Four great reasons to choose a ‘built for business’ cloud telephony solution
Cloud Factory Review by Channel Life
More and more companies are using as-a-service software models to give themselves flexibility in an environment requiring a high level of adaptability.
Cloud telephony-as-a-service (CTaaS) has become a viable option for businesses wanting a flexible and scalable phone solution.
Atlas Gentech has been the New Zealand distributor for Ericsson-LG Enterprise for over 20 years.
It recently launched Cloud Factory, a hosted PBX telephony solution powered by Ericsson-LG Enterprise’s iPECS-Cloud platform, and is exclusively provided to the market via their network of key partners nationwide.
These partners get the benefit of providing a high quality ‘built for business’ cloud telephony without giving up the customer relationship.
Cloud Factory's dealer partners are assisted throughout the sales and deployment process, as well as provided ongoing support once the solution is installed, but continue to drive the customer relationship themselves.
"Our Philosophy has always been to bring high quality and well supported technology solutions to the New Zealand market, and to deliver those through a strong partner channel.” Atlas Gentech Central and South General Manager Andy Brown says.
No two cloud solutions are the same so selecting a solid, well-supported partner is a vital decision when thinking about a cloud product or partnership.
“The immediate gains for Cloud Telephony like capex reduction and competitive calling costs are important, but there are many other benefits that will add real value to businesses longer term” says Brown. “Our Cloud Factory solution can evolve with a business; technology changes and it changes fast, our solution changes with those global trends, meaning business owners can relax a little knowing that their phone solution will grow with them as needed”.
There are a number of reasons why businesses might opt to move their telephony service to a cloud solution, such as fostering a more efficient workforce, powerful disaster recovery enablement, a flexible working environment, and a future-proofed growth strategy.
Here are the top four reasons why a ‘built for business’ CTaaS can be a better solution for businesses:
1. Security
Cloud Factory’s solution functions on proprietary Ericsson-LG phones, which encrypt voice calls on a secure connection, ideal for protecting sensitive business information.
The solution also operates from a local data centre hosted in New Zealand.
It’s reassuring knowing that you have 24/7 support on hand throughout New Zealand and that your information isn’t stored in data centres subject to changes in foreign laws.
A cloud-based solution also ensures the software is updated automatically on a regular basis with minimal effort and no cost to the end user.
2. Reliability
The Atlas Gentech team are clearly proud of their Cloud Factory telephony solution, stating that their approach from the beginning has been to build a very high quality cloud voice platform. Hosted locally and utilizing carrier grade hardware and architecture, with a fully redundant solution on standby the Cloud Factory offering is designed with Business in mind.
“Having a cloud-hosted telephone service means businesses are equipped with many disaster recovery options an on-premise solution is unable to offer”, Brown states.
In the event of natural disasters like the Kaikoura or Christchurch earthquakes or Edgecumbe floods, businesses are able to ensure communication continuity. Cloud Factory achieves this multiple ways, re-routing calls automatically if a phone is offline, 3G/4G backup functionality, Mobile phone app or extension, or relocating the actual phone/s to another internet connected network.
In the event the building is destroyed; a new system can usually be redeployed and fully operational within 24 hours!
Businesses can effortlessly keep in contact with their customers come hell or high water, maintaining the trust in that relationship.
3. Scalability
A CTaaS solution is scalable in a way that traditional on-premise telephone services aren’t due to infrastructure constraints.
"Cloud is about future-proofing, business owners no longer need to crystal ball-gaze and guess what technology their company might need in the future, that thought process becomes almost irrelevant" Brown says.
Similar to other as-a-service solutions, CTaaS allows you to choose the number of extensions and features that cater to the size and the needs of your organization, rather than having to commit capital expenditure to resources your business doesn’t yet, and may never need.
Cloud Factory clients can easily change the number of extensions, or the services offered, as their organisation expands or changes.
4. Flexibility
The Cloud Factory solution includes a handy unified communications client iPECS UCE for both mobile and desktop. Using the client, businesses can have convenience and features of a physical phone and DDI right from their desktop or mobile phone.
This is convenient for remote workers, or for businesses like real estate where agents are on the go often in the course of their job.
Cloud Factory offers Skype for Business integration through Ericsson-LG's, Microsoft approved, plug-in. Businesses can use their Skype for Business setup in conjunction with the Cloud Factory solution to achieve a powerful voice offering.
The base Cloud Factory voice solution offer gives users a ‘turn key’ package with an IP Deskphone, PBX functionality including voicemail to email and mobile twinning, competitive calling rates, and a business-grade telephony service manageable via an online portal. Businesses can upgrade the solution to fit their requirements, with contact centre, web conferencing and complex multi-site functionality all available if needed.
Cloud Factory gives you the flexibility of a digital solution without having to compromise the sophistication of features found in on premise telephony solution.
If you are an ICT business that wants to build your own cloud voice business, get in touch with Cloud Factory to see how their channel-only and channel-owned delivery model can work best for you.