The future is here—Hybrid communications Solutions
The growing popularity of Software as a Service (SaaS) reflects the convenience, scalability, and security of cloud-based applications like email, business process apps, and storage. Virtual phone systems and contact centers delivered completely via the cloud, like ShoreTel Connect CLOUD, are growing rapidly year-over-year as businesses recognize the time and money saved when application upgrades, maintenance, and end-user support are handled by the service provider, not by internal IT staff.
How Businesses Benefit From A Hybrid Phone System
Reduce capital expenses while leveraging current investments
As a visionary provider of IP PBX phone systems and unified communications applications, ShoreTel sees the future of communications architecture as combining the best of two delivery methods: a hybrid cloud communications solution that delivers the resiliency, control and availability of an onsite “hardware-based” phone system with the immediacy, ease and flexibility of virtual PBX applications delivered from the cloud.
Hybrid unified communications: add new locations and applications easily
One hybrid deployment model currently available from ShoreTel boosts worker productivity by giving them immediate access to new applications-as-a-service delivered via the cloud. ShoreTel’s contact center solution is one such service, which offers companies the ability to scale up and down easily as seasonal staffing needs fluxuate. Other hybrid applications from ShoreTel streamline voice messaging by transcribing audio messages into text and integrate fax services into the digital communications workflow.
By deploying these applications via the cloud, companies can leverage their investment in a ShoreTel onsite system by adding new phone system functionality with no additional phone system capital expense. There’s no hardware to install, no truck rolls for service implementation, and no upgrades to manage. And hybrid solutions are available across your entire enterprise, no matter how many locations you serve.
Many businesses see the value in UCaaS, but may not be ready to transition from their on-premises systems to cloud services because their assets have not fully depreciated, or because this transition requires rip-and-replace approach for the organization to be on a single solution. ShoreTel offers a different approach. When you deploy a ShoreTel onsite solution, you gain the flexibility to add additional locations via the cloud by taking advantage of ShoreTel’s brilliantly simple hybrid technology. With this solution, there’s no need to replace hardware, and all users share the same user experience, including 4-digit dialing, call transfer and conference calling. This can be a strategic advantage for businesses that want to retain their onsite installation, but grow into an all-cloud deployment at a point in the future.
Staying secure in the cloud
Hybrid communications solutions that serve applications from the cloud are new to many IT managers. ShoreTel understands the concerns many enterprises with in-house solutions may have about opening data up to the cloud. With ShoreTel Connect, potential security and privacy concerns can be addressed through superior system design and network operations. A key example: communications between premises and the ShoreTel cloud occur over an HTTPS connection and email.