VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. It is a fast-growing type of phone system that uses the internet to make and receive calls. Imagine that with a reasonable quality Internet connection you can make calls using your computer to anywhere in the world with drastically lower costs than using your regular landline.
It’s likely that you used one of the famous VoIP applications on your phone or computer before without knowing that they are using a VoIP system. Skype, for example, is one of the leading applications in the VoIP world, with more than 300 million subscribers. It offers free Skype-to-Skype audio and video calls, as well as free text messaging. It also offers other advanced tools and services for really low fees, such as remote conference meetings for businesses and calling other landlines or mobile phones around the world. Other examples of famous apps that use VoIP system are Viber, Facebook Messenger, and Google Voice.
Read on to learn more about the benefits of using VoIP in your business’ telecommunications.
If you are running a business that operates in multiple locations then your monthly phone bill must be quite high, that’s because in many places, voice communications through landline are very costly, especially when they are made to different area codes. A VoIP system can solve this issue and provide many other advanced services that your regular phone can’t provide. Most of the businesses today use the internet on a daily basis and are already paying for a broadband subscription.
VoIP uses the Internet as a backbone, which means that for a small monthly subscription you can talk as long as you want without paying any extra fees at the end of the month. In fact, studies have shown that using VoIP system instead of the regular landline telephone system can potentially reduce you phone bill up to 40% on local calls, and up to 90% on international calls. This means that if you are running a local business, switching to VoIP will still save a lot of money from your monthly bill while giving you the choice of many useful services for your business, such as conference calls and video and text messages. Think about it this way, why pay more when you can get a better service for much less?
VoIP systems have been around for many years, but people were not as familiar with it as today. There is still distrust of VoIP systems because VoIP depends completely on the Internet, and the Internet connection in the past was slow and unreliable. However, the past few years witnessed a tremendous development in the reliability and speed of the Internet, with more than 3.7 million people in the world are now online. This big development has positively affected the reliability of VoIP and encouraged more people and businesses to start using it in their telecommunications.
VoIP delivers calls that sound as good as the old telephone service, but are much cheaper with the added offer of more flexibility and tailored features for small businesses. If you decide to use VoIP, make sure you have a good, stable Internet connection and that your VoIP provider offers hosted VoIP services. Hosted VoIP means that your provider carries voice traffic on its own private network, which means you’re less likely to experience any degraded call quality due to jitters and packet loss.
When it comes to introducing VoIP to a new client, the most frequent question we hear is: Can I use my existing telephone equipment with VoIP? The answer is not that simple. From a technical point of view, you can keep and use your existing equipment, but a third-party device needs to be installed so the VoIP lines can function correctly with your old phone system. That being said, your old landline system and your old equipment are not built to provide all the advanced tools and features that your new flexible VoIP system has to offer. This means that if you choose to keep your old equipment, you won’t be able to enjoy all the benefits of VoIP.
Imagine connecting the internet to a very old mobile phone that doesn’t even has an internet browser. You’ll still be able to make and receive calls but you won’t be able to actually use the internet or install any new application. That doesn’t sound right, does it? On the other hand, you’ll be paying one company to install and maintain your VoIP system, while paying another one to maintain your existing phone equipment. This overlap may increase your bill rather than reducing it. So why bother? If you are one of those people who are reluctant to adopt new technologies because they find it hard for them to learn how to use it, don’t worry, you are not alone.
VoIP providers know that most of their clients have no clue of how to use their new phone system. They will introduce you to the VoIP world in small steps so you can learn everything you need to know about your new system as easily and quickly as possible. VoIP equipment is very affordable, and what you need depends on what services you will use. You might just need to get a simple headset with your PC, or a full set of network equipment including VoIP routers and phone adapters. Keep in mind that many VoIP providers will give you the choice to pay the price of your new equipment as monthly instalments, meaning that you’ll enjoy a new VoIP system up and running at minimum cost.
Having a reliable and cost-effective telephone system in a business gets way more complicated when this business operates in multiple locations or has a wide geographical coverage, such as retailers and organizations with multiple regional, national, or international offices. Before VoIP, these businesses had to rely on expensive and unreliable solutions for their telecommunications. Starting from using multiple phone systems and expensive lease contracts to paying a high rate for each minute spent on a call.
With VoIP, you can have all the different offices and workers in your business connected to one unified network. This means, you can simply transfer a call between an office in London, for example, and another one in Sheffield with the simple press of a button. This is not only more convenient to your business, but also to your clients who will find the service or support that your business provides can be easily reached and your customer service impeccable.
The advanced fixed line telephony system that VoIP provides give you the advantage of using your office telephone number from anywhere, this means you can be travelling or simply decided to work from home and your clients can still reach you very easily. This feature is particularly ideal for businesses that require their workers in the field for marketing or projects but still need to keep in touch with colleagues.
Business owners often worry if the existing infrastructures in their companies can be adjusted easily and quickly when they decide to scale up their operations. Unlike the old antiquated landlines, the wireless nature of VoIP allows you to easily increase the number of phone stations and extensions or add any features and services to your business with no downtime to the phone system. You also don’t need to worry about finding an extra space to fit in a bigger communication centre and what additional costs that might bring.
