Why take any contact center service from the cloud? Because you benefit from a high-end feature set without the hassle of purchasing and maintaining the kit. Sounds like a no-brainer, and IP PBX services are no exception.
The advantages of hosted from the cloud are many. Here are Sytel’s top 5:
- Low CapEx
As mentioned above, the cost of buying and the hassle of setting up your own telephony infrastructure is removed. The hosted supplier has already taken this on, and will maintain the kit to a high standard. And this of course is true of any cloud-based/ hosted contact center services. - Value-added services
A cloud-based IP PBX sits in the middle of a conversation, not at the edge, on the outside looking in. More than just a proxy server directing traffic, it maintains a connection to both caller and callee, and can therefore offer more sophisticated functions. For instance:- recording the call and storing it in the cloud
- inserting IVR, text-to-speech or a recorded message into the conversation
- adding another party to the call (3 party conferencing)
These features, available in high-end premise-based systems, are also available to SME’s in the cloud.
- Single supplier
If you are taking other contact center services, such as predictive dialing, from a cloud/ hosted service provider, it makes sense to use their IP PBX, too. Again, the advantages are many:- calls never leave your system, so the entire conversation is visible for reporting
- integration with surrounding services is seamless
- billing is simpler (single supplier, single bill)
- overall cost of ownership is reduced
- High availability management
Keeping services running non-stop requires investment in back-ups for all hardware, software and networks. This can be expensive but any good hosted service provider has already made the investment. Guaranteed uptime with no outlay? No-brainer! - Scalability
New stations can be added and configured at the drop of a hat. The hosted provider will (should!) always have spare capacity. And when it’s time to cut back, extensions can be decommissioned just as easily. And you only pay for what you use, so there is zero wastage.
As with many other cloud/ hosted services, IP PBX has come of age.
