BT Retail has conceded that hosted telephony is a viable alternative to on-premise telephone systems by launching BT Cloud Voice through their direct channels and their local business franchises. Another Broadsoft-based offering, this is good news for their competitors because BT will boost demand through generic advertising and by the fact that they have ‘legitimised’ the product. However they will also be a significant competitor so here a five things you might need to know when you inevitably meet them in the market.
1. They offer three levels of seat licence; Basic, Connect and Collaborate, priced as below:
- Basic - £8.00 on a 12 month contract, £6.40 on a 24 month contract
- Connect - £11.00 on a 12 month contract, £8.80 on a 24 month contract
- Collaborate - £17 on a 12 month contract, £13.60 on a 24 month contract
Basic really means basic. This level includes only the ability to forward and transfer calls, set up hunt groups and have 3-way conferences. Connect offers little more except ‘Anywhere,’ which BT have renamed ‘Call Director’, and a voicemail to email function. With Collaborate you get UC Business, which includes both the Laptop and Mobile apps, and UC Team which allows up to eight people into a conference or webinar. Curiously Basic includes Hot Desking Host but not Guest and neither Connect or Collaborate include either.
2. With BT Cloud Voice, most things are extra, even simple features like BLF (busy lamp fields) which allows the user to see if his colleagues are on the phone. Here is a list of optional features and prices:
BT Cloud Voice - Reception Console - £15.00pcm
BT Cloud Voice - Receptionist Small Business - £8.00pcm
BT Cloud Voice - Shared Call Appearance - £1.00pcm
BT Cloud Voice - Toolbar - £0.50pcm
BT Cloud Voice - Busy Lamp Field - £0.50pcm
BT Cloud Voice - Hot Desking Host £0.80pcm
BT Cloud Voice - Hot Desking Guest £0.80pcm
BT Cloud Voice - CRM Connect - £6.90pcm
BT Cloud Voice - UC Business - £3.00pcm
BT Cloud Voice - UC Team - £8.00pcm
BT Cloud Voice - Call Recording - £6.00pcm
BT Cloud Voice - Fax Messaging - £0.50pcm
Per site add-ons:
BT Cloud Voice - Auto Attendant - £8.00pcm
BT Cloud Voice - Call Centre ACD - £14.00pcm
BT Cloud Voice - Hunt Group Plus - £4.00pcm
BT Cloud Voice - Call Centre ACD Plus - £4.00pcm
3. Calls are extra.
BT charge for these in the form of call plans. Although there are different size bundles they all work out at 2.25 pence per minute and if you go over your bundle you pay standard rates which are of course much higher. The average UK SME employee uses around 200 UK minutes a month which therefore adds another £4.50 to the monthly seat price.
4. Handsets are extra.
On the face of it these seem reasonably priced at £95.20 for the VVX300 and £138.40 for the VVX400. However note that these are the older version of the Polycom handsets not the Gigabit VVX310 and VVX410 that are standard with most other suppliers. Also note that every licence incurs a £100 connection charge and this is in addition to a per-user set-charge of £10 and an installation charge that varies with the number of extensions on each site, as below:
BT Cloud Voice Service Connection Charge - £100.00
BT Cloud Voice - User set-up charge - £10.00
BT Cloud Voice - Onsite Installation (Small) 1 to 10 devices - £134.00
BT Cloud Voice - Onsite Installation (Medium) 11 to 25 device - £296.00
BT Cloud Voice - Onsite Installation (Large) 26 to 50 device - £509.00
5. Telephone numbers are extra too.
BT charge £1 connection charge for every new number and 50p monthly rental. Most providers do not levy ongoing charges for telephone numbers.
Summary
BT advertise a low seat entry price of £6.40 however this does not include essential features such as busy lamp fields, voicemail to email and shared call appearance. Including these would take the basic price to nearly £10 pcm. When you add on £4.50 per month per seat for calls, 80p a month per seat for hot-desking, £4 per site for hunt groups, £8 per site for auto attendant and £14 per month per site for call centre, a 12 extension company will pay around £18 per month per seat on a 24 month contract. For a typical 12 extension company you will also have to pay over £250 per extension (not including the cost of the handset) in once-off set-up charges.
All prices quoted were accurate as at 18.9.2015.
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