Choosing a cloud-based phone system provider. Getting it right first time.
The way we do business is changing. Today we live in a culture of now. Customers, colleagues and suppliers all expect an instant response so they can move on with a task or transaction. If they can t get hold of the person they need, it could affect sales. Business communications are evolving to meet these requirements, and the cloud has an important role to play in empowering staff to be at their most productive, wherever they are. Cloud-based phone systems can help to keep people connected at all times. But how much your business benefits will depend on the provider you choose. Here, we look at some of the important things you ll need to consider. 59% 59% of employees admit to having missed a call from a customer who hasn t phoned back. 1 1 https://business.bt.com/content/dam/bt/business/business-solutions/downloads-pdf/q115-008_whybtforcorporate_infographic_worldofwork.pdf
Choosing the right service. To make the move to a cloud-based phone system as easy as possible, you ll want to check that the supplier can meet all of your needs. Here s a useful checklist of what to look out for:
Are they asking the right questions? You can tell a lot about a service provider from the effort they make to get to know your business and your specific requirements. Once they ve found out more about what you do, and how you run things, they should ask about your existing internet usage. This is a sign that they re checking you have enough capacity in your current set-up to support your new phone service, and that you ll be able to take advantage of all of the features you want to use. Expect to be quizzed about: Your future business plans. Are you expecting to take on more employees, move offices or add to your number of offices? The sort of calls you make. How busy are your phones? How often do you make international calls? Your hours of operation. This can help determine what support package your business might need. To find out your bandwidth needs, they re likely to ask: What you use the internet for. Is it mainly to access the internet and email? Or do you often need to send and receive big files such as detailed images? How your business operates. If some staff work from home or in other locations, how do they stay connected to their colleagues? Do they use web or video conferencing, for example?
Can they deliver the service that you need? You ll need an idea of how the new system will manage your calls, to make sure you get the service you expect. Is it intended and designed for business use? Does the supplier understand what s important for a business, as opposed to a consumer? One of the key ways to ensure good call quality is to give voice priority over other applications as it crosses the network. Ask your supplier what they do to prioritise your calls over the internet. Note that if the provider is only supplying the phone system (and not the internet access), they may be limited in their ability to control this. A provider that delivers the full service can check everything works well together, to give you a high-quality service.
What back-up plans are in place? You ll want to know that your supplier has measures in place to minimise the chance of the phone system going down. Check how they can help limit the impact on your business if it does. This is called resilience. Find out: Where the service is being provided from. If the software and equipment used to run the cloud-based phone system is housed in a secure data centre, it will be more robust than facilities that are simply run from the provider s office. If there s a plan B. Does the supplier have a contingency plan in the event of a serious incident, such as one of their servers going down? About the server locations. A supplier with servers in at least two different locations is less likely to have service issues than one that keeps everything in one place. That s because, if there s ever a problem with one location like a fire the service will continue as normal, because there s another server elsewhere. What control you ll have in the event of an emergency. Will you be able to change call settings from anywhere, for example, if you can t get into the office? Whether you can set up your own contingency measures. For instance, can you pre-set your calls to divert to your mobile in case your office ever suffers a power cut? About controls over user access. Is there a way to set different levels of security for the web portal, so you can specify who can get in and change features? You may want to set different access rights for managers vs. temporary workers, for instance.
How much help can you expect? If you re not yet sure which phone system may be right for you, you ll need a provider that can give you some good advice on the different options from cloud-based alternatives to a phone system located in your office to make the right decision. Impartial advice from someone that provides more than one type of solution will make it easier for you to work out what s best for your business. If you do decide on a cloud-based phone system, find out how much support you can expect: At the installation stage: For afterwards: If it s a service you install yourself, is there a good helpdesk for any questions you might have? Is there an option to have everything set up by the supplier and, if so, what does it cost? If there s advice on how to get the most out of the system. Is there any introductory training, and will you have to pay for that? Whether there s a help library. As well as providing reassurance during installation, a self-service online help library can be very handy for ongoing support, as you can access it 24/7. Can the provider help you transfer your numbers to the new system? If so, will they charge you for it? Will you need to buy new handsets? Even if you re already using an internet-based phone system, you may need new handsets to take full advantage of your new service features. Check whether the supplier will configure these for you (and if there s a charge for this). What the technical support options are. Check what help will be available if there s ever a problem and whether this is enough for your business. Will 9-5 cover on weekdays be adequate? You should be offered a choice of support packages to suit your needs and budget. Are there readily available help guides so you can solve smaller problems yourself? What s the target fix time if anything goes wrong? Is there access to a help desk? If so, is it a Freephone number, or will you be charged? If your business has remote branches, will the supplier be able to support them? Fraud monitoring. Your existing phone system provider will have fraud monitoring in place, so check your cloud provider has the same.
