Member Article

The great telecoms taboo

David Samuel, Managing Director of 24 Seven Communications Ltd looks at the extent to which businesses are reliant on telecoms and how they can keep control of this technology, in an ever changing world.

Speak to any business and, in confidence, they will identify telecoms as one of their greatest challenges and potentially, threats. Telecoms are the window to your business, the route for your customers to find you, the outbound channel to sales and the way many serviced based businesses survive. Broadband, fibre optics and improved technology have transformed the way we do business, as a nation.

It’s not surprising the whole topic can seem daunting to some, especially to SMEs, whereby business managers have 101 considerations, and it can be tempting to stick with the status quo. To be safe, and keep the telecoms systems that you’ve used for decades. But business is changing, business demands are changing and your customers are changing. We’re finding that one of the biggest barriers to change, is this legacy issue.

Just because it’s what your used to, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right for your business. Because of the rapidity of change, some businesses face being left in the dark. The traditional ‘PBX’ system, whereby comms are routed via a traditional switchboard, can in many cases be out of date. Even the name (standing for ‘private branch exchange’) sounds like it belongs in the 19th century.

Computerised telecoms systems have become exponentially more reliable in recent years, and can tie up several disparate communications channels into one manageable system. If you think about it, every other part of a business is to a greater extent reliant on up-to-date IT - why should it be that telecoms lags behind?

The added benefits, of course, are that by using a modern computer-based system, a business can also integrate audio, video calls, messaging and a host of other communications devices which simply aren’t afforded to you via a traditional exchange. We’ve all seen the rise of internet based voice calls such as Skype in recent years, and this should be a lesson that the very nature of how businesses want to communicate is changing, and technology is the enabler to change.

The main barrier for businesses is fear of the unknown. And that’s understandable. But SIP trunking, the alternative to PBX, is increasingly reliable, affordable and convenient for businesses of all sizes. Businesses should embrace change, as invariably it can mean a route to better business and one that you can’t afford not to make.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by 24 Seven Communications Ltd .