In today’s business ecosystem, agility is no longer an additive, it’s a requirement for long-term success.
Customer experience has taken center stage, and organizations across all industries feel pressure to accommodate customers’ preferences for immediacy and personalized service.
Further, the significant shift to hybrid workplace models has understandably increased external demand for high-quality and reliable communications services regardless of your location. These outside forces and trends that are unique to different industries have made businesses reevaluate their customer communications strategies and turn to cloud-based solutions.
Businesses need communications solutions that can scale and adapt to keep pace with today’s customer-centric climate. Cloud-based CSPs give businesses the flexibility to scale communications solutions up or down based on customer preferences. However, there are different types of cloud communications configurations to consider. Before making the move to the cloud and partnering with a cloud-based CSP, it’s best to assess your business and customer needs to determine which technology will deliver the optimal results for you.
Below are three popular configurations for cloud communications and the benefits each configuration offers.
1) Purpose-built software solutions
For businesses within a specific industry like healthcare, it may make the most sense to turn to a purpose-built software solution. This sort of solution is pre-integrated into workflows and thus, communications become an embedded capability within an existing software solution. These communication-native business process applications allow the dental receptionist to better schedule patients, the salesperson to manage communications within their CRM, or the claims processing unit to automate claim status SMS notifications. Through the purpose-built software solutions configuration, communications is no longer a standalone application but seamlessly integrated within existing programs and processes.
2) Cloud-hosted PBX technology
Cloud-hosted PBX is an IP-based solution that is accessed completely through the internet. Instead of hosting software on a server, a PBX hosts all software and data in the cloud. A benefit of this configuration is it offers the least amount of disruption to operations because it replicates the existing calling experience for employees and customers such as the ability to make and receive calls on a traditional handset and also conference calling. Cloud-hosted PBX technology provides a company a more hands-off approach to their enterprise communications if desired. And they have access to added capabilities through the cloud such as the ability to add or scale numbers on the fly without incurring infrastructure fees.
3) BYOC (Bring Your Own Carrier) model
And finally, there is the Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC) model. This sort of configuration is often seen as a more personalized and flexible option that provides more control, empowering developers to easily build and customize communications by using existing APIs. Through this model, businesses have the flexibility to bring or select their own carrier to their communications platform of choice rather than being forced into a single carrier or bundled approach. In the past couple of years, BYOC has become an increasingly more popular option.
In spring 2021, Flowroute announced “Teams Connector,” which is our BYOC calling solution for Microsoft Teams (Teams). It allows our customers to use their Flowroute numbers and choose their own provider to power calling on Teams, rather than defaulting to Microsoft’s list of carriers. With Teams Connector, our customers gain both flexibility and business continuity, all while achieving reduced costs through our “pay-as-you-go” pricing model. Teams Connector also provides improved customer experience by enabling easier management of phone numbers and registered devices, helping to streamline overall usage of calling on Teams.
