Hi! Due to the current world wide issue of Covid 19, we are looking for a solution that would allow us to send out updates to our local community regarding service updates, news updates etc to a pre-defined phone number list of cellphones and land lines. We are looking for a cloud based product that SMS and autodialer communications can be sent in one platform. Your products seem to have that ability but seem to be split between a locally installed software and a cloud solution? Any information you can lend me would be awesome!

First of all, the software in our cloud service and on-premise version is exactly the same software. So feature wise there is no difference. The following are the main differences:

The cloud service includes telephone service and SMS service

The cloud is super easy. All you need to do is sign up for a cloud account and start using it.

The on-premise software is installed on your own computer and can be configured to use your own telephone service.

If install and maintain the software is not a main issue for your organization, the cost of phone usage usually determines whether you use the cloud or on-premise. The cloud phone service ranges from $0.04 to $0.015 per minute. So for low call volume, it is much better to go with the cloud service. You save a lot of money by not having to maintain a computer for the software and to add more work for your IT staff.

For high call volume, especially if your current phone service already have the capacity, then it is much cheaper to use our on-premise software. For many organizations, this may not add any more cost to your phone service. The software can be configured to use your current PBX systems.

So what kind of call volume makes sense for the on-premise solution. The calculation is pretty straightforward if not counting your own computer and IT staff cost. For example, if your monthly call volume is 100,000 calls, assuming 1 minute per call, for our cloud service the phone usage cost will be $0.015 x 100,000 = $1,500. If your own phone service cost you half of that to make these calls, then the difference is $750. For many organizations, if they have existing computers and IT staff can main the software, then the saving makes sense. For others, this saving hardly covers the IT staff’s time.

On-premise software offers more control

The on-premise software is installed on your own computer, that means you have 100% control of it. Your data never leaves your organization. For certain regulated industries, this data security is a must.

In addition, if you have to use a lot of API for software integration, then on-premise software is for you. For example, direct access to database using SQL statement is not allowed on the cloud service.

We are looking at a campaign that leaves messages and offers customers a chance to respond.  If we would place calls on perhaps 3000 per day with a 35 second message, and have an average of 10 responses, what would you estimate the cost in phone minutes to be?  Secondly, any idea how many lines would need to be dedicated to do this?

First, estimate the total minutes

Phone services measure call time from the time a call is answered, either by a human or a machine, till the time it is disconnected. So for live answer, the estimated time is about 40 seconds for a 35 second message. For machine answer, assuming 15 second machine prompt, then the estimated time will be 60 seconds. You can normally ignore the 10 responses when estimating since it is a tiny fraction of all the calls.

A 40 second call will be billed around 0.7 minute per call. (please see pricing FAQ online about our 30/6 billing method). The actual time is usually shorter since people may not listen to the whole message. Machine answer will be billed around 1 minute per call.

Estimate the % of live answer

Assuming 50% calls goes to machine. You can easily get the total minutes needed for 3000 calls.

1500 x 0.7 + 1500 x 1 = 2550 (minutes or credit)

Estimate Lines

The time needed to finish the 3000 calls will be longer than 2550 minutes since you must include the ring time. Assuming 20 second for that, you need to add 1000 minute (20 / 60 x 3000) to the total call time. That’s 3550 minutes.

If you run the campaign 8 hours per day. Then each line uses 480 minutes. So the total line needed will be 8 Lines (3550 / 480 = 7.3)