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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- None
CLOUD VOIP FLEXIBILITY
For:
- Service provider may have more resources to implement a solution you could not afford to do just for yourself
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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