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.

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.