Hosted vs physical phone systems. What are the benefits of moving away from fixed phone lines to a hosted phone solution?
As technology continues to move to cloud-based software, so is that of business phone lines with less reliance on physical phone systems and more requirements for hosted telephony solutions. Hosted phone systems differ from the traditional fixed phone line as they are hosted on an external server and entirely managed offsite with no need for any bits of equipment or wires to be fitted at your office. Calls are transmitted via your business broadband service.
But what are the benefits of moving away from traditional fixed phone systems to a hosted telephony solution and how can it help with your PCI DSS compliance?
Flexibility
Hosted phone systems offer a whole new level of flexibility that cannot be achieved with a traditional fixed phone line. While physical phone systems offer a static approach to managing calls, hosted phone systems enable businesses to streamline, to ensure that customers reach the right person and can achieve the reason for their call. Extra lines can be quickly and easily added as and when required and calls can be forwarded to multiple or alternative locations during busy times. Call recording and archiving is straightforward and the system easily adapted as the business changes over time.
Reliability
Because hosted telephony doesn’t require any bulky bits of equipment onsite, it means that you’re less likely to be interrupted by technical problems which is great for business continuity. As the system is managed offsite, technical support is quickly on hand, removing the frustratingly familiar scenario of waiting for an engineer to arrive and parts to be replaced.
Descope your business from its PCI DSS obligations
Using hosted telephony solutions makes it easier to integrate an effective over-the-phone payment system and allows you to outsource your PCI DSS responsibilities to descope your business from its compliance obligations. You can create a totally bespoke, fully compliant payment system that suits the needs of your business and your customers. Callers can be passed seamlessly between agents and the system into which they input their card details without the need to interrupt the call and this information can then be fed directly into your database and CRM system behind the scenes.
Sounds too good to be true? Well we can tell you that it isn’t. And because hosted telephony uses your broadband service to transmit calls, your ongoing costs are much lower than that of a separate fixed line service.
About PCI Agent™
PCI Agent™ is our Level 1 hosted telephony solution providing a secure payment system that is totally bespoke for your business. With bonus features such as call recording and real-time statistics for all users, it can play a crucial role in improving customer service levels. Crucially, it allows callers to enter their own card details whilst staying on the call with a live agent without having to read out sensitive card details or be passed over to a third-party contact centre, in turn descoping your business fully from its PCI DSS obligations.
Find out more about PCI Agent™ here.
