OnX Canada is helping organizations work smarter and more nimbly as they evolve from PBX into future-forward unified communication and collaboration (UC) solutions.
History to now
Though PBX has a long history as Canada’s choice phone system, it has limited business application functionality in contemporary office settings.
Like many older phone networks, PBX exists largely in isolation from IT systems. Additionally, PBX is purchased as a kit, necessitating installation, updates, patches, and ongoing management from an on-site employee or third party. Upgrades come at a cost, while offices that outgrow the system are forced to replace it with a new one or replacement parts.
The adoption of a cloud-first model, like infrastructure as a service or platform as a service, voice has in some ways led the way or lagged behind, depending on your organization’s priorities.
The majority of voice communication services are now cloud-centric, allowing organizations with the right collaboration tools to achieve better overall performance.
How UCaaS outperforms traditional PBX
Hosted Unified Communications
Hosted UC from OnX Canada is a cloud-based, fully hosted UC solution.
It is designed to replace aging telephone technology and consolidate all your collaboration technologies (voice, collaboration, contact center, and more) into one package from a single provider.
The Hosted UC from OnX is managed with an online dashboard, freeing businesses from restrictive physical locations and giving telecommunication managers mobile access to crucial information across their entire organization.
While unified communications solutions tend to perform similarly, they are not equal in terms of operation, management, and reliability.
Companies seeking the ideal UC provider must consider factors such as:
- Core voice functionality and reliability
- Integration capability
- Advanced UC applications
- Their own mobile and business requirements
- Ongoing support
Why your business phone needs a digital transformation. Download the Buyer’s Guide for CIOs.
Voice and collaboration functionality
The advantages of UCaaS, particularly for a multi-site organization, are critical when it comes to the core concept of managing communications and collaboration.
Consolidating your UC services with one provider gives you the ability to have a single solution provider for support, billing, procurement, and more. In addition, the single solution provider allows you to consolidate many vendors into one for simplification of management.
You will have one usage pool of long distance and toll-free minutes, the ability to manage all your locations, and make bulk changes across the enterprise. All of these provide great value, but make sure you’re asking the potential provider about:
- Redundancy in their network infrastructure.
- Reliability up-time of their core network.
- Disaster recovery planning.
- The business continuity strategies they implement for an industry like your own.
Integration capabilities
Enhancing your business processes also means integrating a Hosted UC solution with both existing business applications and other cloud solutions.
For instance, you may want to link up with a CRM system to improve your customer experience. When choosing a UC solution, ask if you have the resources to manage bespoke integration projects, or if something “out-of-the-box” would be preferable.
If you are looking to integrate UC into your CRM or an existing collaboration tool like Microsoft Teams or Cisco Webex, make sure the new provider has the capabilities and experience needed.
Advanced UC applications
Hosted UC offers valuable cutting-edge functions, such as:
- AI-driven hosted Interactive Voice Response (IVR).
- Hosted call reporting and recording.
- SMS.
- Active directory integrations.
- Contact center functionality.
- A mass emergency notifications solution.
- e911.
- Advanced data analytics.
Putting your needs and requirements first
How you manage your Hosted UC solution is another critical consideration for your organization. Ask what management tasks you can do in-house, and which you can outsource.
Whether or not you have a large IT department, any hosted communications solution should let you refocus your resources on important business initiatives.
Businesses with smaller IT teams need a provider that offers simple interfaces and intuitive management tools. Gone are the days of doing upgrades, patches, or deployments over the weekend. Your new solution provider should provide network updates and features so you always have the latest technologies.
Supporting mobile workers is a strong advantage Hosted UC holds over common PBX solutions.
Some hosted communications systems offer a seamless app-based experience or the ability to integrate teams into a business phone network. Given the rapid pace of change in many markets, it’s crucial to easily scale up or down in line with your business requirements.
Hosted UC has fully integrated Cisco Webex for a complete unified collaboration experience.
Support
Technical support is one key benefit of Hosted UC, as provided by OnX 24x7x365. Customers can call a single number and an engineer will solve their problem with the goal of first call resolution.
Moving to the cloud with a managed solution makes for less work and simplifies your operations.
Maintaining communication and information access is a foundation for any business. While the financial benefits of Hosted UC are compelling, the real value goes far beyond economics.
Contact OnX Canada for more information on how UCaaS can modernize your organization.
