-premise systems.
We are not saying that on-premise systems are not appropriate enough but, cloud-based systems have a few more advantages over traditional ones and are an advanced level of business phone systems.
Written By: Manna Khare