As a Chief Technology Officer or entrepreneur, you may be frustrated by the many issues associated with traditional telephone systems. Sure, they work great most of the time, but they are ridiculously expensive in comparison to other solutions that are just as effective if not more effective. Yet, without a telecommunication system in place, you can’t sell to prospects, help customers with their problems, negotiate with vendors, or develop strategic partnerships.
In addition, you may have a high initial investment for onsite equipment while still not getting all the features your business needs to run smoothly. What’s more, when things do break down, you may not be able to get the immediate support you need to run your business effectively.
Fortunately, here’s some good news: VoIP solves all these problems in one fell swoop. It’s not a passing trend, either. VoIP is here to stay.
The Future is Here Now
VoIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol is the future of transmitting data across distances. It’s used by individuals and small businesses. It’s also used by corporations, multinationals, and governments.
VoIP is used in the U.S. and overseas because it’s commonly thought of as the best solution to cost-effective telecommunications in a downturned global economy.
What is VoIP?
Here’s a simple, to-the-point definition from Webopedia:
“Voice over Internet Protocol is a category of hardware and software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls by sending voice data in packets using IP rather than by traditional circuit transmissions of the PSTN.”
How VoIP Can Help Your Business Today
Since the calls are made over the Internet, you don’t have to worry about surcharges. In other words, there is no extra charge beyond what you’re paying for Internet access.
Think of it like email. You don’t pay extra for email. Similarly, you don’t pay extra for making a call over the Internet.
Advantages of VoIP
There are many advantages of using VoIP. You don’t need on-premise infrastructure, initial investments are low, and the telephony is feature-rich. What’s more, you can enjoy unlimited remote access and get all the support you need should there be a glitch.
Let’s take a closer look at these advantages.
- Off-premise infrastructure. You don’t need to sacrifice office space to host equipment because you don’t need any on-premise VoIP equipment. Your service provider takes care of the PBX systems, which are advanced telecommunication systems on the cloud. Since everything is monitored on the cloud at an offsite location, costs are affordable.
- Low investments. Traditional telephone systems require a high upfront investment. With VoIP, your initial investments are low and your monthly investments are small. You are guaranteed to save money on your telephone system.
- Features. There are an abundance of features for you to choose.
Glancing through the list below, you will quickly see that you can get almost everything you need.
- · auto attendants
- · music on hold
- · voicemail
- · caller ID
- · dial-by-name directories
- · call routing
- · virtual extensions
- · call forwarding
- · call reports
- · call recording
- · call logs
- · unified messaging
- · online fax
- · message on hold
- · desktop integration
- · ring groups
- · Visual Dial Plan Editor call queues
- · Find-Me Follow-Me
- · Intercom
- · speed dial custom schedules
- · online PBX controls
- · call transfers
- · remote access LDAP integration
Interestingly, this is only a small sample of the many features you can get with VoIP.
- Remote access. Since everything is available through remote access, the provider takes care of any updates and fixes any problems that arise. There is nothing for you to do to ensure the best services.
- Support. Since it’s not a perfect world, things do break down due to human error, natural disasters or miscellaneous electronic issues. What do you do in those rare instances when your telecommunication system breaks down?
There are many ways of getting support:
- a. You can get support through an online contact form, email, or a telephone call.
- b. You can get support to train your staff through interactive tutorials.
- c. You can get support if there is something that you don’t understand through comprehensive manuals or online chat support.
Legacy Telephone Systems
If you find that you have to pay high costs for the privilege of effective communications that are keeping your operating costs unnecessarily high, it might be time to consider VoIP.
According to an article entitled Mobile VoIP: The Future of VoIP Technology on Toolbox.com, “Businesses must rationalize that a product that consistently generates a positive return on investment is worth evaluating as a forward-moving strategy for improving business operations.”
Although it may be hard to imagine, since we have had them for so many decades, landline telephone systems will become obsolete. Some experts estimate that it may happen within a decade. Rather than wait for everyone to catch up with the times, why not be an early adopter and begin to save your valuable revenue today? VoIP has proven its value over a sufficiently long time to become the new standard in telecommunications.
