Every business wants to improve their processes and streamline workflows year-over-year. With ever-changing technologies and professional work styles adapting and becoming more and more efficient, it’s easier than ever to make smart, sophisticated changes - especially going into a new calendar year.

If you’re an iPhone user, you know the benefits - and downsides - of using the device’s built-in virtual voicemail system. Ideally, you’ll get a readout of what was said in the voicemail without having to dial into your voicemail box, but you also know the lack of accuracy and occasional “Virtual Voicemail is Currently Unavailable” message that seems to pop up without warning.

Cloud-based technology solutions are becoming more and more prevalent in both everyday life and businesses of every size. From consumer-focused technologies to enterprise-scale systems that leverage offsite storage for everything from data retention to high-end computer processing, cloud solutions are seemingly everywhere with no end in sight. But a growing segment of businesses large and small are beginning to rely more and more on cloud-based phone and voicemail solutions - and the reasons why are as diverse as they are many.

Call centers of every size and scale have the ever-important mandate to decrease call times, increase agent performance, and retain the ability to assist incoming client and customer calls with high efficiency - but of course, that’s much easier said than done. The technological aspect of ensuring your system can handle and properly sort through queries is difficult enough, let alone the human and logistical implications toward that goal.

In the age of smartphones and cloud technology, what is your current phone system really doing for your small to medium-sized business?

Smart and savvy business owners understand the intricacies of operating a company in today’s economic climate, but there’s one thing every business owner understands when looking to the future: growth is essential. Unfortunately, knowing how and when to pursue that growth and what steps to take to help make it a reality are harder to recognize - often until it’s too late to act. With a little help and strategic advice, however, it’s possible to anticipate opportunities and prepare your employees to act.

Focus on Local

Anyone who has ever experienced or overseen relocating a business knows the key to success: planning, planning, planning. There’s no perfect or flawless office move, but putting in the time and effort to foresee and prepare for bumps in the road will go a long way to smoothing things out. But just as your future office space should consider your hopes and realistic expectations for current and coming growth, so should you also take into account the functions and technologies that make your business run on a daily basis. At the core of your business is your phone system.

In the SaaS era of the Internet economy, there are no shortage of services and tools to help benefit your business’ operations or ongoing strategy. But for bootstrapped startups or those with extreme budgetary limitations, the need for affordable, reliable services that support your company’s growth is more important than ever.

As we’ve previously discussed, the benefits of adopting a cloud-based phone system for your business carries with it plenty of logistic and financial benefits, but there are plenty of perks a hosted system provides that will thrill your IT team.

There are plenty of reasons to move to a cloud-based phone service, but the least of which is it’ll help move your business to the modern world. Because cloud-based phone systems can link between multiple locations and users, it offers a single, connected solution to fielding customer calls and conducting day-to-day business. Once installed, it can be managed by an IT professional or administrator from anywhere – no additional hardware required.