Page 5 - Telecom Reseller October-November 2016

October/November 2016
GOTTHEIL
So, if your phone system can make co ee, it can CERTAINLY do other, less intensive and more business focused, tasks. For example, mobility, presence, and contact center.
Now, you may be asking yourself, why am I writing about a premise based phone system, when this article is supposed to be about cloud communications? Just bear with me for a moment, we’ll get there. By the time you’re done reading this article, you will be in complete agreement with me that this article is, indeed, about cloud communications.
Let’s start with the basics:
l What is a phone system? On a very basic level, a phone system is equipment and so ware that connects telephones to phone lines, routes calls to and from the o ce, routes calls within the o ce, and may also present callers with a menu of selectable options.
l What is a premise based phone system? A premise based phone system is a phone system that is installed at the customer premises (your o ce). Your phones and phone lines plug directly into the phone system via your building wiring.
l What is a cloud based phone system? Again, on a very basic level, a cloud based phone system is a phone system that is installed at the data center of a cloud provider. Your phones and phone lines connect to the phone system via the internet.
l Isn’t that interesting? If you take apart
the terminology, and look at it on a very basic level, a premise based phone system and a cloud based phone system is the exact same thing! ere really is no di erence between the two
of them. ere is no big scary animal called ‘ e Cloud’! It’s really all about your personal preference as to where it’s installed, or hosted.
You may be wondering, if that’s the case, then why all the hype about ‘ e Cloud’? If there really is no di erence, then what’s the di erence?
e answer is, there are di erences:
Let’s start from a cost perspective. Premise based equipment is purchased on, what’s called a CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) model. is means you have to pay for the equipment (Capital), which depreciates over time. Cloud based service (note: I called it service, not equipment) is obtained using an OPEX (Operating Expense) model.
As written in the article “What is the di erence between CAPEX and OPEX?” By J.B. Maverick on Investopedia http://www. investopedia.com/ask/answers/020915/what- di erence-between-capex-and-opex.asp “ An operating expense results from the ongoing costs a company pays to run its basic business. In contrast to capital expenditures, operating expenses are fully tax-deductible in the year they are made. As operational expenses make up the bulk of a company’s regular costs, management examines ways to lower operating expenses without causing a critical drop in quality or production output.
Sometimes an item that would ordinarily
be obtained through capital expenditure can have its cost assigned to operating expenses if a company chooses to lease the item rather than purchase it. is can be a nancially attractive option if the company has limited cash ow and wants to be able to deduct the total item cost for the year.”
Because, with cloud, you don’t purchase any equipment, and just pay for the so ware you use as a service (SaaS), all you end up paying is a low monthly cost. Furthermore, Cloud
or SaaS scales with your business. As your business expands, you add additional seats or licenses. If your business contracts, or goes through downsizing, you decrease the number of monthly licenses.
With a premise based system, what you originally paid for is what you get. If your business expands, you need to pay for additional
equipment. If your business shrinks, you don’t realize any cost savings.
So, what we see from here is that cloud based services are a much more attractive option, from a tax and cash ow perspective.
Another di erence is business continuity. With hurricanes and ooding taking place across the country, it’s inevitable that some business is going to be a ected. If your place of business is a ected by a disaster, it’s bad enough that people can’t come into work. It would be even worse if customers calling your o ce heard the dreaded busy signal or perpetual ringing. With a premise based system, if you wanted to ensure that
your communications are functioning during a disaster, you would have to pay for your entire disaster recovery plan, out of your pocket. With a cloud based solution, your provider pays for
it. Disaster recovery is included in your monthly
fee. Your cloud provider’s data center is backed up by multiple locations across the country, and even around the world. Imagine, getting all this peace of mind for a low monthly cost!
By now, you’re probably wondering, this all sounds great! However, I still don’t understand what does a premise based phone system have to do with cloud communications?
I attended a roadshow given by Westcon, a global value-added technology distributor. e show was the Avaya IP O ce Release 10 and Uni ed Communications as a Service (UCaaS) Event.
What’s interesting about this title is that it combines both worlds, a world leading premise based phone system, and a cloud based solution. I came to this event to learn more about both service o erings, and I was not disappointed.
I learned that Westcon now o ers the SAME
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premise based award winning Avaya IP O ce, hosted in the cloud! is means, that the war between which one is better (premise or cloud), is o cially over! It’s the same product! ere
is this old joke, where two people were arguing, and one person comes over to them, trying to settle their argument, and says “You’re right, and you’re right”. So one of the guys turns to him and says, “Hey, we can’t BOTH be right?” So the guy answers, “You’re also right!” You know that joke? It’s kind of like that.
You get the exact same solution. e same system, the same features, only now it’s in the cloud. You pay a low (OPEX) monthly fee, the solutions is scalable with your business, and you have the peace of mind knowing that you’re business is protected in the event of a disaster. What can be better than that? e two worlds have o cially collided! n
When you have to be right
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