According to a recent report by Zion Research, VoIP services are set to grow rapidly over the next few years, reaching £112 billion globally by 2021. The report explains that the growth is driven by the technological advancement of network infrastructure and is influenced by the rise in the number of portable devices.
The report analyses VoIP by call type with international VoIP calls emerging as the leading segment, with the majority of calls being made by computer to computer. Phone-to-phone calls are predicted to see the highest growth over the next few years. Hosted services as well as IP connectivity are set to see significant growth as businesses come out of contract and realise the cost benefits of upgrading their business telephony.
The benefits
Reduced costs with no capital outlay
Many hosted solutions are sold on a per-seat basis with no initial capital outlay, unless customers want to buy handsets upfront. In addition, many call costs are free, not just internally across multiple sites, but to UK landlines and mobiles too, with low international call rates.
Feature-rich
Features such as busy lamp fields, auto attendant, call recording, call reporting and music on hold are now more affordable on a per-seat-per-month basis and customers can tailor the solution to meet their exact requirements.
Multiple devices
Some hosted telephony solutions are available on multiple devices such as computers, tablets and mobiles, which enables customers to work remotely as if they had taken their desk phone with them.
Scalability
It is easy to add or remove a seat as required, as many hosted solutions are on 30-day contracts.
Disaster recovery
If for whatever reason there is an issue with the phone system, your office, or employees can’t get into work, you can easily re-route calls to mobiles and carry on, business as usual.
The opportunity
Your existing customers may contact you for help and advice supporting a traditional phone system, especially when their service contract has ended. If you are looking to attract new customers such as start-ups and growing businesses locally, promoting packages with monthly connectivity, telephony and IT support is a good start.
By adding hosted telephony and internet connectivity to your portfolio, you have the opportunity to grow two additional recurring revenue streams, increase your ARPU and make your customers stickier.
Why Jola?
If you are thinking of adding hosted telephony to your portfolio, there are multiple suppliers to choose from. If you are looking for a technical company to partner with, who can offer you support at every stage of the customer journey, consider Jola. We come from a channel ISP background and are focussed on automation, creating quoting, ordering and portal management solutions to give you the control you need to manage your customers. To find out more….