How much flexibility is there? Whether you need a service you can tailor to your own business needs, or one that can grow with your business, find out whether the cloud-based phone system provider can cater for: Remote phone system management. Can you quickly make changes via a web portal, from any location and from your mobile app? New features. How easy will it be to add features such as call recording (which you might decide you need to help with staff training and complaint resolution)? Handset choice. Are there plenty of options to choose from, with compatible phones from well-known brands? Future growth. A provider may be fine at supporting 10 users, but will they be able to manage if one day you need to connect 100 people?
Can you get everything you need from one provider? Buying a new phone system can mean a lot of change, so try to make the process as easy as possible. If you re getting the broadband from one company and the cloud-based phone system from another, or if you need to go elsewhere for additional requirements such as LAN (Local Area Network) connections, you could be making things harder than they need to be. Using the same supplier for everything keeps things simple. There s one port of call for help and support, and the supplier can check that all the different parts of the solution work well together. So ask: Can the provider meet all your connectivity needs, both now and in the future? These might include broadband, superfast broadband (fibre), and dedicated leased lines. Can they also provide internal network services such as LAN and cabling? Can they integrate the phone system with employees mobiles? Do they own the network, or are they sourcing it from a third party? How much control do they have over service quality? Will users be able to stay connected when out of the office? Some providers offer wi-fi hotspots as part of their broadband package, keeping users connected in more places.
Are there different pricing and call plans to choose from? With a cloud-based phone system, you should be able to get a lot of functionality for your money. But not all services are equal, so check you really are getting the best value: Does the supplier offer a range of call plans? Options may include pay as you go, unlimited call packages, and call bundles. An unlimited call plan might give peace of mind that your minutes won t run out, but a bundle of minutes shared across the company may be more cost effective depending on how much you use. Are there any exclusions or limits on a supplier s call plans? With some unlimited call packages, you may still be charged if your calls exceed a certain length. A fair use policy (designed to cap excessive service use by a single company) could restrict your usage, so watch out for this in the terms and conditions. Check if any other calls are excluded, such as calls to non-geographic numbers (e.g. 0870), international or mobile calls. Can the supplier offer you a financing agreement? Some companies may be able to offer leasing arrangements to help spread upfront costs, such as phones and connection charges. What about extras? It s common practice for suppliers to have a connection charge. Check if it s included or listed separately. Ask if there s a charge to transfer your existing business numbers to the new service if you don t want to change your phone number.
Time to switch? Change can be unsettling, especially when you re thinking of updating your main form of communication. But businesses rely on good communication to help build strong relationships with customers and suppliers, and taking advantage of new technologies can help put you one step ahead of your competitors. If you re still wondering whether now is the right time to switch, consider: Are you handling communications in the best way for you and your customers? Can people get through quickly? Are you missing important calls? Would you like to be able to connect homeworkers simply? Do you want staff to be able to work together more easily and naturally? Is your business looking to grow in the future and add more premises? Would you like a simple way to add new sites to your existing network? If you plan to move offices, would you like to be able to take your phone number with you? Is it important for you to be able to link multiple sites with the same phone system? Would it be useful if you could make changes to your phone system yourself? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, it s probably time to talk to a cloud-based phone system provider.
Why BT? BT has decades of experience of providing phone systems to businesses of all sizes. We offer both hosted solutions and systems that can be housed on your own premises, giving you maximum choice. We ll assess your bandwidth needs before proposing a cloud-based phone solution. We have a range of internet access options that can support the cloud, including broadband, fibre and BTNet. We have extensive measures in place to ensure system security and reliability: let you specify who is allowed to change company settings and make certain calls (to international numbers, for example), with our cloud-based phone solutions. offer multiple server locations. have contingency plans in case an issue occurs. monitor your phone systems for fraud. We provide a wide help library and a dedicated service team so you ll always have a quick answer to hand. We support businesses of all sizes, from very small businesses to very large companies so there s no need to worry about expansion. We have the expertise and the technology to offer a complete end-to-end solution - from the network and internet access to the cloud-based phone system and IP phones. Because we provide all the core parts of the service, we can make sure it all works together and can fix any problems quickly.
Case study. Pasta Foods is ready for the future thanks to BT s phone system in the cloud. We ve already helped many other companies to make the transition to a cloud-based phone system. Pasta Foods is just one example. The company swapped an on-premise phone system for a modern, flexible service, BT Cloud Voice, which will be able to grow with the business. It includes all the standard calling features of a traditional phone system, and more including call forwarding, three-way calling and voice conferencing. Other features such as voicemail to email and call recording are also available. As well as addressing Pasta Foods reliability problems, the new system requires no maintenance and best of all there were no significant up-front costs. The monthly cost was very competitive and the service provided everything we needed so we were sold on it. Says James White, the company s IT Manager.