If your organization is thinking of switching to a hosted cloud phone system, then you certainly have a list of questions that our team will be delighted to answer. However, to give you the information you need even faster, we’ve put together a list of Frequently Asked Questions that we’ve received over the years. Ideally, the following will answer some of your questions, and our team will do the rest! Question: What is the number one reason that organizations switch to a hosted cloud phone system? Answer: Every organization is unique, and has specific need priorities, objectives, risks and opportunities.

Across the country, an increasing number of law firms — from solo practitioners and smaller partnerships, to large multi-practice areas and multi-site enterprises — are making the switch from a conventional landline phone system, to an advanced and innovative hosted business cloud phone system. And since lawyers as a breed are trained to be highly skeptical — which is a good thing! — it’s not surprising that the reasons that they’re making the switch has nothing to do with marketing hype, and everything to do with pragmatic advantages and benefits. Below are the 3 most important: 1. Dramatically Lower Costs

If you ask employees why they love their hosted cloud phone system and would sooner call in sick or stage a sit-in before going back to a conventional landline system, they’ll usually focus on features, features and yet more features. Whether they’re using video conferencing to connect face-to-face with colleagues, getting voicemails and faxes delivered to their inbox, creating customized auto-attendant greetings — and the list goes on — the biggest complaint that employees have about a hosted cloud phone system is that they didn’t get one sooner. At the same time, supervisors are also big hosted cloud phone system

In the past across most industries and sectors, remote workers were the exception (and we’d all hear them brag at parties about their glorious office-less job). However, these days remote working isn’t just trending, but it’s the norm! 3 Out of 4 Workers Will Be Mobile by 2020  According to research from IDC, the number of mobile workers in the U.S. will grow to a staggering 105.4 million by 2020, at which time approximately 3 out of every 4 employees will work at least part — if not all — of the time away from the office. Given the surge

If your organization has two or more locations — regardless of whether you’re in the B2B, B2C, B2B2C or B2G space — then the smartest thing you can do to your conventional landline phone system is get rid of it ASAP, and switch to a feature-rich cloud-based hosted solution. Here are the 10 key reasons why hosted cloud is a MUST for multi-site organizations, and should be at the top of your strategic to-do list if you want (or need) to dramatically reduce costs, improve communication, enhance customer experience, and ultimately boost the bottom line in both the short and

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of businesses — from small firms to large enterprises — have upgraded from a costly and limited on-premises PBX phone system (a.k.a. landline system), to an advanced, feature rich and future-proof virtual PBX system (a.k.a. hosted cloud system). If your organization is eager to join the ranks of your counterparts — and your competitors — who are reaping the rewards of a virtual PBX system, then you may be holding off until after a scheduled office move is complete. Here are three reasons why the delay is unnecessary, and even counter-productive: 1. Moving the

As the temperatures outside (finally) start to climb and the days get increasingly longer, organizations are gearing up to face an annual challenge: managing calls during the holidays. While customers usually tolerate hearing a “Thank you for your call, our office is closed today…” message during Federal holidays such as Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Columbus Day, they are much less impressed when they are forced to leave voicemail after voicemail — or stay on hold for excessive amounts of time — because employees are on vacation. Fortunately, this is where a hosted cloud phone system bridges

Some businesses are led to believe — typically by smooth-talking vendors — that they can reap the rewards of a hosted cloud phone system for a fraction of the cost, merely by purchasing a cheap in-house PBX phone system and adding (relatively) inexpensive SIP lines. However, as we’ve discussed previously this configuration doesn’t add up to a legitimate, feature-rich and enterprise-grade hosted cloud phone system. Instead, it leads to endless configuration obstacles, greater business continuity risks, severely limited feature options and integrations, and one other problem that never goes away: an excessive burden on in-house IT teams. Here’s why: vendors who

The importance of business continuity cannot be underestimated; especially for small and mid-sized businesses. Going “off the grid” for even a few minutes — let alone a few hours or even days — can convince unimpressed customers to head for the exit, and straight to a competitor.  However, often without their consent or awareness, many businesses are at risk of losing both current and future customers — not because of anything that they’re doing wrong, but because they’re saddled with a premise-based PBX phone system.  Here is why: a premise-based PBX phone system essentially connects businesses to the phone company

A growing number of organizations are saying goodbye to their conventional analog premise-based PBX phone system, and hello to a cost-effective, feature-rich, and future-proofed hosted cloud phone system. Here are the key reasons why they’re saying farewell to their premise-based system — and not looking back: Excessive up-front costs: premise-based PBX systems are expensive to purchase, install and maintain. For many small and mid-sized businesses, the CapEx burden is prohibitive, and for larger organizations it’s unjustifiable. No cost certainty: the cost of operating a premise-based PBX system is based on usage (regular calling along with long-distance costs). As such, it’s

