By Nic Laschinger, CTO, Euphoria Telecom

It’s tempting to think that the technology available today means that even big businesses don’t need telephony systems. After all, almost every productivity suite on the market today comes with a video or voice calling function. Some of those can even be adapted for customer communication needs.

As impressive as those advances are, however, a well-designed telephony system is still essential to any big business. By offering a dedicated communication infrastructure, they can provide high call quality, minimal disruptions, and better overall reliability. Additionally, they can offer better scalability, security, and compliance.

The right telephony system comes with other benefits too but businesses cannot expect to unlock them all unless they know how to get full value from their system. With that in mind, here are a few tips businesses can apply when it comes to doing so.

1. Embrace cloud-based telephony

Even some sophisticated, household name businesses still use traditional telephony systems, which require expensive, on-site physical infrastructure. Cloud-based telephony, sometimes called cloud-calling, by contrast, allows a company to move all of its voice communication needs to a third-party provider.

These solutions allow companies to provide enterprise-grade telephony functionality (including call centre functions) to employees wherever they’re located,on whatever device they’re using. They also allow businesses to scale up and down relatively rapidly depending on their needs, reduce maintenance costs, take advantage of built-in redundancies, and administer extensions more easily.

2. Use available data and insights

One of the biggest advantages of cloud-based telephony systems is data. More specifically, they provide the kind of data that can give executives significant insights into their business. A good provider will give the business an overview of the number of calls received versus calls answered, as well as average call lengths and total call times.

It will also include detailed reports, real-time monitoring, call tracking, and trend data. As a result, a cloud-telephony system goes from simply being a communication enabler and becomes a useful tool for guiding important business decisions.

Any data set and subsequent analysis is only truly useful if it’s used to inform decision-making within the business. Therefore, businesses must take the time to understand the data and insights offered by their service provider.

3. Make upgrades and new features work for you

Unlike their physical counterparts, cloud-based telephony systems can be upgraded easily and seamlessly. Some upgrades and new features will integrate simply into existing applications and processes, others will require more detailed exploration.

It’s important, therefore, that businesses understand any upgrades to their systems and how they can take advantage of them. A good cloud telephony provider should alert its business customers to significant upgrades and demonstrate any new features that come with them.

Getting full value

There is no doubt that telephony systems still offer immense value to businesses. Much of that value will come simply from making the shift to a cloud-based system. But in order to unlock their full value, businesses must go beyond simply using them.

Instead, they must use the data and insights that come with them to inform business decisions. Additionally, they should endeavour to work with their cloud telephony provider to get the most out of the system they’re using, particularly when upgrades are available.