The cloud has revolutionized the world of IT: companies no longer have to worry about the problem of investing in heavy and complex infrastructures, since cloud services are offered with pay-per-use, without a ticket. entrance to pay. Investment expenditure (CAPEX) is thus replaced by operating expenditure (OPEX).
Telephony has also shifted to the cloud, with IP Centrex, telephone switches hosted and managed by operators, which are shared between their customers, with payment calculated on a pay-per-use basis.
The IP Centrex is also a real springboard for innovation, as it provides access to features that are usually out of reach for small businesses. For example, a connection to collaboration applications, or the presence of an interactive vocal server. And they are constantly evolving! The interactive voice server that can be controlled by telephone keys will be controlled by voice tomorrow, before switching to intelligent mode, taking into account requests made in natural language. All without changing equipment, operator or commercial offer.
A simple and readable offer
Centrex IP offers bring all the benefits of the cloud: it is no longer necessary to invest in an expensive private telephone exchange (PABX or IPBX). All you have to do is install IP telephone sets in each office (either purchased or rented), connect them to an Ethernet socket (a connectivity that is generally widely present in companies) and you’re done. Note that some professional offers combine internet connectivity and telephone lines in the same package: ideal for small businesses!
An easy-to-use console lets you manage telephony and its features globally, or item by item, so that each employee can define their own messaging options, call forwarding, etc.
Mobility is also total, this type of offer often making it possible to use a softphone, or even to connect the station to any network giving access to the Internet (whether that of the company or the home box of a remote worker).
Some drawbacks
The corollary of this simplicity is that each station corresponds to a dedicated telephone number, and therefore a subscription. It is not possible with Centrex IP solutions to be able to choose a number of communication channels lower than the number of real stations installed, in order to hope to lower the bill. In some cases, the on-site PBX can therefore be cheaper than a Centrex IP offer. Beware, however, of the possibilities of evolution of a classic IPBX, which are much less, and which will require frequent renewal of the equipment.
Another defect sometimes observed: call quality. Chopped sound, communication cut-off, inability to make a call… all of this can affect operators who have had a somewhat heavy hand on the load applied to their telephone infrastructures, which are shared between several customers. We bet, however, that these problems will eventually resolve themselves (apart from a few rare bad students), just as they have been for shared web hosting.
Opting for a cloud telephony offer is a paradigm shift for companies, which delegate the ownership and management of their telephony infrastructure to a third party. All with perfect pricing readability: 1 post = 1 line = 1 subscription.
It will however be necessary to remain attentive to the quality of service offered, to the promises made in terms of innovation, but also to reversibility, so that the change of operator does not turn into an obstacle course.