“Cloud telephony” takes on the competition
The advantages of an Enterprise Cloud PBX over on-site PBXs and Skype-like apps
By George Golding, CEO, Euphoria*
Cloud PBX providers have a number of advantages over other voice-over-IP (VOIP) telephony providers that set them apart from the competition. To appreciate why, we need to go back seven years to understand the origin and current make-up of the VOIP landscape, and how it became a viable industry in the first place.
The VOIP landscape - February 2004 – legal!
Since February 2004 network providers have been allowed to offer voice “over any protocol”, thanks to enabling legislation of the time. The curious phrase used in this seminal law was code for voice-over-Internet Protocol or VOIP, a way of sending voice communication over IP networks – which had until then only been used for computer data transmission, such as email.
Sorting out early headaches
In the ensuing years, a number of difficulties were overcome by VOIP providers, allowing them to carve out a space in the market.
Most importantly, quality issues were addressed with a variety of techniques. Virtual private network (VPN) connections, backup lines, compression and so forth are all techniques of ensuring quality and reliability and enabling enough concurrent call connections to make VOIP a viable proposition.
Further problems included establishing dedicated national VOIP networks, allocating VOIP-specific 087 numbers, and inking ‘interconnect agreements’ that allow VOIP providers to pass traffic between them without expensive detours.
Competitive landscape
Many VOIP providers use a PBX (call processing engine) called Asterisk, and add functional components like telephone management, contact centres or collaboration to it. But that’s where the similarity ends. Providers differ considerably in the way they deliver telephony to clients.
- On-site PBXs – most installations are in the form of server boxes on-site with enterprise customers.
- Skype – some providers like Skype and FNB offer PC telephony in the form of a computer application. Consumers call one another from their PCs over the Internet. These services do not offer business PBX functionality.
- Cloud providers – lately, an improvement in South Africa’s bandwidth situation has allowed providers to offer hosted (‘cloud-delivered’) PBX functionality to enterprise customers.
Cloud versus the rest
Cloud PBXs have much to commend them over other VOIP solutions.
A cloud PBX is much more cost-effective than an on-site PBX
On-site PBXs are acquired, installed and supported at high cost. Cloud PBXs are a low-cost hosted telco service that doesn’t require upfront capital and training/installation cost, and it offers upgrade assurance. 1x PBX can run a retailer with a 100 branches, all internal costs at zero cost compared to 100 pbx 1 for each branch.
A cloud PBX offers a business solution; Skype is a consumer app
Skype is a consumer application that establishes ad-hoc peer-to-peer connections over the Internet, thus sacrificing call quality for low cost. Cloud telephony offers the quality of a dedicated link and the enterprise-grade service of a managed, supported link.
Not all VOIP providers are alike
Watch out – some VOIP providers advertise a quality, managed, supported service. But does it combine a cost-effective service with quality voice?
Choosing wisely
Ultimately, your choice of VOIP provider comes down to a good balance between features, quality, reliability and cost-effectiveness.
- Ask if their network is dedicated to VOIP traffic
- Compare prices
- Inspect their service-level terms
- Inspect their measures to guarantee quality and reliability (dedicated voice network, compression,backup and redundancy).
- Pure per second billing is essential for cost savings
- Security – tight security to protect against intrusions and account abuse.
Visit www.euphoria.co.za for more details.
About Euphoria
Founded in 2010, Euphoria is a ground breaking provider of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) communication services for small and medium businesses in South Africa. Euphoria powers businesses with its core offering, Euphoria Express PBX, a hosted PBX phone system that provides customers with the quality and reliability of traditional PBX phone systems, with more features, flexibility and cost savings. Euphoria helps businesses compete more effectively by providing them with communication services traditionally reserved for large organizations, at small business prices. View our website at www.euphoria.co.za or contact us on - 021 2000 500 - sales@euphoria.co.za.
Editorial details
Euphoria
George Golding
Tel: +27 (0)21 200 0500
Cell: +27 (0) 82 9511 190
Email: george@euphoria.co.za
Web: www.euphoria.co.za
Liquid Ambur Communications
Ambur Unite-Penny
Tel: +27 (0)21 794 7601
Cell: +27 (0) 83 409 7059
Email: ambur@liquidambur.co.za
