Why Cloud VoIP Will Continue to Grow in 2019
Happy New Year!
Top Predictions for why Cloud VoIP Will Grow Market-share in 2019
Here at CSM (Tampa & Austin) we are passionate about telephone systems, both VoIP Cloud and Premise/ onsite. Now that a new year is upon us, what reasons can we predict about why Cloud VoIP will continue its ascendancy in 2019? Let’s dive right in!
1- Pricing will drive growth
With a continuous rise over the last decade, Cloud based VoIP products will continue to grow and outpace the premise in the general marketplace. The primary mover for this will be updated pricing models. In years past, businesses or government entities who were looking for a new phone system and had a significant amount of analog devices often could not justify the monthly cost of a cloud based product. However, this is going to change monumentally in 2019 with new pricing from providers such as Mitel, LogMeIn (Jive), and RingCentral, among others. New prices will include metered rates for low use locations such as break rooms, discounted rates for formerly analog spots such as teacher classrooms, and special bulk rates for larger quantity of phones with lower uses, such as one might find in a nursing home or ALF.
2- Maturity of Data Offerings
Along with updated pricing, a major factor in the rise of Cloud VoIP in 2019 will be the maturity of fiber and high speed internet, the backbone of cloud products. At long last, speeds in excess of 400 MB are available at very competitive rates; we have seen this offered for as low as $150 a month from Frontier in certain markets in Texas and Florida. It was only a few years ago that T-1 were the latest and greatest data providers- and that was only 1.5MB for almost $1K a month!
In addition to the cost of data transmission being reduced considerably, the availability of SD WAN (software defined WAN) products offered by companies such as InSpeed Networks (contact CSM for more info). Simply, SD WAN creates a dedicated “lane” in the highway of your data provider, allowing voice to always have a certain amount of available space, ensuring call quality. This is not a product that is always necessary, however, it is a cost effective way to solve any problems with jitter, latency, or poor call quality if they were to crop up on a Cloud VoIP implementation.
3- Promotions!
When upgrading a to a new phone system, many people are afraid of the upfront costs that can be involved. Indeed, in the past a general rule of thumb for premise based telephone systems was to budget between $600 and $1000 per phone; a figure which of course included the phone itself and also all other hardware. In today’s market, however, this cost is often completely eliminated or minimized by various promotions offered by the providers. As an example, Mitel was offering for Q4 of 2018 two promotions which made the phones and the Mitel implementation as $0 line items, completely doing away with startup or capital costs. Now, this promotion did expire on December 31, 2018, but we can be certain that some other one will be announced by Mitel or a different provider, offering similar enticements.
4- Growth in Software as a Service (SAS) Businesses
It’s no secret for anybody engaged in the business world that SAS is one of the hottest terms and trends today. Cloud VoIP is really just telecom as SAS. The movement of popular software such as QuickBooks, SalesForce (along with basically every other CRM), and nearly every other product depended upon by businesses has been a catalyst for telecom to move that direction as well. It is undeniable that this is the direction for phone systems along with every other software based product.
CSM is excited about the changes taking place in our industry, our country, and the wider world. We look forward to 2019 and the prospects that it will bring. To learn more about Cloud VoIP phone systems, please contact CSM today. With offices in Tampa, Florida and Austin, Texas, we are perfectly poised to assist any and all organizations with their phone system or cable infrastructure needs.