When it comes to making wise investments, organizations need to borrow a page from the consumer playbook and “get the most for the least.” This doesn’t necessarily mean getting the cheapest price. It means that organizations need to assess their needs, conduct marketplace research, evaluate potential solutions, and select the one that delivers the most long-term value. However, just like consumers, sometimes organizations can mistakenly head in the other direction: getting the least for the most. And since this unfortunate fact doesn’t come to light until after a purchase decision is made, organizations in this situation are forced to absorb

A few decades ago, fax machines roamed freely on the business landscape: and it was good. Actually, it was groundbreaking. The idea of transmitting an exact facsimile of a document to anyone in the world — and within a matter of seconds — was incredible. Indeed, if you build a time machine and head back to circa 1988, you’ll be greeted by an orchestra of screeching fax machines (don’t worry, it’s a screech of joy, not of pain).  Well, here we are about to enter the third decade of the 21st century, and traditional fax machines are few and far

In today’s hyper-competitive business landscape, satisfying and impressing customers — both prospective and current — isn’t just important: it’s essential. In fact, a study by Walker Information concluded that by the year 2020, customer experience will be the number one brand differentiator in the minds of customers — surpassing traditional factors such as product and price. In other words, within a couple of years the vast majority of customers in both B2C and B2B spaces will knowingly, willingly, and happily pay more for something from a business than they could from its competitors, provided they feel as though they’re getting

In life, there are signs that alert us to potential trouble — and if we’re attentive and wise, we heed these warnings and avoid bigger problems in the future. For example, our car may be sluggish and sputtering, and pleading with us for a tune up or some preventative maintenance. And our bodies often tell us through various aches and pains that we need to dial things down and take a break — or else a break may be thrust upon us. Now, what does this have to do with telecommunications? It’s this: businesses also receive warning signs that their

Recently, we highlighted the main reasons why a cloud phone system helps organizations dramatically reduce their telecommunications costs. However, while saving money is always a winning strategy, there are several other reasons why more and more businesses, government agencies and educational institutions are choosing a cloud phone system — and one of the most compelling is that it measurably increases employee efficiency. Here are 3 key ways that a cloud phone system helps organizations get more out of their workforce: Cloud Phone Systems Gets New Hires On-the-Grid Right Away With a conventional landline phone system, it can take weeks for

While they have different missions and mandates, today’s government organizations and education institutions share key objectives. For example: They face increasing pressure to be more efficient, more cost-effective, more innovative, and essentially “do more with less.” They need to enhance communication among team members, while making it easy and fast for remote users, partners and other stakeholders to connect and collaborate. They must ensure security, compliance, and system-wide continuity at all times. That’s where Carolina Digital Phone’s cloud hosted phone system enters the picture, and ticks all of these mission-critical boxes. Affordable, Scalable, Secure & Easy to Change Unlike conventional

Let’s start with this: telecommunications fraud isn’t new. Since phone systems were invented centuries ago, there has always been a very small — but not insignificant, and certainly not harmless — segment of the population that has sought to exploit them, in order to benefit improperly or illegally. Growing Costs   However, what has changed in recent years is the growing cost and prevalence of telecommunications fraud. A recent survey by the Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA), a not-for-profit global education organization, pegged worldwide telecommunications fraud losses in 2017 at $29.2 billion. The CFCA also listed the top 10 methods

On today’s worsening cyber threat landscape, security is a top-of-mind concern — and cloud business phone systems are fundamentally designed to be part of the solution. To that end, here are 8 best practices for making cloud business phone systems more secure against data leaks, malware attacks, and other threats: Use Network Encryption The voice/data network should use both WPA-2 encryption and WPA password security, and all employees who use the cloud phone system through their desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone should have strong encryption protection.  Deploy a Next-Generation Security Gateway Appliance Next-generation security gateway appliances can be configured as

Some myths in life are perfectly fine to be left as-is. For example, even the most practical of parents don’t want to be responsible for shattering their young child’s belief that Santa Claus lives in the North Pole with a tribe of friendly reindeer and elves. And what parent hasn’t silently said a “thank you” to the great soul who invented the Tooth Fairy. Seriously: is there a better bargain in the world than spending a few bucks to have a child look forward to losing a tooth vs. dread it? However, there are some persistent myths that aren’t fun

One of the most critical objectives for all businesses — regardless of whether they are dynamic new startups or large established enterprises — is business continuity. That’s because productivity grinds to a halt when workers cannot instantly connect and collaborate, and customers who fail to reach their desired party — or who do not receive a prompt callback after leaving a message — are likely to head to a more responsive competitor. Business continuity is not just an important priority: it is a mission critical objective. Fortunately, that’s where cloud phone systems enter the picture and make a transformative difference.

While cloud business phone systems are technologically advanced and innovative, the key factor that convinces thousands of businesses, schools and government organizations each year to make the switch from conventional landline systems is not a new concept. In fact, it’s about as “old school” as it gets, and has been a #1 business priority since, well, forever: they want to save money! Below, we highlight 5 ways that cloud business phone systems dramatically reduce costs — and not just on a one-time basis, but year after year: No on-site private branch exchange (PBX) to purchase and install. With a cloud