Managed Voice Services 101

Managed voice services (sometimes referred to as managed communication services) involve a third-party provider managing and maintaining your organization’s communication systems. 

Before VoIP (voice over internet protocol) technology became popular, a managed voice provider would be responsible for maintaining your private branch exchange (PBX) phone system. Cloud communication tools are a bit simpler to manage and maintain, but setting them up and securing them, plus the day-to-day tasks like adding new users aren’t typically what internal IT teams would prefer to spend their day on, nor is it probably the best use of their time.

Today’s managed voice services can take many different forms, depending on the type of communication system you use. 

However, here’s what’s typically included in a managed voice contract: 

• Communication components and software
• Facilitating integrations with other business software
• 24/7 monitoring and support
• System updates and maintenance
• Security of your communication tools
• Ongoing optimization
• User management
• Analytics and reporting tools

Just like any managed service, managed voice is not the right solution for every organization. However, here are a few signs that your organization might want to consider it: 

• Your IT department is struggling to keep on top of important patches and updates 
• You’d like to better accommodate remote or hybrid work 
• You’d like to save money on your phone bills and get more predictable budgeting
• Reliable voice communication is very important to gaining and retaining clients, and you’ve had struggles with your current system
• You’d like to opt out of periodically overhauling your phone system 
• You’d like to take advantage of advanced communication technology, but without the upfront investment or configuration these tools often require

How Often Do Traditional Phone Systems Need To Be Replaced?

Chatbots, text, email, and instant messaging are all great tools. But contrary to popular opinion, most customers still want to be able to get quick answers over the phone. And here are the stats to prove it: 

• 77% of people still believe a phone call is the most effective way to get answers
• 38% of communication is accomplished entirely by a particular tone of voice
• Ridiculously long hold times are customers’ number one service complaint

But wait, communication tools themselves can’t solve problems like long hold times, making customers repeat themselves, and maddening IVR prompts, right? Well, as it turns out, many of them can. So the next time you call a company and have to wait on hold, only to find yourself talking to multiple reps who seem to have no information about who you are or what you need, know that they desperately need a tech upgrade. 

So let’s explore what’s out there…

One of the reasons that managed voice services probably remains underrated is that communication technology these days can be confusing to research online, and some of these tools didn’t have the chance to fully prove their worth until 2020.

Cloud Voice/Hosted Voice Services/(VaaS) Voice as a Service

Cloud voice relies on VoIP technology and currently goes by many different names, including what we’ve listed above and a few others like hosted VoIP. Sorry about that! If this is helpful to know, VoIP is the technology that makes internet calling possible, and the service itself is provided through the cloud — hence the overlapping terms. 

Hosted voice typically includes the following features: 

• Advanced call routing tools 
• Simplified call transfer/forwarding/conferencing
• Unlimited calling
• Auto attendant
• Extension numbers and number changes
• Instant messaging
• Voicemail 
• Voicemail to text/email tools
• Online fax services
• Automatic call distribution
• Analytics
• Post-call surveys
• Auto dialing
• Call recording

Cloud voice makes it easy for small businesses to get advanced features at a relatively low price. Plus, since calls are made and received over the internet, desktop phones are actually optional. Some businesses might prefer to have physical phones, but others might prefer to save space and infrastructure costs and just use “softphones” instead (apps that enable voice calling).

Unified Communications as a Service

Before 2020, most technology providers wouldn’t recommend unified communications tools for small businesses that didn’t have special collaboration needs. While many of its benefits were already evident, common thought at the time was that it was a “nice to have” not a “need to have.” 

But before we talk about what changed our minds, let’s talk about what unified communications actually is. 

As the name suggests, unified communications (UC) includes all of the typical features you’d find with cloud voice, but also adds many more, like video conferencing, email, meeting and scheduling tools, collaboration and project management tools, and more. It’s an all-encompassing solution that helps companies move away from overlapping communication tools and the problems they can cause into one streamlined, very powerful platform. 

Believe it or not, you may already be familiar with a portion of the top UC platforms. If you use Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Webex just for video conferencing, then you’ve gotten just a hint of just how user-friendly this type of software can be.

However, if you’re thinking, “Replacing multiple communication streams with one more powerful tool doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, ” then you can sympathize with a lot of tech providers pre-2020. Turns out, though, we were wrong.

