Telecommunications have been around for a very long time. Much longer than most people think. When the first electric telegraph went into commercial service in 1837, steam power was still new-fangled and the Victorian Era hadn’t even begun!
Phones came along a little later, in 1876. If the world started speeding up with the telegraph, then telephones dumped coal into the boiler. The term “revolutionary” is scarcely adequate to describe how the world changed. And with each technological innovation in telephony, things sped up yet more. The communication industry became a runaway train. It still is.
The first automatic telephone exchange went into service in a post office in Epsom, UK, in May of 1912. Until then, if you wanted to make a call, there was no dialling: you picked up the handset and talked to a “hello lady” who would arrange the connection – either directly or by herself negotiating with other “hello ladies” further down the line. The Epsom exchange bypassed much of this double-handling. Still, it would take decades for the job of “hello lady” to vanish entirely. (The modern receptionist is arguably its modern continuation/evolution).
See, while automated telephone exchanges meant the public didn’t need to use a “hello lady” for most calls, big businesses still did. Until the advent of the PBX, every phone in a business had its own line. This was unwieldy and expensive. With a PBX though, many different phones could be routed down just a few lines through the use of primitive switchboards. A new kind of “hello lady”, called an operator, would make and break phone connections by hand by plugging and unplugging various lines.
If you’ve ever seen an old movie where some businessman picks up the phone in his office and barks “Operator, get me an outside line!”, now you know what was going on. Yep, he had to ask someone to physically connect his phone each time he wanted to use it. And when he hung up, it’s not just that the call ended, his phone would be immediately disconnected too!
Today, things are very different. Today, we are always on. Always connected. Modern telecommunications technology combined with fast internet broadband has seen off the “hello ladies” and operators and brought about the age of cloud PBX. It is a revolutionary technology that uses the internet to direct, host and carry calls.
It’s not just change for change’s sake. Cloud PBX systems bring many advantages for businesses too. You can work from anywhere. You can stop worrying about reliability. You can skip the maintenance bills. You can enjoy a high level of security. You can even save money. Plus, there are many powerful extra features to level-up your workflows.
For any small, medium or large business, it’s important for your clients to be able to easily get in touch. Upgrading your business phone system could feel like a tedious task with so many different phone systems to choose from. However, Smart Cloud Phone makes it easy through offering a variety of cloud-based phone systems.
So give Smart Cloud Phone a call and have a chat. Here are some things to think about before your call:
- How many incoming lines would you require?
- How many staff require desk phones anyway?
- Would headsets be a better option than handsets?
What’s more, Smart Cloud Phone has no lock-in contracts and can even assist you with on-hold messages, IVRs, auto-attendants and after-hours messages. There’s even a call centre option where their staff act as your phone reception team.
So, call Smart Cloud Phone on 07 3185 1111 or, to fidn out more online, go to https://smartcloudphone.com.au.