Making the decision to upgrade to hosted telephony, which delivers your telephony over a data connection using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is an exciting and productive process that has positive results for many areas within a business, whether small or large.

You may be looking to upgrade to enjoy any of the benefits, which include:

  • No upfront costs
  • Flexible communications
  • Control from any Internet-enabled devices
  • Future-proofed infrastructure
  • Advanced performance measurement
  • Affordable monthly costs
  • Off-site and un-disruptive maintenance

Now the decision has been made to switch from an office based phone system to one hosted in the cloud, what’s involved in upgrading?

  • Getting your premises ready for VoIP
  • Choosing the right hardware and software
  • Getting your network ready
  • Removal of old system
  • Staff training and 24/7, stress-free support

Initial consultation

The first step is to get in touch and speak with an advisor about your current on-site phone system. Most likely it will be an outdated, inherited system with all the hardware stored within your business premises. These are also known as legacy phone systems.

At this stage you may be asked about the capabilities of your current broadband, how many calls you take during a set period and how many you expect to receive simultaneously. If you do not have broadband, it will need to be installed for your new phone system.

This information helps our advisor understand how your upgrade needs to work for you and how it can be tailored for optimum performance. Southern Communications can help analyse your network for you and will provide next steps:

  • Confirmation it is suitable – ready for VoIP
  • Suggest it is improved – preparation for VoIP
  • Recommend setting up a new line for exclusive use with VoIP

Another important consideration are remote users as this can alter the bandwidth recommendations for your specific connection. Bandwidth is the speed and amount of information that your connection can deal with steadily, and this will increase and decrease based on your usage and requirements.

Choosing the right phone hardware and software

Now your business is ready for installation you can choose the most appropriate headsets, handsets and adapters to benefit your users. Some of the most popular IP handsets for hosted telephony are from Yealink and Polycom.

The phones themselves are designed to be easy to use, intuitive and complete with high sound quality and advanced options. Each user can be provided with a handset and calls can be logged and analysed on software accessed via a dashboard on your PC.

Full support can be given on choosing the right system in line with budget, users and expected communications performance. Handsets can be delivered to your premises at a chosen date at which point users will be given logins to the system and it will be ready to operate.

Getting quotes on hosted telephony

This will allow you to create a budget for the upgrade and get sign-off for the new monthly costs (there is no upfront expenditure). Southern Communications can provide you with quotes for industry leading solutions including Gamma Horizon and Centrex.

Site visit

It may be appropriate for a technician to visit your business to investigate your current setup and schedule in the work that needs to be done to upgrade. This visit can easily be arranged at a time convenient to you. Any work required will be quoted for you to include in your budget.

Once you have hosted telephony, maintenance, fixes and checks will be done off-site directly to the system, meaning there will be no future disruption to your working days, which you may currently be experiencing with your legacy phone system.

Should you need to remove your old system, Southern Communications can advise on recycling options.

Training

Upgrading to a new system involves learning how to best utilise your chosen options and it’s recommended staff receive training so they can quickly benefit. Training is available for using the phones themselves and on how to read the performance reports from the dashboard; a brilliant opportunity to improve processes and see where time can be saved.

After initial training, support is always on hand but it is likely that staff will adapt to the system quickly. Most companies see an increase in productivity as hosted telephony permits a greater understanding of workflow and areas of improvement.

24/7 monitoring

As you enjoy your upgrade you have added peace of mind knowing that our team is monitoring the system and key performance indicators 24/7. Should an issue arise it can be quickly resolved without disruption. Should you ever notice an issue from your business location, support is easy to contact and will look to resolve it as soon as possible.

How can issues be discovered and fixed so quickly? Computer technology allows us to be alerted to potential problems before they occur meaning they can be resolved before they have a chance to impact your network and communication system.

Affordable monthly costs

Once a contract and plan have been agreed, your upgraded system will be billed monthly. This monthly cost is flexible based on your number of users.

Monthly costs include ongoing support and maintenance of the central network to ensure high performance for your users.

To speak to one of our advisors for a no-obligation conversation about your phone system, please contact us on 01256 391 046 or email on sales@southern-comms.co.uk.

You can also view our case studies for a better practical understanding of the results that can be achieved with an upgrade.

We look forward to hearing from you.