Cloud-hosted communication platforms have reshaped the tariffed voice routing landscape globally, and are making a similar impact in South Africa. With a growing requirement for multi-channel engagement however, businesses are now looking beyond a basic Cloud PBX, and toward a unified communications as a service (UCaaS) that provides them with a scalable, cost-effective and feature-rich alternative to traditional phone systems.
Looking beyond on-premise
Organisations that have held onto their on-premise PBX are facing a growing number of challenges with maintaining these systems, and stand to gain from multiple benefits by switching to a Cloud PBX, including:
- Reducing their capital expenditure as a cloud-hosted solution means that there is no expensive on-premise PBX equipment to maintain and upgrade. They can also reduce their voice call costs by up to 40%, as experienced by Telviva clients.
- Scaling their communications systems up or down based on their needs without having to invest in additional hardware. This level of scalability ensures that businesses only pay for what they need, avoiding unnecessary costs and accommodating growth seamlessly.
- Ensuring high uptime through redundant data centres and robust disaster recovery plans.
- Providing security features to help protect sensitive communications and ensure compliance with relevant industry regulations, thereby reducing the risk of costly data breaches and fines. These features are continuously kept up to date, reducing the burden on a company’s own IT teams. Organisations should still take precautions such as using firewalls, providing employees with VPN access, and training all staff around cybersecurity risk.
- Offering solutions that help businesses comply with industry-specific regulations like compliant call recording, secure communication and audit trails of engagements
- Users are not tied to their desks, as the service is available through desktop IP phones, browsers on a PC or laptop, or even via a smartphone application, providing flexibility and mobility.
More than just voice
Switching to a Cloud PBX opens up possibilities for much more than just voice, however: Customers, suppliers and stakeholders today want to communicate with all available channels of engagement, and a cloud-based service offers integration into not only voice, but chat messaging from SMS to WhatsApp, email and video – all within a single platform. Giving customers choice of channel is crucial; as an example, Intercape, a Telviva client, saw a 200% increase in the use of WhatsApp and web chat over a single year.
Unified Communications overall enhances productivity by enabling seamless communication and collaboration among customers, suppliers and other employees, whether they are in the office or remote, as integration with business applications – such as customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems – help streamline workflows and enhance customer engagements. This is done through native integrations, though they can also utilise Open APIs to integrate with their other business processes and software for even more customisation.
This includes the use of digital assistants – or intelligent chatbots – that have since evolved to allow for scaling up sales and support services by either enhancing staff through being a copilot, or handling the complete engagement with the option to hand off to a person to deal with more complex matters.
All of these developments have led to Hosted Voice/UC Public Cloud (UCaaS) becoming the largest segment of the South African cloud market, accounting for 32.3% of the market in 2022 and is expected to grow at 19.1%, driven by the increasing adoption of cloud-based UC&C solutions. Adoption can be further accelerated through improved connectivity to hosted services, and providers expanding their services to more data centres locally, as close proximity allows for lower latency and improved speed of use.
Getting started
With so many providers and options on the market, what do businesses need to consider when embarking on their cloud journey? Here are four key considerations:
- Businesses should choose a reputable Cloud PBX or UCaaS provider that offers robust security, a reliable service and excellent customer support.
- They need to ensure good connectivity (a quality, managed access link) that provides a high level of availability and minimises downtime.
- Training of users on new communications tools is crucial to driving adoption and ensuring optimal usage of available features.
- Ensure that the provider they select complies with relevant regulatory requirements, such as those around data residency and sovereignty.
The adoption of Cloud PBX services in South Africa has got to the extent that we are now seeing migration from cloud to cloud services where previously migration was from premises to cloud.
Meanwhile, those still using on-premise system face challenges including obsolescence of hardware and applications that require expensive upgrades, a lack of support as more PBX vendors move their services to the cloud and reduce focus on on-premise based services, and even risk falling behind competitors who have moved to the cloud, and have a competitive advantage.
It is clear that the time to make the change, and to enable better quality conversations, is now. Contact us today to learn more.
