7 Reasons to Hang Up Legacy Phone Systems

Did you know your legacy phone system could be costing you business and eating away at profits? No matter what type of business you run, communication is critical. Voice calling is instrumental in customer service, new sales, and collaboration. However, if you’re still using an aging phone system, you could be overpaying and receiving less than stellar performance.

So, it’s a good idea to think about making a switch. You may think that switching to a new phone system will be too complex or expensive. The reality is that the transition from an old legacy phone system to a cloud-based PBX system can be very smooth and fast.

Let’s take a closer look at seven reasons it’s time to hang up legacy phone systems.

You’re Overpaying

Want a predictable monthly charge for your phone system? You’ll get that with a cloud phone system. With a legacy phone system, you may have already paid for the hardware, but you’ll still be hit with recurring fees for upgrades, support, and maintenance.

On top of voice phone service, you probably have additional costs associated with extra features like video conferencing or webinar capabilities. You can combine that into one, budget-able cost with cloud systems. An added bonus of having the features on one platform—more employee satisfaction and higher productivity.

It’s Downgrading the Customer Experience

Customer experience is everything in today’s competitive market. Anything less than an excellent encounter and your customers could jump ship. This is a risk with old phone systems. With a traditional on-site PBX phone system, there’s no ability to integrate with mobile devices.

Without this feature, customers may not even be able to reach someone when they have an issue. In a world of instant communication and resolution, you need a phone system that offers this functionality so you can be in touch with clients at any time, from anywhere.

Your Communications Won’t Survive a Disaster

At some point, almost every business will, unfortunately, suffer downtime due to a disaster. A legacy phone system will be out, and unrecoverable should you lose power. Upgrading to a cloud phone system ensures you have a means of communication for business continuity. Communication solutions that will survive disruption are a must for your disaster recovery plan.

You May Be More Susceptible to a Cyber-Attack

Every business is, or should be, concerned about security and data breaches. SMBs, in particular, are a large, and growing, target. According to a 2018 report, small and medium-sized businesses are the target of cybercriminals 43% of the time. Are your phone systems prepared for such an attack? Are you worried about security with your old phone system?

You should be. On-premises phone systems are vulnerable; cloud PBX systems are much more robust.

Your Phone System Doesn’t Offer Employees Flexibility

The current workforce doesn’t sit in an office all day. With telecommuting and more companies going remote or offering employees opportunities to work from home, you need a phone system that can meet this demand. Your old phone system literally has your employees tied to their seats. And if you do have additional locations or remote workers, it requires a considerable amount of effort and work to set these up using standard systems. This equates to more costs and less efficiency.

A cloud phone system offers flexibility for your mobile workforce. With apps for mobile devices and desktops, your employees can work from anywhere and make outbound calls, hold conference calls, automatically transfer calls to and from their desk phones, conduct video conferences, and much more.

You Can’t Scale Effectively, Hurting Your Growth Potential

Is your company growing? Do you have plans to expand? Will your legacy phone system be able to sustain this? Probably not.

Using a conventional PBX system will require more work. You will likely need new and costly equipment, cabling, and/or professional installation help. It’s not something you’ll want to handle on your own. Cloud systems, however, are simple to scale. You can easily add more lines straight from your management dashboard, allowing for quick expansion of your phone system.

Your Phone System Is Always a Step Behind

If you want access to new features or need to upgrade your current phone system, it’s not automatic. It requires different efforts, maybe even a phone call or service visit. This means you are always a step behind with phone functionality. Not having access to the latest features can be a pain point for today’s employees.

With cloud-based systems, upgrades and new features are automatic. You’ll always be on the latest and most current version of the software.

Don’t let legacy phone systems impact your success. Hang up on them today. Explore how Intermedia Unite fully integrates communications, benefiting your business.

The Intermedia Team

Intermedia helps businesses of all sizes connect better – through voice, video conferencing, chat, contact center, business email and productivity, file sharing and backup, security, archiving, and more – from wherever, whenever. And, as a partner-first company, Intermedia goes to work for our channel partners to help them grow their revenue and maximize their success.