How Virtual PBX Technology Can Help Your Company Keep Up with the Joneses

Virtual PBX phone systems, or cloud systems, are very useful tools for keeping up with your users' expectations. Remember the days when setting up your home network required a doctorate in electrical engineering and a touch of sorcery? Entire weekends could be spent running wires, configuring gateways, and rummaging through floppy disks. In hindsight, while the process could hardly be described as efficient, you did garner an unparalleled sense of accomplishment with that first successful ping.

Fast-forward to today's world of impossibly small, wireless devices that connect seamlessly to a world of information and content. What a difference a couple decades make, right? Now, consumers expect their devices to not only fit in their pockets, but also pull their own weight. Devices have gone from largely isolated labors of love to endpoints connecting everyone to a much larger world.

As it turns out, there's a lot to learn from this evolution of technology and the expectations that go with it — yes, even when it comes to business systems.

The New Normal

You've undoubtedly experienced this phenomenon firsthand, especially if you have any children nearby. Growing up in a world of smartphones and tablets, kids today don't really know anything else. Maybe you've seen your own kids poking the TV, naturally expecting some feedback or at least a touch interface. Or, perhaps you've even instinctively reached for an app to order lunch before you even thought about searching for that good old-fashioned phone number.

Apologies if that came off with a hint of condemnation. It's certainly not a bad state of affairs you've found yourself in. If anything, mobile technology and the cloud have opened up new opportunities for living a better life. Buying diapers, watching shows, and connecting with friends has never been easier or more efficient. It has, however, fostered an entirely new set of expectations that consumers carry into other areas of life as well — including their work life.

Staying Current

When you think about it, it's not only natural to expect the same convenience at work as you do at home, but it's actually for the better. The consumer electronics world, after all, is a cutthroat industry that thrives on innovative technology that makes your life more convenient and efficient. What office couldn't use more of that?

The question then becomes, how do you bring the same convenience and efficiencies consumers are used to on their personal phones to business phones? Well, if the worth of those smartphones lies in their seamless connectivity to the cloud, that seems like a great place to start. Cloud PBX may just be the answer.

These systems let you clean out your phone closet and host everything in the cloud, with no messy hardware to mount or maintain. Though you may have enjoyed the reward of connecting your 386s to mountainous switches, phone systems are decidedly less enjoyable. Getting set up in minutes rather than days is a definite plus.

On a similar note, your users get to enjoy the same seamless integration their smartphones have spoiled them with. IP-enabled phones can be used anywhere an internet connection can be held. Additionally, these services give your users the convenience of integrating a cloud-based CRM and other business application workflows into their phones, which is a great example of that whole two-birds-with-one-stone thing.

Think of PBX telephone systems as part of the cloud ecosystem to bridge the gap between consumer expectations and business innovation. With it, your users can leverage the aspects of the cloud they've come to know and love, while organizational workflows enjoy the associated streamlining effects.

When it comes down to it, your users' expectations of the business tools they use are rising, thanks in no small part to the flurry of innovation on the consumer side. Emulating the best aspects of their personal technology is simply a top way to stay up-to-speed and keep your users comfortable and efficient. Leveraging a virtual PBX just happens to be a great place to start.

Contact Vonage Business to learn more about how cloud-based communications can aid your company.