Hear that clock ticking?
The end of the analogue communication era is now just a year or so away.
Is your business ready? Does it have a plan in place to adapt to the new, digital-only world? Or is it putting off the inevitable; far too many other pressing issues on its plate to stress about an event that still seems a long way off?
Truth is, time flies – and the great UK PSTN switch-off will be upon us sooner than we think.
The smarter businesses are not only responding in a way which repurposes their legacy telephony; they are reinventing their entire stack in ways which leverage the power of digitized and unified omnichannel communications.
Yes, the switch-off is a time-sensitive imperative that must be addressed, but the benefits of a wider-scale modernization are huge.
All organisations need to do is pick a technology provider partner with the solutions, the expertise, and the experience to make it happen.
“The switch-off obviously presents huge risk for businesses that are unprepared, but there is still sufficient time to ensure a smooth digital transition,” says Matt Tancred, Sales Specialist at leading communications and managed IT provider Daisy Corporate Services, whose trusted products and credentials tick all of the boxes.
“For those businesses who see the switch-off as a perfect point in time to go further with their digital transformation, the return on investment can be significant and swift. It may seem like a daunting prospect for some, particularly those with large and old legacy infrastructures. However, with an expert hand to hold, modernisation can be relatively painless and genuinely game-changing.
“Daisy has a dedicated team that will identify everything at risk from the switch off and then draw up a tailored plan with timelines and solutions.”
The recommended first step is to evaluate the existing system: a comprehensive audit of phone lines and associated communication technology designed to identify required changes.
Next, what are those lines connected to? If analogue endpoints or, for example, alarms, are they still needed? Has the way the business communicates evolved sufficiently over time for that proprietary technology to now be outdated and superfluous to requirements going forward? And, crucially, what is on the roadmap for the next 5-10 years? Does the business need a costly legacy PBX with costly ISDN, or could it move to an infinitely more powerful, cost-effective, and scalable cloud-based solution?
“There’s no doubt that the PSTN switch-off represents a huge opportunity for businesses to transform their communication ecosystems and reap the rewards of moving to new ways of working,” says Lee Hunwick, Daisy’s Head of Unified Communications.
“We are all aware of the go-to nature of Microsoft Teams, for example, and all of the other Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platforms that have emerged post-pandemic. Integrating those collaboration and communication solutions with digital voice services can deliver big benefits for businesses and their customers. Implementing those changes in line with the PSTN switch-off makes for perfect timing.”
Importantly, any system redesign should respond specifically to a business’s new needs. How do its customers prefer to communicate? Voice will always be an essential component, but there must be an omnichannel approach too.
“There are always technologies which have to be retired and replaced, and the PSTN switch-off is simply one of those situations,” says Tancred.
“However, a business simply being told that it had box 100 and now it needs box 200 is not the right conversation.
“The world has changed for the better and it will continue to do so. Where people work, how people work, the tools they use to communicate and collaborate – the key to the technology which supports all of that is agility. Daisy has been providing business communications for almost 25 years, so we have transitioned businesses through all of the technological advancements that have occurred during that time. We have teams of experts capable of listening to and understanding customers’ ways of working and designing solutions which best satisfy their needs. We believe that kind of consultative, hand-holding approach makes for the best possible outcome.”
It seems the apparent stress of the switch-off may be unnecessarily over-shadowing a golden opportunity to change things up all round.
Tick, tock, tick, tock….
To learn more about how Daisy can help your business navigate the UK PSTN switch-off, click here.
