Is the cloud the best solution for every small business?

7/12/2012- Votacall Hosted VoIP & Cloud Based UC Solutions-For most start-up small businesses, the choice to use a Hosted VoIP provider is relatively simple and obvious. The initial cost to get it up and running is low compared to that of a premise-based PBX system. Also, it remains simple to use and offers many features that most PBX providers dont offer. For example, BroadSoft has a wide variety of features it provides through its Cloud Communication services. These features allow a company to be more productive than they would be without these services. For a sales team, having a simple and useful system for them to operate on is critical to success. I work in a sales office for a Massachusetts VoIP company (Votacall) that thrives on the use of its own features (Unity Desktop Pro for example). They are partners and agents for companies with strong product lines such as Avaya, BroadSoft, Comcast and many more. With all these products, a small business could really benefit from purchasing their services. A positive about the cloud is that a customer only pays for the specific services they want and need; the ability to select a specific package of features can be significant to a small start-up. When a new business is forming, every dollar saved is more than crucial because they don't always have a large influx of investment capital or angel investors (if they have any at all). The Votacall Customer Experience can provide a new company with great customer service and a small and committed sales team. Customers wont feel like a 'number', where they would when dealing with huge conglomerate Unified Communication companies such as Verizon. The customer relationship is personal and unique and makes the customer feel wanted and appreciated; because every customer is valued to Votacall.

There are a couple of complexities dealing with cloud solutions and choosing a provider. The issues are security management, attack response and recovery, system availability/performace, and the financial stability of the provider. All these issues can be resolved if you choose a stable and well Managed VoIP provider. A company such as Votacall is well established and has top of the line security and privacy standards. Customers of a VoIP provider are nervous that the company's system could go offline for hours or days at a time. This can be the case with large companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) (they went offline for a couple hours because of poor weather on the east coast of the Unite States) because they focus on many branches of business and are not specifically a VoIP provider. Votacall focuses specifically on Unified Communications alone and does not go offline. The system is as reliable as its applications are simple. These attributes can allow a small business to relax and know their communication services will allow them to function properly and cut costs. It is for these reasons I feel strongly that Cloud Solutions are in every small businesses best interests.