According to Market Monitor the market for cloud computing services such as hosted telephony will grow at a rate of 36% every year and revenues will be just shy of £12.7bn by 2016. This growth has come about from a number of factors:
Technological
The cost of dedicated, private circuits for connecting businesses securely to the Internet has reduced dramatically in recent years, with new technologies blending Ethernet and Fibre reducing installation times as well as set up and monthly fees. SMEs no longer have to rely on broadband with its best efforts fix times and can get a secure, reliable circuit with dedicated bandwidth for less than £200 a month in some areas. Grant schemes such as the Broadband Connection Vouchers scheme are helping to fund faster, more reliable connectivity in 22 UK cities.
Financial
IT budgets are tight for many businesses at the moment so when phone systems come out of contract the ability to pay per seat per month for a hosted solution that includes calls and does not require hardware costs upfront or ongoing maintenance costs is very attractive.
Social
The need to work remotely as if in the office is more of a requirement in today’s business world. The ability to use mobile phones as phone extensions taking and forwarding calls is a useful tool for business continuity and the ability to plug in at any location and carry on working as if at your desk can be a great benefit.
New Features, New Revenues
Extensive call features such as call assistant, busy lamps, call recording are now available on world leading phone systems at the fraction of the cost of managing legacy systems. SMEs when facing the decision to buy a new phone system or pay per month per extension for the best hosted phone system are finding it easy to choose.
Companies such as Jola are helping Partners to identify customers struggling with their Internet connectivity or looking for a new phone system and are implementing better solutions often 50% cheaper than managing their existing infrastructure. Jola Partners are enjoying closer relationships with their existing customers and winning new ones as well as benefiting from regular recurring margin share.
To find out more about how you could be helping your existing customers and winning new ones download our New Business Guide.