Hosted Phone Solutions Are Greener: Alteva

Hosted/SaaS (News - Alert) contact center platforms are arguably less up-front and supportwise, costly and more flexible, than premise-license solutions.

Yet are they greener – even though they require information being pumped back and forth from the hosted servers over networks, sometimes over great distances, that in doing so consumes electricity, as opposed to the shorter paths between the server boxes and the agents’ desktops?

Alteva argues that they are. Based on its research, when a customer chooses a hosted- versus a premise-based phone solution for its communications, they contribute to an overall reduction in resources and costs of power and cooling by up to 84 percent.

With data drawn from today’s Alteva (News - Alert) subscriber base and the reduction of premise-based equipment, the firm estimates that its solutions reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 900,000 pounds per year. This is equivalent to the emissions generated in 64 average homes annually. 

Additional contributing factors to such hosted-service savings include ability to support teleworking i.e. home-based agents, video conferencing and remote meetings, less maintenance and site support visits, lower power consumption, money saved on gas, reduced traffic congestion and carbon dioxide and other emissions pollution.

(If anything, Alteva’s savings estimates are conservative. Reduced emissions can also translate into fewer healthcare costs by avoiding debilitating illnesses such as asthma and less accidents.)

Alteva calculated the average number of users per customer and identified the likely premise-based solutions that would serve those customers. It took the average consumption of those solutions and multiplied them by Alteva’s number of customers. It then compared those numbers against its actual consumption of its Voice Service Platform.

“Clearly one system with 40,000 users is much more efficient than say 800 50 user systems and one set of power supplies compared to 800 sets,” explains William Bumbernick, CEO, Alteva. “There are many other efficiencies with hosted as well but the greener component is the target.”

With the help of Alteva, PTR Baler and Compactor Company (PTR), a manufacturer of cardboard balers and waste compactors for the retail industry, has started a company wide green initiative. Initially, PTR implemented several grassroots efforts to break down its trash stream in order to recycle more. Since this effort, Alteva says PTR noticed that many green projects not only had sustainability benefits, but also cost savings associated with them and implemented additional green initiatives. 

PTR put in Alteva’s hosted VoIP solution to manage incoming calls for its 24/7 service operation, parts ordering and sales calls. In addition to the disaster recovery and operational benefits of Alteva’s hosted solution, PTR will realize a savings of $2,711.33/month in non-cellular phone costs in 2010 compared to 2008 averages, amounting to $32,532 this fiscal year. 

PTR also had LCD monitors installed on desktops to replace older CRT screens, programmable thermostats (heating/cooling savings), motion sensors installed in bathroom, conference room and lunch room to turn lights off when not in use. It also hoisted in huge fans in the plant to reduce heating costs by 20 percent in winter and high efficiency lighting wired in to reduce lighting energy costs. It also received rebates from utility PECO (News - Alert) for over $20,000 with this initiative.

There is also another green benefit from hosted solutions and that is less e-waste.

“In my scenario above, one hosted system needs to be disposed of as compared to 800,” says Bumbernick.