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REPORT-Broadview-AND-Frost-and-Sullivan-Staying-Ahead-of-the-Curve-through-Hosted
- 1. Staying Ahead ofthe Curve through Hosted IP PBX and Cloud Communications An Exclusive Executive Brief provided by Broadview Networks Elka Popova Program Director,Unified Communications & Collaboration
- 2. frost.com contents Introduction.................................................................................................................................... 3 IP PBX andUnified Communications: Benefits and Challenges.............................................. 3 New Delivery Models Facilitate Advanced Communications Solutions Adoption................. 4 The Best Fit: Who Can Benefit from Hosted IP PBX and Cloud Communications?............. 6 Conclusion...................................................................................................................................... 7
- 3. 3 Staying Ahead ofthe Curve through Hosted IP PBX and Cloud Communications All rights reserved © 2014 Frost & Sullivan Introduction IP telephony, or Internet protocol private branch exchange (IP PBX), is a foundational application on top of which broader IP-based unified communications (UC) solutions are built. Continually evolving premises-based telephony and UC systems provide an expanding set of features and functionality, but are also becoming more costly and complex to deploy and manage. Cloud technologies and new subscription-based service delivery models enable businesses to deploy advanced communications capabilities at a lower cost, reduced complexity and with less risk. This article discusses how businesses can leverage the cloud delivery model to future-proof their communications technology investments and stay ahead of the curve. The article examines the advantages of hosted IP PBX solutions and identifies key customer scenarios where cloud communications deliver the greatest value. IP PBX and Unified Communications: Benefits and Challenges Businesses increasingly acknowledge that advanced communications technologies can provide a competitive advantage. Today’s business users leverage a growing arsenal of communications tools to stay connected with co-workers,customers and partners. Long gone are the days when employees relied on voice and email alone to collaborate on projects and complete their daily tasks.The move to converged IP networks and software-based communications, and increasing competition among communications providers has led to the proliferation of unified communications solutions.To address new and changing user requirements, businesses are deploying an ever-growing range of capabilities from the UC tool set—including telephony,presence,instant messaging,audio, video and Web conferencing, mobility, social networking and more—that help boost worker productivity, foster information-sharing and improve business agility. Proliferating communications tools can improve business performance, but can also create a more complex IT environment and new challenges for IT staff. Rapid technology evolution and accelerating refresh cycles are raising IT costs and risks associated with product obsolescence in premises-based implementations. Another factor driving up IT costs is hiring and training skilled staff that can effectively manage disparate, multi-vendor solutions. Furthermore, advancements in consumer technologies and shifting user preferences are driving the influx of consumer devices and applications into the workplace. Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trends are adding complexity to the communications environment while raising security and IT control concerns. Implementing and managing complex unified communications solutions and integrating various consumer technologies on the customer’s premises threatens the organization’s ability to focus on its core business, compete effectively in the marketplace and be responsive to customers. Therefore, businesses are exploring new deployment models that provide greater flexibility, reduce costs and future-proof technology investments.
- 4. 4 frost.com All rights reserved© 2014 Frost & Sullivan Exhibit 1 shows the challenges faced by IT staff. Exhibit 1- IT Challenges New regulatory requirements are driving IT (information technology) costs up Managing multi-vendor solutions is increasingly costly and challenging Supporting new business needs is driving our costs up Our understanding of advanced UCC technologies is limited We are not able to make effective and timely investments in IT Our understanding of mobile technologies is limited Our IT and business strategies are poorly aligned Base: All respondents (n=1,028) 54% 51% 49% 42% 29% 29% 28% Source: Frost & Sullivan New Delivery Models Facilitate Advanced Communications Solutions Adoption As technology and business models evolve, deploying communications solutions in the cloud becomes even more compelling. Hosted IP PBX and cloud UC solutions greatly reduce upfront costs and relieve the business from routine system maintenance and management burdens. Furthermore, hosted solutions eliminate software update, upgrade and maintenance costs that greatly increase the total cost of ownership (TCO) of premises- based PBXs. Unlike premises-based communications systems, which can quickly become obsolescent, hosted IP telephony and UCC solutions are always up to date at no additional charge to the customer. Also important, intuitive Web portals and admin interfaces provide IT staff and end users with considerable control and make hosted telephony systems easy to manage and use. By empowering end users, advanced hosted solutions improve employee productivity and provide significant cost-savings to customer organizations looking to streamline and delegate routine IT functions. Advanced disaster avoidance, business continuity and multi-site functionality make hosted PBX and cloud UC solutions particularly compelling to forward-thinking business decision-makers looking to reduce the risk of disruptive downtime as well as consolidate and more effectively manage communications infrastructure across distributed sites. Finally, cloud technologies enable businesses to gain faster, more economical access to advanced functionality and a larger pool of technology skills. A cloud communications solution providing access to a broad set of integrated features and capabilities such as telephony, messaging, presence, conferencing, and mobility presents a viable option for businesses of any size and industry seeking a competitive advantage.
