With cloud services and Voice over IP, first impressions are not everything

Business customers have really embraced the two major trends of cloud services and VoIP. But even if the offers all seem similar at first glance, it's worth taking a closer look. There may be significant differences between the services offered, particularly with regards to security and data protection. Allow me to give you two examples that briefly explain what is important:

1. Highly confidential: customer management in the cloud

Contact centre services represent one of the most exciting growth areas — especially when you consider the possibilities opened up by the cloud. This technology presents a whole host of new options: from placing telecommunications software that simply stores call data such as routing and reporting information in the cloud, right the way through to moving the entire CRM system to the cloud. What is important here is earning customers' trust. Despite all of the publicised issues experienced by some major companies, it has been possible to store customer data securely in the cloud, while complying with data protection requirements, for quite some time. We see enormous potential for relocating services to the cloud, and as such are offering solutions that both meet our customers' security needs and satisfy consumer protection requirements.

2. Voice over IP — not without fraud management

Voice over IP (VoIP) is now also widely used for business communication. When used in such a context, it is essential to ensure that effective fraud management measures are in place to monitor and analyse all data traffic. Voice packets are of course transported quickly and securely via dedicated IP connections, but just as with the majority of conventional telephone systems maintained over the Internet, the Internet connection is open to attack. However, in the case of VoIP, a reliable monitoring tool is used to detect abnormalities in the VoIP traffic profile; the tool then informs the customer and blocks routes as necessary. This type of service will continue to increase in importance, and will ultimately become just as important as the technology itself: After all, the financial losses caused by a hacked PBX can quickly negate the cost savings achieved by migrating to a VoIP-based telephone system.

What do you look for in cloud and VoIP solutions? Do you already have experiences to share — good or bad? We look forward to reading your comments.