When it's time to choose a voice system platform, discovering which is right for your business is a matter of asking the right questions -- of both your potential provider and yourself.
Examining Three Platforms for Business Telephone Systems
Three major platforms command the voice system space.
1. An appliance-based system
Whether you go with digital or voice over IP, with an appliance-based system, you purchase a proprietary CPU from a manufacturer, fill it with cards (if digital, proprietary circuit cards), and plug it into your phones. According to Twinstate's Vice President of Sales Jim Tynan, "It's the traditional model everyone has mostly moved out of, but it's still being offered today."
Using VoIP is the same as using an appliance-based system, except that you're choosing IP phones instead of digital, explains Tynan. You'll still need to purchase a proprietary CPU, but will buy a license instead of proprietary circuit cards, and then implement that out of your own network.
"It works, it's strong, and it's highly reliable," says Tynan. "If you aren't deeply interested in virtualization, and don't have a major business continuity need, this could really work for you."
2. Virtual PBX
With a virtual VoIP PBX you implement a software driven voice application on your network. That application can reside in your on-premise virtual infrastructure, in an off-premise data center, or in some combination of the two. This software-driven model provides choice in implementation, gives the end user control over how the VoIP application is deployed and is highly resilient.
Says Tynan, "You'll get the benefit of putting voice into a virtual architecture, with all the benefits of virtualization for other data, like backup, support and business continuity." You can replicate voice in an off-site location, and have multiple instances running on virtual servers so you can move from one to the other on the fly, giving you increased uptime. In addition, explains Tynan, voice virtualization works with your current disaster recovery planning.
"When you’re in a virtualized voice platform whatever you did for your data now works for voice. You don't have to have a separate set of management tools or parameters or DR plans. It now all goes right along with the data," he says. "And in the event of a disaster, the last thing you want is one more thing you have to manage."
3. The cloud
The cloud is the right choice if you've made the determination that you don't want to own applications, just use them. Choosing this platform means you'll pay a per user subscription fee.
A hosted solution will allow you to deploy quickly, mostly because the infrastructure is already built. If your internal infrastructure isn't fully formed or updated, you may need to complete several projects before you can deploy your own voice solution, but with a hosted environment, you could deploy within 30 days regardless of the size of your implementation.
Asking the Right Questions
With any voice platform, your needs necessarily include minimizing downtime and increasing clarity and speed to improve customer experience. Each of the three platforms described above can allow for that, so it's important to assess each platform with reference to your other needs.
"A lot of manufacturers can provide the same experience in the cloud as they can on-premises," Tynan says, "but a question you'll want to ask, when you start considering providers, is what the end user experience will be like." Ideally, they won't know or notice the difference between any of the platforms.
Consider, too, your future needs. If today you decide you want to use a standalone, proprietary solution, but you know that in three years, you'll want to use VMWare, and in the future, move to the cloud, you'll need to know that you can get the same infrastructure experience in all three without a required reinvestment.
"Only a few manufacturers can provide you their solution, or your virtual appliance, or a cloud appliance, and have the same feature set and same end user experience," says Tynan. If you ask this question about the future, and the provider tells you their solution can give you the flexibility to move between any of the different platforms when it makes sense for you, with speed, a lack of disruption to the end user community, the same features, and limited cost, that's a good sign.
Finally, if you opt for a hosted solution, you'll want to ask about uptime guarantees.
"One of the reasons for hosted service is there are a lot of benefits for uptime. There are things in the hosted environment in the data center most end user communities can't invest in because of the cost," says Tynan. A lot of providers can offer phones and a number and a hosted application, but to choose the right one, you'll need to inquire about the uptime, how the solution is housed, how it is maintained, and whether the end user experience can be guaranteed.
Do You Want to Own It?
Ultimately, the decision between platforms is not one about functionality, because you should be able to use all three platforms to complete the same objective. The decision, Tynan explains, is about whether or not you want to own your solution.
"It doesn't come down to the apps, or the access. It’s about how you want to own technology. The platforms do the same things, but consider the flexibility of owning your platform as a subscription," he says.
Consider, too, the added costs of ownership. You'll take on management and support costs, including the cost of human resources required to address issues. And of course, with an owned platform, you'll necessarily watch the asset depreciate.
Originally published on 06/23/2016
