It is an all-too-familiar situation: businesses make a major investment in a new phone system, only to discover a few years later that it is obsolete, or is heading fast in that direction.
As a result, businesses must choose between two very undesirable options: they either settle for an outdated phone system that cannot support their needs, or they spend tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new system — and run the risk of repeating the cycle all over again in a few years.
Fortunately, there is a practical and proven way to solve this common and very costly problem: avoid it completely by deploying a hosted cloud business phone system that is fundamentally and inherently future-proofed. Here are the 3 key reasons why:
1. No PBX Replacement Costs
With conventional phone systems, businesses must purchase and maintain on-premise hardware. And as with all technology — from airplane guidance systems to video game consoles — there is an end-of-life period, after which the hardware must be replaced. This is very expensive and for larger businesses (as well as organizations like schools and government agencies), the price tag can quickly run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
However, with a hosted cloud business phone system there is no on-site PBX to purchase — which means there are no replacement costs down the road. That responsibility is 100% borne by the off-site solutions provider, not the business.
2. Seamless Scalability
Two common possibilities easily — and quickly — render even the most advanced conventional phone system obsolete, and in urgent need of an expensive (and unplanned) overhaul.
The first common possibility is onboarding more end-users than the system was designed to support. When this happens, businesses either cannot give new employees their own phone number and voicemail account (which are basic requirements these days), or they must upgrade the system and pay a hefty price tag.
The second common possibility is consolidating, downsizing, or outsourcing operations, which means that the business is paying much more than they should. Even if the system itself is still advanced and functional, as far as the business is concerned, it is essentially obsolete because it is not helping them generate ROI. It is a liability rather than an asset.
Neither of these risks exists with hosted cloud phone systems. When businesses need to scale up, they simply purchase affordable user licenses. All new employees can have their own number/extension, as well as their own voicemail box (complete with the voicemail-to-email feature).
And when businesses need to scale down, they simply let existing licenses expire. They are not saddled with the cost burden of having “too much phone system.” They have exactly what they want and need nothing more and nothing less.
3. No Cost for Continuous Innovation
Many businesses that spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for an on-premise business phone system must also pay for ongoing upgrades and innovations; typically as part of a high-priced maintenance agreement. If they choose not to pay for this or simply cannot afford it, then it is just a matter of time before their leading-edge phone system is out-of-date.
What’s more, vendors that sell conventional on-premise phone systems typically give their new business customers the latest technology as an incentive to make the sale (they have been doing this with residential customers for decades, too). As a result, long-time businesses must pay more than new businesses for the same technology. This is not fair, but its standard operating procedure in the marketplace.
With a hosted business phone system, continuous innovation is provided at no cost to all customers: existing and new. What’s more, it is automatically offered (e.g. new features, faster performance, enhanced security, etc.).
The Bottom Line
Nobody has a crystal ball, and even business pundits and prognosticators get things wrong. But there is one thing that can be said with absolute certainty: the future is hurtling towards us 24/7/365, and businesses with a future-proofed hosted cloud phone system can confidently head into the future knowing that their state-of-the-art system will remain a valuable asset vs. become obsolete and turn into a costly liability.