Benefits of Unified Communications

Here are just the few benefits that come along with simplicity: 

• Streamlining the onboarding process
• Reducing confusion and workplace frustration
• Making it easier to find important conversations and files
• Cutting communication costs
• Boosting collaboration and innovation
• Reducing errors
• Improving customer service
• Empowering remote and hybrid work
• Reducing hierarchies 
• Increasing productivity organization-wide 

Just how much productivity are we talking about? The math is in. An organization with 100 employees with an average salary of $50,000 can save $464,000 worth of productivity and gain the equivalent of 9.28 salaried employees. 

At this point, you might be thinking, “Why not just purchase a unified communications tool?” You certainly can. But implementing unified communications is a significant undertaking, and most organizations will be better served if they partner with a provider, and purchase unified communications as a service (UCaaS) instead.

Not sure if VoIP or UCaaS is the right choice? Click the link below! 

Compare Top Voice Solutions

While cloud voice and UC tools are often welcome upgrades for many businesses, it’s important to remember that not every region has the reliable internet service these tools require. Many businesses might also need to upgrade their network as they adopt more cloud solutions. So while hosted voice and unified communications are trending for a reason, we also offer managed voice solutions for clients with on-premises systems.

Marco Managed Voice (MMV)

Marco Managed Voice is designed to help clients with on-premises PBX systems. Owning your own PBX system requires a significant upfront investment. But if you don’t need to accommodate remote or hybrid employees, it can potentially provide you with more ROI over time than a cloud solution. 

If you’d like that benefit without all of the ongoing responsibilities that come along with it, then this solution might be a good fit.

Marco VaaS

If cloud voice sounded intriguing, Marco VaaS is designed specifically for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) to take advantage of VoIP technology without having to buy and maintain their own equipment. It’s also an easy way to access advanced business voice features while only paying for what you need. 

Marco UnifiedCollaboration

We’ve recently revamped our UCaaS solution to offer clients more value — including making video conferencing more productive and immersive, and ultimately, more like face-to-face communication. And because of our gold partner status with Cisco, not only are our technicians highly skilled at supporting and securing Webex, but we can also make sure you get the ROI that this tool is capable of delivering. 

Those are our managed service offerings, but we have a variety of other solutions out there for businesses that just want to upgrade their equipment or switch to VoIP. In fact, because we work with a number of telecom companies across the US, we also provide free carrier assessments to see if we can find you a better deal. 

However, we are finding that the clients that do switch to UCaaS have said that they’d never go back to just a plain old telephone system. It would be almost as unthinkable as going back to a flip phone. 

See UCaaS in Action

Here are a few questions we often get from businesses that already know their phone system needs a reboot and want their next upgrade to go smoother than their last.

When Should You Start Planning for an Update?

Depending on the phone system you choose, getting a new one installed can take 45–90 days, and it’s not uncommon to start planning for an upgrade 6–12 months in advance. 

However, if you choose a managed voice solution, your provider will do the bulk of implementing, securing, and managing your solution, not you.

What Should You Know About Implementing UCaaS?

We touched on this earlier, but while unified communications tools are extremely simple to use, implementing them can be another story — especially for businesses that go it alone.

When we work with new UCaaS clients, installation happens very quickly. But we also provide quite a bit of end-user training to help employees adjust to the new tools. We also recommend providing thorough communication and thinking through every user, every extension, and every phone number.

Why Did We Choose Webex for Our UCaaS Solution?

Microsoft Teams is also a great choice, and we can help clients get a better deal than they would if they were buying directly. However, we always pay attention to the Gartner Magic Quadrant when we make these kinds of decisions. Webex by Cisco has achieved “leader” status for five years in a row.

Because we’re a service provider, our relationships with customers are long-term, not transactional. So it’s in our best interests to recommend solutions that will make our clients happy! We feel confident that Webex will provide our clients with a significant amount of ROI — and that our skilled team can help them unlock even more.

Who’s Marco?

Hi! Nice to meet you! Marco is actually a reference to our founders’ last names. Technically speaking, we’re technology providers. But you’ll find that we’re a little different because we prefer to talk in terms of business outcomes. 

If a new phone system is in your future, you’re always welcome to talk to a human. But if you’re still just researching, you’re welcome to click around! 

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