How can Charities can make savings and avoid expensive telephone maintenance costs?
Move to Hosted Voice (VoIP)
As a charity or voluntary organisation working in the not for profit sector it is imperative to provide the best service possible and for many the telephone system sits at the heart of day to day operations! It is a huge investment, but what to do if your current telephone system is becoming outdated and is no longer produced or supported by the manufacturer?
The Dangers of Obsolete Telephone Systems
Old systems can be unpredictable and unreliable, you may have already experienced call issues or faults affecting customer service and operational efficiency. This also means that you may no longer receive software updates and it could take longer to source and fix replacement parts. Adding new users, making future system changes and ongoing maintenance may also become time consuming and expensive.
How will a Charity know when it’s time to move to Hosted Voice?
If any of these sound familiar or apply to your organisation then a you may actually find you want to migrate sooner after finding out all of the benefits the replacement hosted voice service has to offer.
- Your current system is getting older and more expensive to maintain
- You can’t provide the level of customer service that you need to
- Your organisation is growing or looking to move
- You have multiple offices to connect on one system
- You need to connect with home and remote workers
- You want to move to cloud based technologies to benefit from more functionality and cost savings
BT ISDN Switch-off 2025
Furthermore, with the planned BT switch-off of the UK’s traditional ISDN telephone network services in 2025 it really is a good time to think about switching from your current fixed on-premise phone system to a cloud hosted telephony service. Although there is plenty of time until 2025 we recommend you start to plan now.
What are my options?
- Invest at a new telephone system, however this could be costly.
- Remove the need for a physical system and replace with a cloud-based system (VoIP). The adoption of IP Voice services (i.e. SIP Trunks and Hosted Voice) is on the upward curve with 45% of UK businesses already adopted IP Voice services (Cavell – SIP and IP Trunking Market Report & Forecast 2016) and these rates are increasing each year.
- However, if you have more pressing IT issue you can look at IT Cloud services such as Microsoft office 365 and then simply address the hosted voice service later down the line.
How can a Charity benefit from Hosted Voice?
In summary, with a Cloud based telephone service, there are no maintenance overheads, software to upgrade or staff to train up to oversee your telephone system and no complex installation!
At Class Networks our Hosted Voice has been designed for charities that want a flexible and scalable communications platform, without having to buy and maintain equipment or make a long-term commitment.
Hosted in our secure data centre the Class voice platform provides all the functionality to manage your incoming and outgoing calls. Handsets are connected at your premises via a dedicated secure connection to the Class voice platform using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) allowing multiple users to access the system simultaneously.
Costs are kept to a minimum, with no onsite equipment, you simply pay a low monthly rental for each user and multiple simultaneous calls can be made and received using a single dedicated connection.
It’s much quicker to provision a new line due to the flexible nature of the technology you can easily add and remove users as you need. In addition, because there is so little onsite equipment, setting up and maintaining the system is a much simpler job than with a traditional telephone system.
Summary of Class Networks Hosted Voice Benefits
- Pre-configured for quick and easy installation.
- Full functionality without the up-front investment.
- Save money
- No installation or annual maintenance charges.
- Support 24/7/365
- Inclusive calls to UK Landlines and Mobiles
- Connect homeworkers and other offices on one system.
- Seamlessly add and remove users.
- Access via handset, softphone and mobile application
- Retain your existing telephone numbers.
- Quality of Service provide on data connection
- Greater Resilience
- Scalable and Cost Effective
- Increased Call Functionality
All user licenses come with standard features which can then be easily added to depending on your user requirements.
- Voicemail
- Call Hold
- Call Transfer
- Direct Dial
- User Directory
- Speed Dial
- Call Pickup
- Call Park
How Charities can migrate to hosted voice?
We understand that this can feel a daunting process but switching from ISDN to a VoIP/cloud-hosted phone system isn’t as complicated as you might think. We will support you from start to finish. We would need to determine how many handsets you require and if your internet connection is good enough to deliver VoIP.
We can take away the hassle and provide complete project management:-
- Allocate a dedicate PM to support the migration and be your daily contact
- Port your numbers to the cloud from your fixed lien to minimise any possible downtime
- Hosted Voice will be programmed and in place before the switch over
- We can visit your site and ensure all new phones will be already on your desks
- We can provide telephone training, review your call groups and set up new ones if necessary
Please remember, because of the savings to be made on VoIP calls and line rental, you should be aiming to lower your overall telecom costs, while at the same time increasing the call features and functionality at your disposal.
You will have to move at some point in the future, so you control when and how, be ahead of the game and benefit from the technology.
Please contact us for a FREE REVIEW and we can advise and help you roll out the move in your time.
Call: 0300 8008822 and quote HOSTED VOICE FREE REVIEW
Email: Sales@classnetworks.com
www.classnetworks.com/products/hosted-products/
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