The Real Business Benefits of Hosted Ip
The credit crunch has received reams and reams of coverage in the last couple of months with the levels of spending across the board taking a hit.
Subsequently, the current climate does not lend itself to businesses embarking on complex projects that require high initial capital and operational expenditure, instead, they are looking to lower their risks and control the costs of projects.
Despite this reticence businesses still need to update and maintain their IT and communication infrastructures and nowhere is this more apparent than in the SME sector.
With this in mind, IP hosted services are becoming an attractive option because of their low up front investments. The business appetite for hosted telecoms up until now has been mediocre at best.
This is largely attributable to the habitual nature of IT managers who feel more secure with their traditional PBX boxes, despite them being cumbersome, costly and time intensive to maintain and update.
IP hosted services have entered a new era, using multimedia switch's to ensure quality, security, reliability and cost savings. Essentially allowing traditional fixed line analogue telephony to be hosted in much the same way as mobile telephony is today.
By replacing on site infrastructures with a network based hosted solution, businesses can fulfill a wide range of requirements, ranging from basic services for small or single site operations, to more sophisticated services for those businesses that operate multiple sites or call centre operations.
This is particularly relevant to the SME market sector where communication infrastructures are crucial but need to be scaleable, especially in the current market environment.
Gartner estimates that currently only 4% of the UK SME market has hosted IP in place with substantial uptake expected in the months ahead. This uptake can be credited to the real business benefits of hosted IP, for example only having to pay for functions subscribed to, enabling SMEs in particular to access new technology and large company features at a fraction of the cost.
Similarly, as there is no cumbersome onsite PBX apparatus, time and costs associated with implementation are significantly reduced. Once in service, all management functions are web based, making moves and changes painless and reducing internal IT requirement and training costs.
In adopting a hosted service all changes can be managed quickly and easily through a PC. Managers (IT or not) can point and click updates onto their system from their desk, avoiding third party reliance and in turn additional costs.
Just as an individual would make updates to their mobile phone service through intuitive analytics, IP hosted telephony allows IT managers to take control of their systems and in so doing future proof themselves.
With the time saved from updating and maintaining PBX systems managers can concentrate their efforts on gaining competitive advantage in other aspects of their IT infrastructure and indeed overall business strategy.
Communication is crucial to agency based businesses which typically have offices in several locations. However in an uncertain market environment SMEs of all shapes and sizes need to have agility, and be in a position to scale their communication infrastructure up and down easily and quickly without incurring additional costs.
By moving to IP from PBX SMEs can approach their office telephony as they would any utility bill, benefitting from an annuity based billing system which allows them to control communication costs and infrastructure effectively.
Hosted IP services ultimately help end users overcome the hurdle of lengthy, high-risk implementations by delivering a pre-packaged service that can quickly replace PBX systems and easily facilitate the start-up of satellite operations at a controlled cost. An attractive prospect for SMEs especially in today's market environment.
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Subsequently, the current climate does not lend itself to businesses embarking on complex projects that require high initial capital and operational expenditure, instead, they are looking to lower their risks and control the costs of projects.
Despite this reticence businesses still need to update and maintain their IT and communication infrastructures and nowhere is this more apparent than in the SME sector.
With this in mind, IP hosted services are becoming an attractive option because of their low up front investments. The business appetite for hosted telecoms up until now has been mediocre at best.
This is largely attributable to the habitual nature of IT managers who feel more secure with their traditional PBX boxes, despite them being cumbersome, costly and time intensive to maintain and update.
IP hosted services have entered a new era, using multimedia switch's to ensure quality, security, reliability and cost savings. Essentially allowing traditional fixed line analogue telephony to be hosted in much the same way as mobile telephony is today.
By replacing on site infrastructures with a network based hosted solution, businesses can fulfill a wide range of requirements, ranging from basic services for small or single site operations, to more sophisticated services for those businesses that operate multiple sites or call centre operations.
This is particularly relevant to the SME market sector where communication infrastructures are crucial but need to be scaleable, especially in the current market environment.
Gartner estimates that currently only 4% of the UK SME market has hosted IP in place with substantial uptake expected in the months ahead. This uptake can be credited to the real business benefits of hosted IP, for example only having to pay for functions subscribed to, enabling SMEs in particular to access new technology and large company features at a fraction of the cost.
Similarly, as there is no cumbersome onsite PBX apparatus, time and costs associated with implementation are significantly reduced. Once in service, all management functions are web based, making moves and changes painless and reducing internal IT requirement and training costs.
In adopting a hosted service all changes can be managed quickly and easily through a PC. Managers (IT or not) can point and click updates onto their system from their desk, avoiding third party reliance and in turn additional costs.
Just as an individual would make updates to their mobile phone service through intuitive analytics, IP hosted telephony allows IT managers to take control of their systems and in so doing future proof themselves.
With the time saved from updating and maintaining PBX systems managers can concentrate their efforts on gaining competitive advantage in other aspects of their IT infrastructure and indeed overall business strategy.
Communication is crucial to agency based businesses which typically have offices in several locations. However in an uncertain market environment SMEs of all shapes and sizes need to have agility, and be in a position to scale their communication infrastructure up and down easily and quickly without incurring additional costs.
By moving to IP from PBX SMEs can approach their office telephony as they would any utility bill, benefitting from an annuity based billing system which allows them to control communication costs and infrastructure effectively.
Hosted IP services ultimately help end users overcome the hurdle of lengthy, high-risk implementations by delivering a pre-packaged service that can quickly replace PBX systems and easily facilitate the start-up of satellite operations at a controlled cost. An attractive prospect for SMEs especially in today's market environment.
Related: