Microsoft and Google are currently locked in a battle to dominate the landscape of communications and productivity solutions for local businesses, and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) is a major aspect of this fight.
Over the last few years, Microsoft has greatly expanded its Office productivity software suite into what can be described as a rich ecosystem solution for businesses of all sizes. Many companies in Apple Valley and Victorville have been using Microsoft Office for decades, and thus it makes sense for them to choose Office 365 for business productivity and communications.
What Office 365 offers to business owners is the ability to choose from several subscription plans that conform to the size of the business and its needs. In essence, all Office 365 plans offer business email, cloud storage, productivity apps, and some level of VoIP communications via Skype. The pricing is reasonable for what Microsoft offers.
According to a recent report published in The Register (UK), Google is partnering with a VoIP firm to offer improved communications for local businesses. The idea is to compete against Skype and Office 365, but that will always be a long shot unless Google Docs can vastly improve in terms of functionality, features, user interface, etc.
It is important to note that the VoIP solutions provided by Office 365 and Google Apps for Business are not full communications solutions. Skype, Google Hangouts, and Google Voice are ideal for individual communications with some level of collaboration, but they are not the comprehensive VoIP installations that Sonic Systems offers.
The VoIP packages offered within Office 365 and Google Apps are not like the SonicVoIP Phone System, which expands on the traditional concept of business switchboards. When Microsoft and Google offer VoIP, they call the shots and control a good portion of the communications process; with SonicVoIP, business owners in Apple Valley and Victorville get full control over their office communications.