Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

Next generation Ethernet connectivity and cloud telephony are two of the fastest growing technologies in 2014. Jola Cloud Solutions is at the forefront of this wave. We are working with IT partners and experiencing remarkable success in the SME market. Come to one of our workshops to find out why.

The technology

Next Generation Ethernet connectivity and Cloud Telephony are two of the fastest growing technologies in 2014. 2015 will see even more SMEs upgrade their connectivity to take advantage of the savings available from cloud-hosted applications such as voice and CRM.

Next Generation Ethernet Connectivity

It is a new way of delivering bandwidths of up to 20Mb/s. It uses fibre to cabinet and fibre to the premises to deliver leased lines to business with a much faster lead time.

A recent survey by Swan Independent Research of 12,000 UK SMEs with 10-100 employees suggests now may be the time for IT Support companies to get into cloud telephony.

Only 80% of respondents said that they were satisfied with their current phone system, which nearly 60% said they purchased outright. Around 55% said they use a local IT support company and if they are unhappy with their phone system they may also be unhappy with their current phone system supplier.

This means that extrapolating from the survey size alone could throw up 1440 sales opportunities for IT Support companies. With over 400,000 SMEs in the UK with 5+ employees the opportunity could rise to 48,000.

Cloud telephone systems have come down in price recently so that the monthly rental is usually less than that of a traditional telephone system. For example the monthly maintenance, line rental and call charges for a 10-extension system is around £250 per month. Jola’s price for 10 seats, including calls, is £125/month.

Only 10% of respondents were already using a hosted system and it is thought that the slow take-up is due to concerns about speed and reliability of connectivity – usually broadband.

Despite all the hype around cloud telephone systems only around 10% of SMEs are actually using them, according to a recent survey by Swan Independent Research (SIR).

Jola offers a communications audit service that is free to SMEs below a certain size. In the last audit we conducted we calculated that calls costing our customer £300 per month were actually costing their supplier around £10 per month. 

The problem is one of perspective. The actual cost of calls has reduced by a staggering amount since BTs monopoly was broken in 1984. In those days it was not uncommon for a foreign exchange broker to be spending £2m a month on international calls. The same phone calls today would only cost hundreds of pounds a month. A 50-employee company with a phone bill of £500 might think they are getting a good deal until they find out just how much they could be paying.

Six reasons why cloud telephony is finally taking off.