Currently, roughly 30% of employees work from home at least some of the time, and the trends suggest that remote work is going to get only more common. If your business wants to prepare for the remote-first rhetoric, it might be time to shed large offices and implement remote work protocols. You can do just that by implementing VoIP cloud services into your communications systems. Here’s what you need to know.

What Are VoIP Cloud Services?

To make this explanation stick, we’ll need to break down the term into its constituent parts: VoIP services, and cloud services.

VoIP services replace a traditional telephone line with an over-the-internet system to handle communication both on the company and customer-facing levels. Simply put, the system maintains a network of virtual phone numbers, but the actual signal is transmitted through the internet rather than phone lines. One of the main advantages of using VoIP is that it completely bypasses national borders and the accompanying long-distance rates. So long as all users have an internet connection, they can get in touch anytime, anywhere. But that’s not all, as the system also allows you to transfer files and gives you additional perks (which we’ll discuss later).

To maintain a VoIP system, the company usually needs to have a server to facilitate connections and file system storage. That’s where the cloud services part comes in. By using a cloud service, the server is offloaded to a remote location and handled by a third party.

The result? A sleek and modern communications system that allows your employees to work remotely anywhere in the world while also giving the customers many more options for cooperating with you.

Benefits of VoIP Cloud Services for Remote Work

As you might’ve guessed, the core of VoIP cloud services lies in its innate ability to offload the communications system to a verified provider that has the technology and infrastructure to support it. Here’s what that means for your business.

Improved Connectivity

By the very nature of VoIP, your employees can connect with vital team members at any time. As the ability to connect has been cited as one of the biggest challenges of remote work, co-workers being able to maintain clear communication lines means you can more easily collaborate on vital projects.

Additionally, modern VoIP systems are not limited to phone-like systems only. Users can leave voicemails, schedule their calls to match the recipient’s time zone or make sure they stay in the loop through group calls.

On the customer-facing side, more advanced VoIP systems even allow you to place external calls to traditional phones, so long as the provider supports this function.

Better Work-Life Balance

Remote work can also bring out the opposite problem in some people: constant connectivity. If someone can work from anywhere at any time, there’s a chance that they might be expected to work at any time. A VoIP system can be configured to take into account time zones and automatically forward calls to an available team member during downtimes, or prompts the caller to leave a message or an email instead. Employees can keep up with (and keep track of) their tasks while setting healthy boundaries, reducing the risk of burnout.

Streamlined Integration Process

One of the main downsides of implementing a VoIP system in a business pipeline is that the company needs to create and maintain an entirely new server to process it. Add to that the fact that VoIP needs to replace an existing phone network, and you get a costly investment that also requires an IT crew to build and operate.

Using VoIP cloud services nearly completely bypasses these requirements. Since the cloud provider already has VoIP settings, adding a new client is a relatively simple process that doesn’t require much tinkering with new infrastructure.

The lack of a need for dedicated infrastructure can be particularly lucrative for small businesses that want to introduce a remote work culture. The company can shed some real estate costs or downsize its office(s), investing those funds into finding skilled workers (wherever they may live, thanks to the advent of remote work options) or better training. Altogether, this can lead to tremendous cost savings in the long run.

Increased Flexibility

Modern smartphones and tablets have become increasingly comparable to PCs in terms of processing ability. The host of apps that come in both mobile and PC versions with minimal feature loss between them has also made working remotely more attractive than ever. But the ever-important phone calls typically have to go through a regular phone.

A VoIP system, on the other hand, uses virtual phone numbers and doesn’t actually depend on where the client (the platform that the user is connected to the system with) is located. This means that it can be set up to route calls through both mobile phones and PCs, allowing users to switch between devices seamlessly, without sacrificing connectivity, mobility, or screen size.

Automation

Apart from making the system more adjustable for humans, VoIP also adds a healthy dose of automation. A cloud-based service can install an automated customer support assistant with smart re-routing processes based on which support members are online at the time, for example.

Automation can also reduce distractions for employees. You can design answering rules per member, allowing them to set up voicemail, forwarding, or auto-rejections based on caller ID or time and date.

Cloud-Based Collaboration

Beyond functioning as a phone line replacement, VoIP cloud services also carry over all the benefits of a cloud-based document management system. Employees can share important files or even their screens through their VoIP platform, record video messages that can be played in lieu of voicemail, and conduct real-time conferences and collaboration sessions.

Ultimately, the system can reduce the “tech clutter” brought on by increased software-as-a-service (SaaS) use. According to a 2021 report by Productiv, the average department used 40 to 60 SaaS apps, which has likely risen in recent years.

By gathering a few common collaboration features under the same cloud-based banner, you can ease up on some of the mental load required by employees to keep track of different apps that might have to use daily. This can help them focus on the actual tasks rather than determining how to work around processes.

How to Implement a VoIP Solution That Fits Your Business

It’s clear that VoIP is here to stay, in one form or another. Its benefits are just too numerous to ignore for any business that wants to keep remote working a viable long-term option. However, making the most out of third-party VoIP cloud services requires a business partner that understands the most common problems your company can face. One that also knows how to fix them. An IT solutions expert with decades of experience working with small companies, such as KDI Office Technology.

If you’re a business in Philadelphia, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware that’s looking to make the switch to VoIP, contact a KDI expert today!