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DBCSNAFlag for United States of America

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Are cloud phones better than an on premise solution

Hello,

Are cloud phones better than an on premise solution?
We currently have a Siemens 4K phone system used with a PRI.
We have about 230 voice over IP phones and about 15 digital line phones.
Most of the ip phones have a basic setup with add on module to configure additional lines.

The 15 digital lines are for our sales department, the have a ACD routing setup(similar to a hunt group). Each sales person has their prime line and 2 secondary lines. We have it configured so that that each sales person is able to answered each others lines. Each sales person has about 50 lines configured on two phones at their desk that they can answer when any line rings. We it setup this way because our president wants sales to try and answer all calls and not have them go to voicemail.

We recently started to look at cloud phones and providers like ring central, 101voice and others. Our main concern is QOS and if our setup in sales will be supported.

We are not sure if cloud phones will be more reliable and if we will have the same quality of service?

Thank You


Let me know if you need any clarification.
Avatar of Paul MacDonald
Paul MacDonald
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Define "better".

Hosted phone service has two advantages over on-premise systems:
1) Portability - you can take your phone service with you when you leave the office.
2) Disaster recovery - if your office gets damaged, you still have phone service (see above)

Hosted phones (may) have a few disadvantages over on-premise systems:
1) You need enough free bandwidth to support your people accessing a hosted solution, on your LAN and on your WAN.
2) Sometimes you need new handsets.  Not all IP hardware is compatible with all hosted solutions.
3) Not all hosted solutions come with all the features you may be used to with an on-premise solution.  Queues, management/reporting, call recording, etc, may not be available on all systems.

How you use your phones and what you need them to do should be the driving factors, then cost.
A cloud phone system is definitely reliable and can absolutely handle your call group needs.

Is this all at a single site or are the phones spread across multiple sites or telecommuters?

Do you have any applications you'd like to integrate (i.e. O365, Salesforce, etc.)?

One thing I'd highly recommend is staying away from providers who are going to charge $20+/user. With your user count, that's going to be way too expensive. Instead, you should focus on the providers who charge $5-10/user and cater to your size companies with call center applications.
Depends on what you're looking for, your requirements, and the number of users. For example, a small deployment (let's say 10 users) can make sense for a cloud deployment to get something in without a large cash outlay. A system with high security requirements wouldn't make sense at all. I've written a short lists of pros and cons on both sides, but it is by no means exhaustive.

Cloud based PBX:
Lower upfront costs
Less control
Don't have to deal with maintaining the PBX
Quicker to deploy to multiple sites
Can set up remote phones without changes to PBX (all phones are remote to begin with)
No internet means no ability to make calls (including internal)

Onprem:
More control
Higher upfront costs
Have to deal with maintaining the PBX
More options in terms of the types of phone service
Large effect on other ongoing costs (i.e. electricity)
No internet can allow internal calls to go through (provided you are at the same site as the PBX)

Sit down, and figure out exactly what your needs and requirements are, look at the costs, and let all of that determine what is the best route for you.


We recently started to look at cloud phones and providers like ring central, 101voice and others. Our main concern is QOS and if our setup in sales will be supported.
If you're going to look for a cloud provider, look at quality first, then cost. RingCentral is cheap, but notoriously lousy. 8x8 is a far better company (I can refer you to a salesperson if needed). Vonage Business is a mixed bag, but they do also have an IT division.

Quality depends on two things: Quality of the provider's infrastructure, and the quality of your infrastructure (including internet connection). If there's an issue at either side, you might not get exactly what you're hoping for.
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