Checklist for migrating your traditional phone system to the cloud

Before starting your migration journey, it’s vital to get clear on why you’re moving to the cloud. Document your vision and plans – it’ll help you gain support from decision makers across your business.

Most businesses move to cloud communications to upgrade aging systems, improve reliability, or support more flexible ways of working. Others want to simplify support for IT teams or cut rising maintenance costs.

Start by:

• Gathering input from across the business.
• Understanding what’s working (and what’s not) with your current setup.
• How much are you spending on maintenance and associated fees with your current systems.
• Mapping how your goals align with what cloud calling offers.
• Understanding what are your competitors doing. Is collaboration making a difference for them?

While defining your business needs, it’s critical to consider the impact and risk of maintaining the status quo. While there’s always the option of doing nothing, that choice entails both risks and rewards.

Clear use cases are essential for getting buy-in and delivering real outcomes. Start by considering how better collaboration tools could improve both qualitative and quantitative results. For example:

• Better internal communication leads to faster decision making
• More time spent with customers drives more sales
• Mobile working boosts flexibility and responsiveness

Speak to key teams like sales, customer service, and remote workers to explore:

• How well does the current solution work?
• What would a more modern collaboration setup look like for them?

Engage industry experts too. They can share real-world examples, demos, and ideas to help you build stronger, more relatable use cases.

In the past, most businesses only had one option: an on-site phone system. Today, cloud services offer far greater advantages like:

• Agility: Scale and evolve as your needs change
• Flexibility: Predictable costs and easy upgrades
• Resilience: Cloud providers manage redundancy and uptime, often with built-in SLAs

On-site systems, by contrast, often involve major capital investments, constant upgrades, and unpredictable maintenance projects. With cloud, communication becomes a simple operating expense — and your provider takes care of updates and improvements automatically.

A pilot programme is a great way to ‘try before you buy’ your plans before a full roll-out.

By customising a ready-to-go solution for a small group of users (such as the stakeholders who helped you build your use cases), you can:

• Collect valuable feedback
• Identify any issues early
• Build stronger buy-in before a wider launch
   

Other risk-reduction strategies include:

• Choosing a provider with a proven track record in network assessments
• Using a professional project manager to oversee deployment
• Phasing your roll-out site-by-site
• Testing post-deployment support in advance
• Communicating clearly with employees at every stage
  
  

Early employee involvement in planning cultivates supporters who help drive adoption across the organisation.

Once your migration is complete, go back to your original stakeholders. Review the outcomes you set out to achieve - and highlight the real-world results.

Successful migrations often open the door to further improvements. For instance, better communication among sales teams might naturally lead to exploring improved collaboration with suppliers and customers too. According to research by MIT Sloan, digital collaboration tools help employees stay connected no matter where they are.***

Embracing this shift means you’re not just upgrading your phone system -you’re preparing your business for a more flexible, future-ready way of working.

BT Cloud Work is designed to integrate seamlessly into your existing apps and workflows. Our experts are here to support you every step of the way – helping you make the most of every feature.

Explore BT Cloud Work to get started.