By Michael Brandenburg, Senior Industry Analyst, Connected Work at Frost & Sullivan
In the decades that the telcos have been offering voice services, be it analog lines, digital circuits or more recently voice over IP (VoIP), words like speed, innovation, and flexibility were rarely if ever used to describe voice calling services. It was often the case that a provider’s responsibility ended when dial tone was delivered, leaving the customer to figure out how to make it work with their phone system.
However, the pandemic years fundamentally changed the role that communications and collaboration services like Microsoft Teams, Webex by Cisco and Zoom play in our daily work. These platforms are no longer limited to delivering video meetings and text chats, but each includes a fully formed business phone system that’s more than capable of replacing an existing on-premises PBX. Ongoing Frost & Sullivan research shows that significant numbers of businesses move their phone systems to the cloud every year. In addition, many businesses are keeping their phone numbers with their preferred established providers and bringing their voice services to their chosen collaboration platform’s cloud PBX. At Frost & Sullivan, we refer to this emerging segment of the telco space as cloud-connected calling. Cloud-connected calling is distinctly different than traditional VoIP access and SIP trunking services, both in terms of how it is deployed (carrier to cloud, rather than carrier to business premise) as well as how it is managed and provisioned. With cloud-connected calling, value-added services are wrapped around the voice services, including provider-managed infrastructure, user management, one-click failover, contact center, AI, CRM, compliance recording, and automation. The move to cloud phone systems is becoming so prevalent that the staunchest of telcos are shifting to cloud-connected calling.
It’s also important to recognize that most businesses can’t simply flip the switch and immediately move to Teams, Webex, or Zoom, but rather take a careful and deliberate approach to migrating to cloud phone systems. In addition, a business may have legacy systems that just can’t be replaced or will need to operate alongside modern cloud platforms. The more successful cloud-connected voice providers have gotten into that position by managing modern platform and legacy system integrations, relieving their customers of infrastructure investments and giving businesses the freedom to move at their own pace.
Recognizing the growing shift to cloud-connected calling, Frost & Sullivan recently published the Frost Radar for Cloud-Connected Calling Enablement. Within the Frost Radar, ten cloud-connected calling providers are benchmarked across 10 Growth and Innovation criteria. The publication presents competitive profiles of each company on the Frost Radar considering their strengths and the opportunities that best fit those strengths.
The cloud-connected calling segment stands out from the broader business voice market in terms of speed and agility, which can fundamentally change the relationship between the business customer and provider. CallTower, for example, can turn up new services or phone numbers for their customers in minutes or hours, rather than the days or weeks of traditional services. Yet, the provider adopts a measured “Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly” approach when supporting customer migrations to the cloud. During each step of this migration strategy, CallTower works with their customers to understand the requirements, lays out the steps required for a successful transition, and moves at the pace and comfort level of the customer. In addition, CallTower’s global voice services are largely platform-agnostic, meaning the provider can integrate with Microsoft Teams, Webex or Zoom, as well as providing connectivity to legacy solutions.
More information about the cloud-connected calling providers featured on the Frost Radar can be found at: Cloud Connected Calling Frost Radar 2024 (calltower.com)
