It goes without saying that cloud computing is one of the foremost innovations of the 21st century. While it has revolutionized nearly every industry across the board, have you considered how it has revolutionized how we communicate with one another? In this article, we will take a look at how the cloud has revolutionized telecommunications and changed how businesses (and individuals) interact in our modern world.
Instant Global Presence
Because the cloud allows businesses and individuals to access data no matter where in the world are located, it is now possible to access markets no matter where your business is located. Thanks to VoIP and related technologies, establishing a global presence via a virtual office or virtual location has never been easier or more cost-effective. A pivotal part of creating this global presence is telecommunications.
In the past, it was necessary to expect your international customers to incur long-distance fees or have to go through the process of calling outside of their country to reach your business. Worse, there may be some latency issues that could potentially frustrate both parties. That's where cloud phone numbers offer a wide range of possibilities, offering seamless communication.
TSH - Illustration 05 - Mobile Development by Tomasz Czajka
Cloud phone numbers are also known in the telecom industry as virtual phone numbers. Basically, virtual phone numbers are phone numbers that are powered by cloud computing technology, such as VoIP, and they are identical to “normal” landline phones. Essentially, when a virtual phone number is dialed, the inbound call is instantly routed through the cloud and redirected to another phone number known as the destination phone number. These virtual phone numbers also feature the same country code, area codes, region codes, and number sequences that residents in those regions are familiar with.
Consider the alternative: In the past, businesses that wanted to expand to new regions of the world had to slowly build their business and eventually open a branch office in order to adequately communicate with potential customers and ongoing clients. With the advent of the cloud and the immediacy of digital communication, businesses can be headquartered in one area while having the global reach once reserved only for larger enterprises.
Benefits of Virtual Phone Numbers
As you can imagine, the benefits of virtual phone numbers are vast. First, because virtual phone numbers are identical to regular phone numbers, the process of localization is almost a non-issue. As long as your business can deliver its goods and services in a similar fashion to domestic businesses, your brand can become a part of any city, region, or country of your choosing.
There are a wide variety of virtual phone numbers, each with their own particular usage and benefit to your business. For example, if you decide to use toll free numbers, your business can gain a type of geographical agnosticism that can give your brand authority and professionalism. Conversely, by using a qualified service provider, you can gain access to hyper-specific markets that have phone numbers tailored specifically to certain regions, towns, and even area codes specific to certain parts of a city. And many service providers offer vanity phone numbers, which are cloud-based phone numbers with a visually-appealing set of digits. These are perfect for attracting attention in your marketing campaigns and helping keep your brand top-of-mind because a number that’s easier to remember is more likely to be dialed.
And because cloud computing has become nearly ubiquitous in our modern lives, the technology has evolved to become extremely user-friendly. Most service providers can set up a new virtual phone number within 24 hours or less. Controlling these virtual phone numbers is also a cinch, as most come with intuitive dashboards and easy-to-use software to change functions and performance as you see fit. Best of all, because it is a cloud-based technology, any device that can access the internet and has audio capabilities is able to use virtual phone numbers, drastically reducing overheads and training time for your staff.
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