The internet has been quite instrumental in revolutionizing businesses and now with the new cloud computing era businesses have moved to a whole new level whereby business owners don't need to worry about acquiring software or hardware because all of it is found virtually. Cloud phone systems though newer are very beneficial to businesses particularly small and medium sized business with very valid reasons. A look at what cloud phone systems are is imperative before discussing their many benefits.

What is a Cloud Phone System?

The traditional PBX phone systems encompass several phones connected with multiple phone lines and utilize the public switched telephone network for communication; the cloud phone systems use a similar architecture but in this case the phones are connected virtually and the internet is used for communication instead. For a business to be able to use the cloud it would simply need to buy IP phones and have a broad internet connection from an ISP provider. Cloud phone systems also integrate smart phones and tablets that have been VoIP enabled.

Cost Effectiveness - The Major Benefit of a Cloud Phone System

Businesses, especially small and medium sized ones are always looking for ways to cut down costs and therefore maximize profits and nothing does this better for them than cloud phone systems for three important reasons. The first thing that comes into play is the fact that making voice calls through these phones is very cheap and sometimes even free. This is because the only requirements for a business to use these systems are IP telephones and an internet connection. The major cost catered for is the internet subscription. In addition to that one has to pay for the hosting in the cloud because as aforementioned the phone systems within a business are connected together virtually and this requires hosting.

On the same point of cost effectiveness, capital for installation becomes easier to raise because the need for phone lines and several other equipment required to get the phone systems running is eliminated. Even more interesting is the fact that there are hosted PBX systems which allow businesses to retain their old phone systems but still get hosted in the cloud. Notably other costs that come with the traditional phone systems are eliminated and especially the monthly maintenance costs.

When speaking of cheap voice calls it is important to know that the calls are not limited to the geographical location of a given business because the internet spans across the entire world. This means that one can make international phone calls at that same cheap rate if the recipient on the other end is using VoIP as well.

Seamless Communications with Cloud Phone Systems

Cloud phone systems have a plethora of features that can be quite perplexing to new and even old users. This is because they apply the concept of unified communications excellently to come up with a communication system that is not barred by time or location. Unified communications means that voice calls, emails, faxes and instant messaging are all integrated together so that for example when a client is not available on voice they can still get messages intended for them on email, faxes, voicemail or even on instant messaging applications. The cloud phone systems combine all these communication modes perfectly so that communication isn't cut at any point.

In terms of beating location barriers, cloud phone systems integrate smart phones with office phones and this means that one still gets to communicate with clients as if they still were in the office. Laptops and tablets are not excluded in this because provided an individual has headphones with a microphone and a broadband internet connection they can still connect to the cloud from whatever location.

Highly efficient usability features

The unified communications advantage of cloud phone systems encompasses a broad number of features geared towards making communication as flawless as possible. Here is a list of features that will definitely leave users happy.

• Listen and Whisper
• Find Me/Follow Me
• Phones Auto Provisioning
• Listen (spy)
• ACD call queues
• Message waiting indicator

Disaster preparedness with cloud phone systems

This is a general advantage that every business using the cloud enjoys and this is because since all business-related data is stored virtually so that when a calamity such as a fire or a flood takes place the data is not lost. In the case of communication one can only imagine the implications of losing client contact details if a flood wiped away all the machines that held it. The cloud stores all the client contact details virtually where no disaster can attack it.

It is quite obvious that cloud phones systems promise more productivity for any business particularly the ever expanding small and medium sized businesses.

Qualitech Cloud Phone Systems Software Features:

• Hosted PBX
• SIP Trunking
• Geo-Redundant Active/Active Data Centers
• Call Recording
• Working phone system even without power or internet
• Multiple phone hardware options
• Turn your mobile phone into your extension
• Fully programmable phones
• Training and Support included in low monthly fee
• Infinite Scalability
• Much more