Cloud telephony is a type of unified communications as a service (UCaaS), essentially enabling organisations to run a business phone system through their internet connection. Also commonly known as cloud calling, cloud telephony offers business voice services, run and managed by a third-party operator or host. A cloud phone system, often in the form of a VoIP- based hosted PBX system (voice over internet protocol), carries voice calls as well as messaging, video calls and file sharing all under one unified platform via your business internet connectivity.
How does Cloud Telephony Work?
The customers don’t reach out to your business on your office lines directly but they call on a published number which is known as the cloud telephony number.
To get a better idea, here are the components of cloud telephony-
1. Published phone number
This can be a toll-free number or a mobile number. Your customers contact your business using this number
2. Cloud telephony servers with PRI lines
These servers enable call recordings, IVR, and many other features.
When a customer makes a call, PRI (Primary Rate Interface) lines deflect that call to the hosted PBX (Private Branch Exchange) on the cloud. The hosted PBX consists of all the necessary data required to set up the call forwarding for each customer call.
3. Extensions or agent numbers
These are the numbers where the customer calls actually land. They can be the contact numbers of your staff or your office landline numbers.
4. Incoming and outgoing call flows
Incoming calls
- The customer calls on the published number
- The call gets forwarded to PBX via PRI lines
- Customers choose the relevant options in the IVR
- The servers connect the call with the agents according to the call distribution scheduled on the cloud server.
- The caller and the agents get connected.
Outgoing calls
- Outgoing calls are generally made by software like CRM
- The agents dial the number they want to call
- CRM sends an API signal to cloud servers
- The server calls the agent first and when the call is answered, he dials the customer
- Both the calls are merged
