In the following document we’ll be going through the basics of cloud telephony and ate on

will be moving towards the basic of smartflo platform.

What is Cloud Telephony?

Cloud telephony is the technology where communication devices are hosted over service provider’s
premises and are made accessible to the customers through the cloud. Further, a web interface is
provided to the customers to connect with this cloud-hosted system. Cloud telephony offers many
more seamless benefits to your business. Let’s look at few of them below:

1. Lower Cost of Ownership

Most companies save around 15-30% on operational expenses. The need for resources is lowered as
the whole set up is virtualized which directly affects the overall spending of the enterprise. The pay-
per-use model makes it more affordable for the small and medium enterprise businesses to adapt.

2. Reliable with High Uptime

Multiple servers are kept in data centres to handle any unexpected technical failure. If one system fails,
another set of the system automatically takes its place to starts the services with no time lag.

3. Easy Scalability
Shape of no business remains constant – every business is bound to grow or shrink. To keep up with
the ever-changing need, cloud telephony services comes very handily. Any no. of users/channels can
be added or removed from the server as per the requirement.

4. Always Updated

Software industry keeps expanding and adding new features for better performance. To sync your
communication system with these changes, service providers keep updating the software and
hardware at the backend without affecting the user’s usage. Keeping your services updated without
investing any extra effort or time is the major benefit of cloud telephony technology.

Here are some of the most valuable call management features of cloud telephony:

 Auto-attendant, which allows your caller to reach the right team.

 Call forwarding, which directs inbound calls based on predefined criteria.
 Advanced Interactive Voice Response (IVR), a more conversational approach to automated
customer service.
 Call forwarding, so that you can forward calls to any desk phone or mobile phone.
 Toll-free numbers, which lets customers reach you from landlines without extra toll charges.
 Local numbers, so you can establish a local presence wherever you want.
 Call recording securely and reliably, so you can maintain quality service.
1.1 Architecture of Cloud Telephony:

When a customer dials the call — it is first redirected to Hosted Public Branch Exchange(PBX) on the
cloud. This transfer of data is made through a Primary Rate Interface (PRI) line which is connected to
the telephony server with a PRI card (PRI line is a telecommunication standard used on an ISDN to
carry voice, video, data, and other network services between the user and the network).
This hosted PBX (which is provided by the service provider) stores the necessary phone numbers and
information to decide routing structure for every call. All your office phone extension is connected to
the hosted PBX, so every phone call landing on PBX decides it’s best suitable agent after browsing
through these the set priorities in the system.
PBX can even block certain calls — if the service provider or customer explicitly sets it in the rules.
Once the server decides the best-suited agent for the request, it immediately connects the customer
and the agent over the phone line.

Call transfer between the agents is comparatively a faster process as all the agents are connected to the
same umbrella of hosted PBX.

1.2 What is PSTN? (Public Switched Telephone Network)

PSTN stands for Public Switched Telephone Network, or the traditional circuit-switched telephone
network. This is the system that has been in general use since the late 1800s. Using underground
copper wires, this legacy platform has provided businesses and households alike with a reliable means
to communicate with anyone around the world for generations. The phones themselves are known by
several names, such as PSTN, landlines, Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), or fixed-line
telephones.
1.3 What is PRI?

A PRI – or Primary Rate Interface – is an end-to-end, digital telecommunications connection that

allows for 23 concurrent transmissions of voice, data, or video traffic between the network and the
user. The PRI line, or circuit, is a physical piece of equipment.

To get a better understanding of what a PRI does and how it actually works, let’s start by taking a
look at some of its key features:

 A PRI line is made up of two pairs of copper wires connecting the service provider (network)
to the customer (business end-user).
 A PRI is technically one line, but it can simultaneously transmit 23 separate communications
(voice, data, or video.) This means up to 23 people in your company can be on the phone (or
sending an IM or having a video chat) at the same time.
 Each of a PRI’s channels has a 64 kbps capacity for data transmissions.
 PRI lines can work with an analog or mixed EPABX setup as well as an IP PBX system.
 A PRI can join two PBX systems together, increasing the number of available communication
channels.

1.3.1 What Is Direct Inward Dialing?

Direct Inward Dialing (DID) is when a telephone service provider connects a block of telephone
numbers to your company’s Private Branch Exchange (PBX). It allows businesses to set up virtual
numbers that can bypass the main reception lines and go directly to a desk extension or group of
extensions. DID can be used with local, premium-rate, or toll-free numbers. Other common names for
DID are direct-dial numbers, direct dial, and direct dial-ins. Essentially, when someone says “reach
me at my direct number,” this is what they’re referring to.
1.3.2 The difference between virtual number and toll free number?
The toll-free number is telephone numbers in which the call charge is not incurred by the caller but
the called party itself. It is a local number with area code. Toll-free services yield high return-on-
investment especially for small and medium-sized businesses as it eliminates the need for investing in
hardware and provides many add-ons features to accelerate business efficiency.

Whereas, a virtual number is a type of DID (Direct Inward Calling) number which is directly
connected to the telephone lines. It forwards the call to any of the pre-set of the telephone numbers
without charging any call forwarding or long-distance IP telephony service. It helps in making the
virtual presence of the business anywhere around the world. It is country specific numbers.

