Choose VOIP

Our basic guide to the benefits of either hosted Cloud or in-house VOIP solution is below.
CLOUD VOIP
Phone system where your phones connect through your internet connection to a provider that maintains the equipment at an off-site "cloud" data centre
IN-HOUSE VOIP
Phone system where the hardware is kept on-site in your server comms area.
CLOUD VOIP FEATURES
Usually less feature rich than in-house solution
IN-HOUSE FEATURES
Often more feature rich than a cloud solution
CLOUD VOIP COSTS
For:
  • Lower setup cost
  • Lower maintenance costs
Against:
  • Potentially higher ongoing service costs
IN-HOUSE COSTS
For:
  • Less risk of uncontrolled service cost increases
  • Lower total cost of ownership as the system grows
  • No monthly licence fees
Against:
  • Higher setup and initial costs
  • Regular maintenance and support cost requirement
CLOUD VOIP FUTURE EXPANSION
For:
  • Your provider manages all the risk, work, and complexity
  • Growth up or down scalability can happen quickly (less people equals less cost)
  • Software updates can happen automatically out of hours so you always have an up-to-date system
Against:
  • Lack of control so things can happen unexpectedly
IN-HOUSE  FUTURE EXPANSION
For:
  • You have complete control and flexibility - you can even switch solutions or mix-and-match
Against:
  • Every expansion could increase the management complexity
CLOUD VOIP CONTROL
For:
  • Software updates and maintenance processes are handled by the provider
  • Frees IT expenditure for other revenue-generating tasks
Against:
  • Blanket software updates may not be fully compatible with your hardware
IN-HOUSE CONTROL
For:
  • You have control over every detail. An easy-to-use solution with careful management will give you a solution that matches your needs better than anything else can
  • Fully managed by existing internal staff so support is deal with immediately
Against:
  • None
CLOUD VOIP FLEXIBILITY
For:
  • Service provider may have more resources to implement a solution you could not afford to do just for yourself
Against:
  •  Provider may have problems when it comes to large deployments across multiple sites
IN-HOUSE FLEXIBILITY
For:
  • You can do what you want with your equipment - ultimate flexibility
Against:
  • You may not have enough internal IT resources or the budget to make complex, expensive or highly customised changes
CLOUD VOIP IMPLEMENTATION
For:
  • Cheap, quick and easy
  • Less dependency required for in-house IT resources
Against:
  • Training required for users may be 'hands off' and so the full efficiency benefits may not be seen
IN-HOUSE IMPLEMENTATION
For:
  • You will know your system's capabilities since you are handling deployment
  • You are in control of your own training requirements or it can be done in-house
Against:
  • Deployment time may take longer
CLOUD VOIP OVERALL RECOMMENDATION
Smaller business or start-up wanting to minimise initial spend but get the running cost benefits of VOIP
IN-HOUSE OVERALL RECOMMENDATION
SMBs or enterprises with available IT support personnel and have the need for highly secure control over their phone system, or want a more customised and resilient solution
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