Traditionally, cloud hosted telephony has been seen as the solution for businesses operating across multiple sites. Easy set-up and little equipment is ideal for companies that have a lot of offices, and not a lot of time to manage heavy infrastructure in each.
However, the benefits of hosted are not limited to these dispersed organisations. Channel partners will find equal enthusiasm for the cloud amongst their single-site customers and prospects. Provided they communicate the plus points in the right way.
This blog takes a look at three reasons why a hosted business phone system works for single-site organisations, as well as multi-location businesses.
Keeping businesses open
Companies that operate out of one office face less risk of downtime caused by poor weather or localised issues. But that doesn’t mean they’re immune. A flood or snowstorm can bring the lines down, just as easily as a major issue on the trains can leave huge numbers of staff stranded at home.
There’s no better system on the market to protect businesses from continuity issues than hosted. It’s infrastructure free. So flood damage, for example, will cause minimal problems for the business and leave little to repair for the channel partner. And, as it’s cloud based and managed by an online portal, if staff can’t make it in, the IT manager can quickly redirect all calls to a named secondary mobile number.
Taking care of tomorrow
Updating a traditional phone system is a lot of work – for both end user and channel partner. And sometimes it may seem like the investment is just not worth it. Yet keeping a legacy system such as ISDN afloat is only delaying the inevitable – a fate that will meet any business, whether it’s multi or single-site.
Hosted telephony is an upgrade in itself for many companies. Moving telecommunications into the cloud chimes with the modern business trend of taking essential IT systems off-site. However, the upgrades do not have to stop there. Unlike the physical alternative, a cloud system can be updated instantly with new features and applications.
There’s an obvious benefit for the customer here. They are getting great functionality as it becomes available. Yet, the channel partner also stands to benefit from customers enjoying a constantly updated and best in class telephone system.
Enabling business growth
Single-site businesses with ambitious growth agendas often come up against a big problem. And it’s nothing to do with their ability to find new customers. It’s capacity.
If a customer or prospect is working out of one office on a legacy, fixed phone system, their growth plans will to some extent be limited by how many people they can easily accommodate in the office. The way many are getting around this problem is by encouraging a flexible working from home policy, ensuring free desks every day of the week and allowing for the introduction of a hot desking system.
Because cloud hosted telephony rationalises numbers across mobile and fixed line, users can simply switch their call location from one to the other, according to where they will be located on a given day. Channel partners that supply hosted to these forward-thinking businesses become ideally placed to gain a reputation as supporters and drivers of truly modern working practices.
Success in the channel is all about thinking differently and catering to all markets. By not forgetting the benefits of hosted telephony to businesses working on a single site, partners can open up their offer to countless new customers who rely on continuity, flexibility and the room for growth, long into the future.
