A Glimpse into the future of Cloud Telephony in India

Are you a startup? An established SMB? Or a multi-million dollar MNC ? If there is one New Age communication platform that has unambiguously managed to connect and serve businesses of any size and segment, that is cloud telephony. The past 7 years has seen exponential adaptation and growth of cloud telephony across India. Above all the most significant reason why companies are comfortable in moving their entire phone system to the cloud is mobility and scalability. After all, which business wouldn’t want a futuristic business communication platform which requires no hardware or software purchases, leaves no wired-mess, is fully compatible with their present infrastructure – and all of this at a cost-saving rate? Ofcourse cloud telephony companies have innovated various add-on features to make their flagships unique – such as Big V Telecom’s homegrown Quantification of Advertisement which allows businesses to measure and optimize their marketing channels using simple principles of cloud telephony. However, despite the growing prospects and seemingly bright future of this market, we at Big V Telecom strongly believe that cloud telephony needs to become even more flexible, that is, they must be able to integrate and blend with other innovative platforms. The technology industry at large is constantly shifting with the rise of new platforms of communications. For instance, the rapid rise of WhatsApp, Social Media and Internet Of Thing (IoT) or M2M communications is drastically changing the way consumers communicate and businesses have begun to take notice. Here are a few potential upgrades that we at Big V feel are essential features that cloud telephony products must incorporate in no later than 2016: Voice Analytics: Businesses invest heavily in Market research and business research to understand consumer behavior and are always craving for quantifiable insights through analytics. But more than the data collected, what matters is the manner in which the respondents provide the data. This requires voice analytics. While third party firms have usually dominated this segment where traditional phone systems were used, the growth of cloud telephony provides a unique opportunity to integrate voice analytics to the already extensive call analytics. Products like YOCC are uniquely placed to provide such integrated facilities and open up a new vertical to help businesses understand consumers. M2M communication: Machine to Machine (M2M) communication or Internet of Things (IoT) is quickly gaining its foothold in the Indian market. They focus on providing control of smart devices and machines using websites and mobile apps. It also includes automated alerts to users on these devices. Cloud telephony products such as Big V’s YOCC (Your Own Contact Centre) can easily tap into this segment and provide automation through phone calls, missed calls and SMS. It can serve as an alternative, as M2M ceases to work when there’s no internet availability. Furthermore, this mode of command will be insulated from rising data tariff charges. Online messaging integration: While cloud telephony began with only traditional telephonic and messaging communication, it must integrate online platforms for bulk calls, alerts and notifications. These include popular platforms such as WhatsApp and Snapchat, which more and more companies wish to use as part of their mobile marketing strategy. Digital platform support: Social Media and Online Ads have begun to show dominating signs and glimpses into what will be the future of advertising at large. Digital marketing has grown at almost parallel pace with cloud telephony and we feel they can be exceptional partners. When cloud telephony services provide one-click integration with digital platforms, it would truly become a futuristic communication available in the present. While products like YOCC already provide such facilities which even allow firms to quantify their leads and revenues from online platforms, a click-to-call feature would take it miles ahead. India are less productive than their more developed counterparts across the world, because they deploy lesser amount of technology. Easily available enterprise grade technology for a variety of reasons - cost, use case, etc - are not suitable for them, avers Gupta of Knowlarity, and thus they have adopted cloud telephony.

Advantages of Cloud Telephony

If you had to set up your own phone system, it would involve procuring EPABX boxes or servers, getting PRI lines provisioned and to top it all, you need to spend a lot of time, effort and money on maintenance. At Exotel, there is a team which monitors the health of the servers, telephone lines and takes appropriate action if there are any issues. We also keep a close watch on the capacity of the servers and phone lines as well as additional resources as and when it is required.

Market in India

Cloud telephony market in India is expanding gradually and has a huge potential in a developing country like India. With the increasing awareness about cloud technology and the growing number of startups, most of the businesses are shifting towards cloud telephony for efficient call management and effective business communication.

Earlier, cloud telephony was restricted only to BPOs as contact centre. But now, businesses as well as the government have started realizing its value. Irrespective of the nature of the businesses and the technology that they have adopted, call management is an indispensable part of all businesses. In this era of globalization, businesses are going international from a single office. Cloud telephony is providing

the most economical and efficient tool to communicate worldwide.

Similar to the replacement of landline phones with mobile phones, traditional PBX system will soon be replaced by cloud telephony. Various sectors like e-commerce, hospitality, startups, travel, government and institutional sector have opened up huge business opportunities for the cloud telephony services. In the coming years, India will witness steep rise in cloud telephony sector and is going to be one of the most important business tools.

The Benefits

Cloud telephony is a pocket-friendly solution. Both the public and private cloud telephony services have their own advantages.

Public cloud telephony helps businesses to expand across the nation. One of the major advantages of using cloud telephony is that it breaks the language and location barrier. Public cloud telephony is a cost-effective solution as it does not require any maintenance and infrastructural costs.

Also, the upgradation cost is managed by the service provider. The only cost company bears is the cost of phones and equipments which is reasonably low. Public cloud telephony is easy to scale and deploys new applications. It can be added to the subscription cost, as and when required.

On other hand, private cloud telephony has a lower monthly operating cost over a long period of time as monthly subscription cost is not applicable to private cloud telephony. It provides better integration options with other services in your network as these types of systems tend to operate with middleware or computer telephony integration options, which you may not see on the majority of managed platforms. The private cloud telephony helps in developing own integration APIs.

Boosting Verticals

Cloud telephony is the need of the hour in India, irrespective of the nature of business. It is a technology that uses a virtual number to connect various departments and locations, and provides various call management features. Traditionally, businesses were restricted only to family business. Communication used to happen over a landline phone and a single call can be attended with one device. The probability of missing the call was higher.

Looking at the current scenario, it is imperative for a business to reach their audience beyond one city. This raises the need of cloud telephony in the traditional businesses. The key features like, “tollfree number” and “virtual numbers” have made the businesses more accessible to customers. It is important for businesses to have a point of contact for their customers and at the same time handle multiple calls. After BPO came into existence, cloud telephony was used mainly in the call centers.

Penetration of internet in the businesses has given birth to many e-commerce platforms, and hence a startup ecosystem. The e-commerce and startup industry is growing by leaps and bounds with the help of call management features like IVR, bulk SMS and remarketing.