Customer concerns about cloud security are, on the whole, unfounded. We show you how to calm their fears when reselling a hosted PBX solution.
Moving infrastructure off-site is a nervous time for any business. Yet cloud-based technology, in particular hosted telephony, is fast-becoming the solution of choice for your retail customers.Much of the confusion surrounding cloud technology is due to customers not fully understanding the technology. As a reseller, it’s important that you educate your customers on how moving to a hosted solution will increase their communications security.
The status quo is dangerous
Phone hacking is quite common and extremely lucrative. The reality is that an on-site infrastructure can be more risky than a hosted solution. Phone fraud has cost UK businesses over £1.2 billion in recent years and is estimated to have affected 40% of companies already.
Hosting your PBX in the cloud means that often you’ll benefit from built-in business continuity and fraud protection features to address any security concerns.
Building trust
As a reseller, you must be able to reassure your customers that you can work with them to:
› Investigate and understand their existing telephony solution – does it really support their business?
› Recommend and supply a hosted PBX solution that can fully address their communications requirements
› Provide ongoing support once they’ve selected and implemented a new telephony service
Protected by enterprise-grade security
As a reseller, it’s key to emphasise that a hosted PBX uses an enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure which means:
› Calling systems are protected by high level security solutions;
› Service providers should assume all responsibility for maintaining security;
› Call traffic is fully encrypted to prevent interception and ‘eavesdropping’.
Improved disaster recovery
Offering cloud-based telephony solutions allows you to provide your customers with far greater capacity to handle localised disasters if:
› The head office / main site becomes inaccessible – calls can remain intact as they’re not hosted on site
› Calls need diverting – users can easily reroute incoming calls at the touch of a button using an online portal or mobile app
Offering a hosted telephony solution allows your customers to minimise any downtime. Employees can easily work from home or on the road. Even better, customers won’t experience a drop in the quality of service they receive.
Takeaways:
Security may seem a legitimate concern when migrating your customers’ telephony services to a cloud-based PBX, yet the risks are actually much lower than people may expect.
It’s crucial you reassure your customers that:
› Current telecoms provisions are a greater security risk than cloud-based alternatives;
› As their service provider, you’ll actively guide them through the process from initial purchase to installation;
› Introducing a hosted PBX will open new doors, particularly when it comes to disaster recovery.