Moving Customer Communications to the Cloud: When Is It the Right Time?

Fall is upon us. The leaves have started to turn (depending on where you live), and change is in the air. If this season will be bringing business changes for your MSP customers, it may be time to re-examine their options for communications technology.

Below are some telltale signs that a move to the cloud in the imminent future may make sense for a customer. Below that list, you'll find some tips that will help you ensure a smooth transition.

• The company is growing quickly, or moving to a new location: This is an ideal time to move their phone service to the cloud. You can future-proof growth thanks to the scalability of cloud-based phone service, and save potentially thousands by eliminating the need for an traditional onsite PBX system.
• Management of the phone service has become increasingly complex and costly: As a customer's business grows and new employees join, an onsite PBX system can become cumbersome and expensive to maintain, particularly if the phone company needs to send a technician to the customer's office every time there is a change. Cloud-based service allows direct control via a user-friendly web interface. Making changes is fast, easy and free of cost.
• More staff are working from home or on the road: You can seamlessly tie remote employees into a cloud-based service. They can receive calls just as if they were in the office, and any outgoing calls they place will show the customer's company caller ID. Smartphone apps allow employees on the road to integrate their favorite device into the service. Apps are available for a wide range of platforms, including Android, iOS, Blackberry and Windows Phone.
• Your customer needs more flexibility in how it handles incoming calls: If business is picking up, and the inbound call load is increasing, your customer needs ways to handle those calls with greater speed and efficiency. Adding departments, hunt groups, time-of-day rules and call queues is simple with cloud-based service. Your customer will be able to distribute calls to multiple staff, prioritize calls based on department and, in general, keep its own customers satisfied by attending to them in a timely manner.
• The customer's company has multiple offices, in physically distant areas: Keeping staff connected across state or even country lines can be difficult with traditional telecom, but a breeze with phone service in the cloud. You can deliver an identical experience regardless of which number a caller dials, and even use one central phone number if your customer prefers.
• Staff work from significantly different time zones, including overseas: Related to No. 5, cloud-based phone can be very helpful if your customers have staff who are physically located even further from the main office, such as in overseas countries. You can easily set up business-hour rules to route calls to international staff depending on time of day—for example, staff in Asia might answer calls that would be outside North American business hours.
• Call center or contact centers are an important part of the business: Companies that field a high volume of incoming calls are certain to benefit from a cloud-based service that provides powerful call queuing options, with simple web management and comprehensive performance tracking and reporting abilities.  
• Redundancy of phone service is mission-critical: On-site phone systems can fail. When they do, your customer may be out of commission. A hosted phone system, however, can offer multiple layers of redundancy using different data centers, meaning your customers can keep making and receiving calls uninterrupted. It’s nearly impossible for a properly distributed cloud-based network to fail.

Before moving a customer's service to the cloud, here are some factors to consider:

• Develop a long-term strategy, and choose vendors accordingly: The cloud industry is still in a state of flux. Choose providers based on stability, responsiveness and a demonstrated commitment to their service niche. You can’t predict the future, but you can choose providers whose values are aligned with the experience you wish to deliver to your MSP customers, and whose level of service proves that they’re in for the long haul.
• Internet connection: The overall impact of cloud-based phone service on bandwidth is fairly minimal, but you’ll still want to be sure the Internet service is sufficient to handle the additional bandwidth required for voice traffic. Assume approximately 40 kbps for regular quality calls, and 90 kbps for high-quality calls. An ideal solution is managed Internet, which provides separation of voice and data traffic, and therefore optimal voice quality.
• Network infrastructure: Most IP phones require an Ethernet connection, so offices that are entirely wireless may need cable runs installed. You’ll also need to ensure the customer's existing router is compatible; check with the service provider to be sure and ask for alternatives if needed.

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