So you’re ready to migrate to cloud communications! This transition comes with so many benefits to your productivity, but some business owners have concerns about the actual process. Your service provider will do the heavy lifting with the transition, but you can be better prepared with a few questions and considerations.

Upgrade Your Internet Connectivity

Now that your phone is also going over the internet, you’ll need to ensure your internet connection can keep up. While your current internet provider may meet bandwidth requirements, remember it could slow down the internet going to your desktop because of the additional devices. If you use WiFi for your customers or POS devices, you’ll want to upgrade and keep those running well.

Create a Disaster Recovery Plan

While Viirtue has never had an outage, power outages and downed internet cables may result in an outage on your end. But VoIP and UCaaS providers have a simple solution for these outages – they just require a little planning on the user end.

Many VoIP services have an app that allows your phone number to ring on your cell phone, as well. Your disaster recovery plan should include all team members downloading the app to receive calls on their mobile device. 

On the back-end of each phone number, you can also set up forwarding numbers in case of an outage. The server will recognize your phones aren’t ringing and will push the calls through to the forwarding cell phone.

Consider Cost Savings from Multiple Angles

If you’re debating whether to migrate to cloud communications at all, consider the savings between the subscription model and the maintenance of your own equipment.

On-site servers usually require an IT expert on staff (or on-call), a climate-controlled room, and the risk of outages due to local disasters (or even a regular snow day!).

Subscription-based cloud providers incorporate all of that support into the cost and have geographically diverse locations to protect against outages. As your business grows, you’ll be able to quickly add features or users, and you won’t need to take on more IT staff just to manage the growing communications side.

With cloud communications, your team will also be able to work from home if necessary, giving the business more days of productivity even if weather or caregiving keeps them at home.

Security and Compliance Considerations

The primary objection to “the cloud” relates to security concerns. In reality, security breaches can strike both on-premise and cloud infrastructure, According to some experts, your data is actually safer on the cloud because those professionals build better safeguards than most businesses do. After all, security is their only job, where your IT staff may be spread between device issues and questions from on-site employees.

If compliance is your concern, discuss your regulations with the cloud service provider. While they’re probably familiar with various rules, you can confirm details like whether data can be stored regionally based on your industry’s compliance needs.

Of course, you can always store your most sensitive data on-site. Combining this small piece of on-site storage with the capabilities of a cloud communications platform will keep most tools easily available for employees, not matter their location.

User Training

The final piece of the puzzle is user training. Your teams may be accustomed to running certain processes in their preferred platform, and their transition can be a challenge. But start the change on the right foot with trainings for each department and videos for easy reference. Have a team leader demonstrate how their daily processes will work in a new platform and show them that these tools make tasks easier and collaboration quicker.

Since cloud communications software may be used in a web browser, require all of your users download the same browser. This will ensure everyone has the same experience during trainings and watching videos.

Viirtue provides a simple cloud communications migration plan that will leave businesses better than ever. They’ll even help with training videos for top features. Connect with them today to start transitioning your clients to a better platform.