Latest News

In today’s world most applications that you used to provide “in house” are now provided as a service (SAAS). Many people use outsourced IT specialists to maintain servers and work stations or choose to house their CRM applications in the cloud. The main reason is because of the cost of ownership for keeping equipment on premise. This requires manpower and diligence which could be used elsewhere to grow the business. With cloud-based or hosted VoIP solutions you can get all of the advanced IP business communications features and benefits that you can with an on-premise system, but without the need to buy, install or maintain your own core servers.

What Are The Benefits Of Opting For A Cloud-Based System?

• Gain the benefits of an on-site PBX without having to buy the system
• Reduce capital expenditure to purchase equipment
• Budget exact telecommunication costs with fixed monthly fees
• Avoid long-term lock-in to a premises-based system and/or vendor
• Eliminate costly software upgrades
• Avoid PBX equipment obsolescence
• Save facility space and power by reducing telephone system equipment requirements
• Eliminate the costs of system management
• Easily expandable to support more users, locations and applications
• Enjoy premium uptime with rigorous data center protections and integral survivability
• Ability to migrate to an on-site system at any time

What Is Required For Me To Migrate To The Cloud?

A reliable internet connection with a large bandwidth is required for seamless cloud service.

Top reasons hosted VoIP offerings such as cloud services are gaining traction with SMBs:

• Trade a capital expenditure for a predictable monthly operating expense.
• With cloud-based VoIP, the central intelligence of the telephone system resides in a service provider’s secure data center.
• Reduce the cost of business communications—without compromise.
  Starts at an average of a dollar per day per user. The standard business user fee includes capabilities and unlimited free local and long-distance minutes. User fees for high-volume businesses (those averaging more than 2,000 minutes or 1,500 calls per channel per month) include 1,200 free local and long-distance minutes per channel per month. Calls beyond that (and international calls) are charged on a per-minute basis.
• The organization can budget for communication services as a predictable monthly operating expense. There are no added costs for acquiring the servers or the IT infrastructure to support it. There are no added costs for annual maintenance contracts, software upgrades and other system support requirements. You also do away with the cost of office space and energy to house, protect and power the phone system. You also reduce network costs by running voice and data on the same IP infrastructure and the same trunk connection to the managed IP network.
• Project a big-business image with an SMB-friendly package.
  Some vendors offer very limited capabilities with their hosted VoIP solutions. The service delivers a comprehensive feature suite, such as advanced call processing, voice mail with unified messaging, unified communications, and the ability to use a PC or laptop as an IP soft phone. With advanced IP communications capabilities, any small business can present a big-business persona to the public and compete on a par with much larger organizations.

Keep users in command of their preferences and customizations.

The server resides in a secure, off-site data center, but users still have full control to personalize their own phones, call handling, messages and more, just as they would if the server were in the office. The actual physical location of the server is transparent to them. Using the administration application via their PCs, tablets or laptops, users securely access the phone system over the Web to:

• Personalize telephone settings such as key button programming and call forwarding instructions
• Retrieve information, such as voice mail or email messages and chat
• Activate or deactivate phone features

Get better performance from your business phone system.

With the cloud service, your telephone system is managed by IT specialists in world-class data centers that have power protection, survivability and disaster recovery resources far beyond what any small business could provide. You don’t have to worry about powering, maintaining or updating the server. We take care of all that in the cloud, and you always benefit from the latest firmware, software and features.

Become a more agile business.

With a cloud service, you’re not locked into a long-term commitment to on-site equipment or a specific communications approach. Pay only for what you need today, and expand on demand. It’s easy to open a new location or add seats to meet short-term or unexpected requirements. New applications are efficiently deployed and managed in the cloud rather than on individual devices. With this flexibility, the business can respond rapidly to new opportunities and changing market conditions.

Let us help you with your business communications:
Call us at 781.756.5100, email at info@generalcom.com or click here.