Successful businesses, big and small, understand the power and opportunity of the cloud. More companies are migrating their applications and data to the cloud for greater security, scalability, and ease. Cloud communications is one more set of tools that delivers benefits to users. Its importance is growing with the shift to remote work during the pandemic.
If you’re unsure if cloud communications is a good choice for your organization, learn about why it’s essential and the advantages it can yield.
What Is Cloud Communications?
The term cloud communications refers to a platform that delivers enterprise-level functionality in one hub for businesses of all sizes. It streamlines communication and collaboration efforts and provides easy access to anyone with an internet connection and credentials. It’s not dependent on on-premises servers or other location limitations.
6 Reasons Why Cloud Communications Is Important
In the fast-paced business world where organizations must be nimble and agile, relying on the cloud for communications is necessary. Let’s look at the reasons for its significant importance.
Work from Wherever
The current and future state of work won’t be location-specific. Many companies that adopted work from home models during the pandemic have plans to keep it in place. They’ve realized that work doesn’t only happen in an office or cubicle. When companies shift to the cloud for all their communication tools—phone systems, instant chat, video conferencing, file sharing, and more—it doesn’t matter where users are. They get the same experience from anywhere.
Reduce Costs
Your telecom costs can fluctuate when you’re still dependent on legacy phones. Additionally, you may be using various independent communication tools. Further, if you’re still maintaining on-site servers, this is extremely expensive. When you move to cloud communications, you have one provider and one bill that remains consistent. You can then budget better and reallocate spend.
Boost Productivity with a Centralized Tool
How much time does your team waste because of technology that’s disparate, hard to use, or requires multi-tasking? It could be considerable when you add it all up. Consider the minutes lost every day switching from one system to another or during the retrieval of voicemails.
When you provide an effective and efficient tool in one platform, employees will likely be much more productive. They’ll appreciate how streamlined the experience is. Now they have single sign-on for communication tools. Plus, they’ll have instant access to transcribed voicemails so they can respond quickly to customers.
Scale Without Boundaries
Another great attribute of cloud communications is its scalability. If you still operate with traditional PBX phones, you can’t simply add a new user. That requires conversations with providers, cost increases, and on-site visits. You certainly don’t have time to jump through these hoops to onboard a new user.
Cloud communications systems have a central administrative panel. With a few clicks, you can add users without ever calling your provider. When you need to ramp up your team quickly, only cloud communications offer this convenience and flexibility.
Enhance the Security of Your Communications
The cloud is considerably safer than on-premises solutions. That’s because the cloud has more safety layers and protocols while also using encryption methods for data. Penetration of a cloud happens far less than breaches of physical servers on-site.
However, security of the cloud isn’t universal. When seeking out a provider, look at their security practices, like being SOC 2 audited, using advanced encryption, and endpoint protection. If you’re in a regulated industry with compliance requirements, such as HIPAA for healthcare, you’ll also need to ensure the cloud satisfies these.
If security concerns have been holding you back from migrating, they shouldn’t, especially if you work with a top-tier provider that goes beyond the basics of cybersecurity.
Enlarge Your Talent Pool
Hiring qualified applicants and retaining employees can be harder if you are limited geographically. What the pandemic taught business leaders is that remote work is possible, productive, and effective.
When you have a cloud communications platform, you can expand your talent pool to find the right candidates that fit your needs. It’s also easy to onboard them virtually and involve them quickly in the group with video conferences and other collaboration tools.
Don’t Miss the Advantages of Cloud Communications
Technology is vital to every modern business. Adopting cloud communications is one of the most important decisions you can make to empower your employees and help them work smarter. To learn about what’s possible, explore our cloud communications solution, Intermedia Unite, today.
Kirsten Barta
Kirsten Barta is Sr Marketing Communications Manager at Intermedia
February 15, 2021
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