Brian Metherell, Vice-President and General Manager of Toshiba Telecom, talks about trends in moving business communications to “the cloud.”
It’s a provocative question for which the answers are: (A) It depends, and (B) It’s up to you.
You can get the benefits of an advanced IP phone system without having to buy, install and maintain an on-premises PBX. Toshiba’s award-winning IPedge® business communications system is now available as the cloud-based Toshiba VIPedge™ service.
Based on IPedge business phone system, VIPedge service delivers the tools your business needs, such as voice mail with unified messaging, unified communications, integration with customer relationship management (CRM) programs, and mobility solutions such as in-building wireless and find-me/follow-me call routing.
With this cloud-based service, Toshiba manages the IPedge servers. You don’t have to worry about system hosting, power protection, performance, maintenance or upgrades — and you always benefit from the latest software and features. Your Authorized Toshiba Dealer manages your system through a secure Web interface and provides system reports to your facilities or network administrator. Adds/moves/changes are all done for you. Your users can program their own phone features, including button programming, speed dial numbers, voice mail forwarding and more, just as they would if the IPedge server were in the office.
Get the advantages of a Toshiba IP business telephone system without having to buy it — for an affordable monthly rate based on system size and usage.
Given the simplicity, flexibility and pay-as-you-go business model, it’s no surprise that cloud-based communications services are taking off. In 2011, the market for hosted IP telephony and unified communications grew by 42.5 percent (in terms of users). Frost & Sullivan projects the market to have huge growth, expanding from 2.8 million users in 2011 to 15.4 million in 2017.
Businesses with up to 50 users represent two-thirds of early adopters, according to Frost & Sullivan. Larger businesses also see the merits of the cloud and are gradually migrating remote sites to hosted services, some with the intent of migrating the entire organization.
Your Authorized Toshiba Dealer can help you do a cost comparison to determine the break-even point and guide the right decision for you. The service starts at about a dollar per day per seat/user, making it a particularly attractive choice for the market for which it was designed: businesses with up to 60 users.
VIPedge is a good choice for any new or expanding business that has big potential but limited capital (or is short on in-house IT resources) yet needs advanced IP communications. It is also an excellent option for any organization that prefers to manage communications costs as a predictable monthly operating expense rather than an upfront purchase with annual maintenance contracts.
Whether your phone system is all in the cloud, all on-site or a hybrid of both, you can reuse the same Toshiba endpoints. Users will not have to re-learn how to use the phone system, since everything works the same. Cloud-based or on-site, the choice is yours, all available from your Authorized Toshiba
