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 sell cheap in-house PBX systems gloss over the fact that it’s NOT a “plug and play” experience. Why do they withhold this critical information? It’s simple: if businesses realized what was in store for their IT team, they would definitely purchase a legitimate hosted cloud phone system from the beginning vs. trying to cobble together a system MacGyver-style.
For example, here is what IT teams are responsible for with an in-house PBX+SIP Trunking:
- All end user training (this burden alone is enough to cause some IT professionals to quit!).
- Integrations with other systems in the environment (e.g. CRM, billing, project management, etc.).
- All system updates and software patches, including those that block malware, viruses and other cyber threats from infecting end points and networks.
- Monitoring and maintaining all system operations, including call and session management, voice quality management, feature activation and configuration, and so on.
- Security and fraud management, including monitoring all outbound traffic to detect anomalies at the automatic number identification (ANI) level, automatically blocking suspicious calling, implementing customized system rules, flagging calls to/from numbers linked to confirmed fraud cases, and so on.
Not only is this extremely time consuming, but most in-house IT professionals are not (and never claimed to be!) telecommunications experts. As such, they face a massive learning curve, and they need to keep their knowledge up-to-date with the latest advancements. This means ongoing courses and workshops that cost hundreds to thousands of dollars each time.
And of course, businesses that liberate their IT teams from this huge burden must purchase an expensive maintenance agreement —- one that offsets the savings they expected to realize in the first place.
Fortunately, the way to keep IT teams from waving the white flag of surrender, and the way for businesses to affordably reap the advantages of cloud service are the same: go with a hosted cloud phone system from day one. All user training, technical support, maintenance and upgrades are handled by the off-site cloud solutions provider, right down to the last detail.
The bottom line? There are many smart ways for businesses to save money and “get more for less.” However, in-house PBX+SIP Trunking isn’t one of them — because the burden on IT teams isn’t just enormous, but in many cases, it’s unbearable.
To learn more about the benefits of an advanced, cost-effective and feature-rich hosted cloud phone system — one that your IT teams will love just as much as your impressed customers — contact the Carolina Digital Phone team at (336) 544-4000 today. Your consultation with us is free.