What’s driving companies to switch to VoIP?
For enterprises, digital transformation (DX) is a huge undertaking. In fact, IDC estimates global spending on the technologies and services that enable DX – of which modern VoIP communications such as SIP make up a significant part – will reach $1.97 trillion by 2022. Interestingly, the analyst notes that the top-spending industries on DX in 2019 will be discrete and process manufacturing, transportation, retail and utilities.
CIOs are coming under increasing pressure to increase the efficiency of their operations in order to cut costs, all while adopting more flexible solutions that can be leveraged widely across their organizations. With communications representing one of IT’s biggest cost centers, it’s no wonder that this is one area in which companies are aggressively focusing on moving away from the status quo of legacy systems.
A few of the reasons companies are making the switch
1. Unlimited scalability
Unlike a traditional phone system, you aren’t restricted by the cord or how much resource you have to manage all the contracts and billing required to run services with different providers in multiple territories. VoIP phone systems have the ability to scale up or down elastically, based on the needs of your business. So, as your operations expand and the number of seats you require grows, it is possible to add additional capacity on demand—all without a technician ever stepping foot on the premises.
2. Better budget optimization
Traditionally, establishing new voice capacity required a large initial outlay in hardware and infrastructure, which then required ongoing on-premise management and maintenance.
By subscribing to a communications-as-a-service (CaaS) model that moves your voice infrastructure to the cloud, you can enjoy significant increases in operational efficiency and cut your costs—by as much as 45% over legacy solutions, according to Nemertes Research.
3. Seamless transition
Any CIO tasked with a DX initiative for a large enterprise can tell you that it’s not as simple as flicking a switch. The migration process even for something as simple as voice communications can take years.
The beauty of SIP is that it can be run alongside legacy PSTN systems and plug into on-premise or cloud PBXs. You get to test the bona fides of the tech in relation to your own business use cases, then switch over locations at whatever pace makes you comfortable.
4. Feature parity with legacy systems
There was a time when nascent cloud communications were not able to fully replicate the functionality of the PSTN. For risk-averse enterprises, this made the idea of switching a non-starter. Anything that undermines the ability of the organization to conduct ‘business as usual’ is going to be seen as a threat to the bottom line.
But the industry has matured over the past ten years, thanks in no small part to Bandwidth’s work in laying the groundwork for UC, UCaaS, CCaaS, and meeting solutions platforms. Think of our globe-spanning infrastructure as a foundational layer.
It enables us to provide communications as a service. Our voice and messaging solutions can be integrated into any platform for on-demand functionality that fully replicates the copper network on a global scale—think 100% compliance, domestic calling for a full local presence in all your major markets, the ability to dial relevant local emergency services without a traditional landline, and industry-leading support for number portability to avoid disruption to your services as you migrate to the cloud.
5. Hassle-free access to new features
Of course, the benefits of the cloud go beyond replicating the PSTN in a more cost-effective and scalable environment. CaaS, like any as-a-service model worth its salt, enables you to enjoy new benefits and features as they come online without the need for further setup or configuration. A great example of this is coverage.
As services in new countries are brought online, you have the ability to access them on-demand, without having to set up additional SIP configurations. With Bandwidth, one configuration gives you access to services that can reach your customers in more than 92% of the world economy by GDP.