- 5. 5 Staying Ahead ofthe Curve through Hosted IP PBX and Cloud Communications All rights reserved © 2014 Frost & Sullivan Hosted IP PBX and cloud UC solutions address key business pain points, as follows: Reduce and streamline costs: • Reduce upfront capital investment for associated hardware and software • Reduce service fees for initial configuration and installation • Replace variable premises-based infrastructure and software maintenance and management costs with predictable monthly service fees • Eliminate the expense and hassle of integrating multiple, disparate technologies in a premises-based UC solution • Enable flexible and economical capacity adjustments • Provide cost-effective business continuity/disaster recovery through redundant connections and mobile device integration • Provide security patches and updates as part of monthly service fees Reduce risk and improve business agility: • Free up internal resources for more strategic tasks • Provide faster, more economical access to technology updates and new features • Reduce the risk of technology obsolescence and sunk costs • Provide access to superior technology expertise • Deliver telephony and UC features based on user needs independent of their physical location or underlying infrastructure • Allow the organization to focus on core business activities Overall, hosted IP PBX and cloud communications impact a business’s ability to grow revenues and increase profit margins. Improved performance metrics drive a competitive advantage and help businesses stay ahead of the curve.
- 6. 6 frost.com All rights reserved© 2014 Frost & Sullivan Exhibit 2 shows the perceived benefits of hosted/cloud communications solutions. Exhibit 2-Hosted/Cloud Communications Benefits Allow us to support our mobile workforce Can provide us with faster access to advanced features/capabilities Can supplement our limited in-house IT/ telecom resources Can provide us with more economical access to advanced features and capabilities Can help us re-assign in-house IT/telecom staff to more strategic tasks Provide a lower total cost of ownership than premises-based solutions Our company trusts 'the cloud' to host our communications solutions Provide greater flexibility at times of rapid growth or downsizing Eliminate the hassle of integrating multi-vendor products and solutions Help us to integrate multiple, geographically dispersed locations economically Better fit our budget which favors OPEX to CAPEX The cost of hosted communications is more predictable Base: All respondents (n=445) 77% 74% 72% 72% 70% 67% 66% 66% 66% 65% 64% 61% Source: Frost & Sullivan The Best Fit: Who Can Benefit from Hosted IP PBX and Cloud Communications? Small and Medium-Size Businesses (SMB) Limited access to investment capital and lack of internal IT expertise are key challenges traditionally faced by small and medium-size businesses when implementing advanced technologies. Cloud communications effectively remove the historical cost barrier that prevented SMBs from leveraging next-generation telephony and unified communications to improve internal and external collaboration. By outsourcing the operational complexity to trusted providers, cloud solutions enable SMBs to focus on their core business activities, thus gaining resource efficiencies and greater agility. Businesses with Shifting Capacity Requirements Hosted IP PBX and cloud UC solutions allow businesses experiencing rapid or uncertain growth to easily and cost-effectively adjust capacity based on fluctuating demand. By adopting on-demand cloud solutions, businesses can quickly enable new users and locations. During tough economic times, they can reduce capacity at any site without the risk of sunk costs in hardware or perpetual user licenses. Similarly, hosted IP PBX and cloud communications more flexibly scale to support temporary teams, as well as seasonal peaks and lows in communications capacity utilization.
- 7. 7 Staying Ahead ofthe Curve through Hosted IP PBX and Cloud Communications All rights reserved © 2014 Frost & Sullivan Distributed Organizations and Mobile Workers Hosted IP PBX and cloud UC solutions enable distributed organizations of any size, including very large ones, to consolidate infrastructure and thus reduce technology deployment and management costs. Comprehensive cloud-based telephony and UC solutions eliminate the expense and hassle of integrating disparate technologies on the premises, while allowing businesses to streamline vendor relationships and simplify their technology evolution roadmaps. By moving communications solutions to the cloud, organizations can more cost-effectively support small branches, as well as remote and mobile employees. Cloud technologies allow businesses to deliver different capabilities based on user needs rather than user physical location or underlying infrastructure. Furthermore, hosted IP communications solutions enable businesses to reduce the number of access lines required to connect different sites to the service provider network and the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) capabilities, frequently bundled with the hosted IP telephony solution at little or no extra charge, ensure greater service quality and reliability. Exhibit 3 shows the potential use cases for hosted IP PBX and cloud UC. Exhibit 3-The Best Fit No Size Restrictions: from SMB to Enterprise Mobile & Office Workforce Stay Connected Distributed Organization: Teleworkers and Remote Branches Temporary Workgroups & Seasonal Capacity Peaks Rapid or Uncertain Growth Need to Focus on Core Competencies and Improve Business Agility Source: Frost & Sullivan Conclusion Demand for hosted IP PBX and cloud communications is growing as businesses look for more flexible and cost-effective deployment models for their unified communications solutions. Today, businesses of all sizes and industries use the cloud service delivery model to gain greater benefits from their communications investments. Hosted IP telephony and cloud UC services boost company productivity and profitability, thus helping businesses become more competitive. Frost & Sullivan contends that hosted IP PBX and cloud UC represent the most viable solution for businesses such as SMBs, distributed enterprises, and organizations with shifting capacity requirements.
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