The way IN for Cloud Unified Comms
The rate at which companies are moving their emails and documents to a cloud-based model is increasing and thoughts are now turning to on-premises communication systems.
Generally, Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems are expensive and tricky to maintain and upgrade.
Unbreakable contracts with phone carriers and often lucrative deals have prevented organisations from moving their PBX to the Cloud. However, this barrier has been largely removed by the newly released Skype for Business (S4B) Cloud Connector Edition.
This new (free*) product allows you to easily connect on-premises voice infrastructure to Skype Cloud PBX using a SIP gateway. If your PBX already supports SIP, then you might be ready to launch. Once connected and integrated with an existing on-premises PSTN, and users are set up online, they can make calls through Skype on their mobile phone and laptop using a Bluetooth headset and/or Skype-Certified phone. Additionally, they can Skype video call anyone in your business and anyone on Skype or Lync, or any XMPP compatible IM Client.
If you’re running an on-premises old-school PBX and have a mobile workforce, with some working from home and others hotdesking, I’m sure you’ve have struggled to deliver outcomes. If you’ve already moved parts of your business to Office 365, you know exactly how easy life can be for mobile workers so why not increase the benefit by moving to Cloud Communications? You could even start using Office 365 with your PBX as being your first workload.
Benefits and limitation lists, as there are a few, are all over the internet try (site), (site) (or potentially another blog listing benefits of), We love the simplicity of the setup and maintenance of a Cloud PBX, it does what technology Is supposed to do – make life easier!
Additional functionality like PSTN calling will eventually make it to the Australian Office 365 tenant (currently it is life in the US and on trial in the UK). Want to understand how to leverage Skype for Business, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Insentra today!
*Supporting infrastructure & Office365 Licensing aren’t free!