As the name suggests, “virtual numbers” do not have any physical existence. Simply put, these
numbers aid call forwarding for all incoming calls to a different number mapped against it. Therefore,
these numbers cannot function in silos and need a forwarding landline or mobile number to route their
incoming calls.

1.4 Number Masking

If you say you want to communicate without revealing your phone number or choose to stay private,
Number Masking is bona fide for you. This allows you to be associated with any party without
stressing about your privacy. With mode of communication shifting to online, it is extremely
important that the data is kept secure. Cyber theft is a major concern nowadays with anti-national
organization’s and hackers having the knowledge can easily break into the accounts. To achieve this,
various companies are using number masking model to create a medium where end-user and sellers
can communicate without exposing each other’s phone numbers. This technology helps you dispense
with complicated and a long process of reaching an organization to get connected to the desired
department.
2. Cloud Telephony Solutions:

In this section we’ll be discussing some of the solutions like: IVR, click to Call, Voice broadcast, etc.

1. IVR(Interactive Voice Response) :

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an automated phone system technology that allows
incoming callers to access information via a voice response system of pre recorded messages
without having to speak to an agent, as well as to utilize menu options via touch tone keypad
selection or speech recognition to have their call routed to specific departments or specialists.

By integrating IVR number into your telephony system, you can handle a large volume of calls. The
identification, segmentation, and routing processes of all the incoming calls are also enhanced making
business call process flawless.

1.1 Why IVR System is Essential to Your Business

1. IVR Increases Your Ability to Handle Large Volume of Calls

The number of customers who do an online transaction or choose an online platform to make
decisions about a product or service has grown in alarming numbers. In this way, it is necessary to
handle this pressure of giving customer support with a meaningful solution.

An IVR based call routing is an effective way to handle the calls. It may happen that most of the
customers don’t have to speak with an agent for a solution, they can easily help themselves with an
IVR.

An increasing call volume that can not be handled well is a worst-case scenario, and the best of the
ideas are the ones that help you grow in business with the most logical and productive way to exceed
the limitations of the worst kind of a scenario. IVR is one such idea.

2. IVR System Establishes Brand Image Among Customers

IVR plays a huge role in making the brand image of the company more powerful. The succinct
message of the IVR’s automated voice carries the very ideas of company’s way of dealing with the
customers. And a brand is made with the way every single need of the customers is taken care of.

IVR is a good medium of customer support for startups and small businesses to give the customers a
wider perspective of business. With the help of an IVR system, the caller can easily connect to
different departments such as sales, support etc. Only a company who aims to grow can work
towards stepping up their customer experience and taking care of customers at every touch point.

3. IVR Provides a Platform to Engage with Customers in Real-time

Customer engagement is necessary to keep the customers in the orbit of your business services that
too purposefully. IVRs can easily help in making a promising customer engagement platform for your
business services. A well-designed menu with the pickable options for the customers, where they can
use their wit and interests to go for a suitable choice, gives a sense of involvement with the services.

4. IVR System Routes Call to the Right Department & Agent

A customer may want to speak with a particular agent or may wish to connect with a specific
department. IVRs help very meaningfully in this regard as with just a few presses of buttons, the
caller can easily land in their favourable spot. The sense of good customer support becomes
more imminent once the customer is well routed to his favourable spot. In order to ensure
correct and seamless routing, proper IVR designing measures are needed to be taken.

5. IVR Solution Gives Customers a High Level of Customer Satisfaction

IVR systems are self-help tools that help the customers find a solution on their own without
speaking with a live agent. An IVR system carries a token of customer success and prompts
the customers to get involved in the company’s methodology of doing business even before
availing the services.

2. Voice Broadcasting:

While running a marketing campaign, businesses need to reach out to a large number of customers in
a short span. At present, voice broadcasting is one of the widely used mass communication techniques
that is connecting companies with its target audience.

Like other mass communication technologies, voice broadcasting also has both commercial and
community applications. At present, organizations use voice broadcasting services as a direct
marketing tool to promote products/services, generate leads, conduct market research, and collect
consumer response.

At the same time, the non-profits organization use voice broadcasting solutions to convey a variety of
information to their members, subscribers and donors. Voice broadcasting solution enables people to
record and send voice messages in bulk without investing in hardware-based infrastructure. It further
comes with robust features that help to monitor and boost the performance of voice campaigns.
3. Click to Call:

As a web-based communication technology, click to call enables customers to call a business and talk
to a real human simply by clicking on a specific image, button, text or hyperlink. Most businesses
these days embed click to call option in their websites, mobile apps, digital ads, and ad landing pages
to enable customers to request a callback. The option allows consumers to communicate with a
business/brand at zero cost by requesting a callback.

Click to call helps businesses to generate more leads and receive more orders and inquiries. A
business can enable customers to request a callback by embedding click to call in its website, mobile
apps, ad landing page, and digital ads. It also boosts customer experience and satisfaction and does
not require much investment.

Implementing a click to call solution provides added advantage to businesses without putting burden
on the pockets.