VoIP cloud-based technology allows it to grow quickly using minimum space and workforce. In fact, you can even hand over your communication operation and maintenance to a remote person or remote automated virtual assistant service. This option often comes within your VoIP installation package, meaning that you’ll not only be save on maintenance costs but also put your mind at peace and focus on what is really matters, your business.
In the old telecommunication world, each phone number has an area code that denote your location. For example, a 0113 is fixed to Leeds and a 0207 number is fixed to Central London. The area code not only shows your actual location but also plays a significant role in determining your monthly bill. In other words, you’ll pay the standard rate for calling any number that shares your area code, and extra fees for calling numbers that are located in different locations.
VoIP advanced technology allows you to choose any geographical number no matter where you are actually located. This means your clients will be able to reach you through a local number, paying the standard low rate for their calls even if you are located in a different country. Having a local number also gives your business a local appeal within regional or foreign markets, which increases leads and sales.
Geographical numbering could also be beneficial for individual staff members who travel a lot or are based in another country but still have a family in the UK. Having a number with a local area code of where their families live means that their loved ones can call them for the cost of a local call even if they are actually located thousands of miles away. Keeping remote staff happy is great for business too.
One of the frequent questions we hear from clients looking to move into VoIP world is: will the voice quality of my new VoIP telephone be as good as the old landline? The answer is: it depends. VoIP system uses bigger bandwidth than analogue telephony, which means that the quality of voice should be higher. On the other hand, calls through VoIP are very, very small themselves and will barely impact your internet speeds.
If you have already overstretched your existing bandwidth with many services and applications competing over the same line, such as video streaming applications, then you might experience a poor voice quality that usually appears in the form of “jitter”. This could be easily solved with a little of bandwidth management at your end with a little help and advice from your VoIP provider. Alternatively, you can increase the bandwidth of your Internet connection if this is more convenient to you and your business.
In the world of business, technology plays a vital role in creating new tools and systems to help employers and employees get the job done faster and more effectively. One of the great tools that VoIP technology brought is the ability for your workers to communicate and collaborate more effectively even when they are located in remote areas. This is simply because VoIP system allows you to have a phone call with more than one person at the same time. Imagine that you could have a business meeting or a conference calls with all your workers at the same time even if you are located in different areas or working together on one project at different sites. This tool can reduce transportation costs, save a lot of time, and provide more flexibility to your workers.
When it comes to VoIP, it’s important to understand that it’s more than just a telephone. It’s an advanced technology that provides limitless features and tools to help in your business development. These tools include among others: sending photos and text messages, as well as making video calls and sharing files instantly with any co-worker or client. The ability to do so will make communication easier and quicker between your workers and your clients, allowing you to use more time to increase the number of operations in your business and achieve more goals.
Have you ever thought of how much equipment and underground wiring a typical landline system (PSTN) requires to function properly? Underground wiring is not always coated with environmental friendly materials and could eventually release dangerous chemicals into the ground, not to mention the need to repair and replace parts of the landline system and its equipment every time a system becomes outdated, which creates a great amount of waste.
Unlike landlines, Voice over IP requires less wiring and equipment thanks to its cloud-based system. It also needs less energy to function because it mainly relies on your internet connection, which means that the only energy you’ll be using is the same energy that is used to run your internet connection. But that’s not all. The advanced technology that VoIP uses and its various services have many environmentally-friendly properties. For example, imagine how much paper you could save with VoIP Fax over IP service that allows you to send faxes right from your PC without the need to print out a hard copy. Or how much carbon transmission you could reduce when your workers have the choice to work from home or are not required to travel to or back from site locations just to attend a meeting or participate in a conference.
In simple words, in a world where everyone is "going green," switching to VoIP could be your little contribution.
Growing up in a world where telephones have limited usage and functions has made us less aware of the many great features that an advanced telephone system could offer to facilitate our work and contribute in its development. When you choose VoIP, you are not paying or accepting a fixed package of services that you won’t use. You’re only paying for what you actually need, and even better: You can have a personalised system that is tailored and unique in its features to meet the requirements of your company.
Voice over IP users are increasing steadily and people are now more aware of the limitless advantages of adopting VoIP in their businesses telecommunications and even in their individual uses. However, the question that we should ask is: will VoIP offer the same level of security that the old PTSN system has provided? To begin with, it is important to understand that both of the networks are not entirely secure, and that both of them can be hacked. Technically, phone companies and governments, and even criminals can always find a way to listen to any wired or wireless conversation when they want to. You should always take the regular measures to ensure a secure call with your clients whether you’re using a VoIP or PTSN network. For example, don’t call a customer and discuss his/her private information in a crowded room, or don’t leave your communication hub open in front of anyone. Your VoIP provider will discuss with you the different measures that they take to enhance the security of your VoIP network.
One of the most effective and important measures is data encryption. Fortunately, there are many VOIP-encryption products available and they help to secure your call all the way to your phone server. Other examples of security measures that VoIP providers usually take are: locking all phones in the company with strong passwords. Setting up a customized daily limit on phone calls. And limiting the international call service to one or two phones in the company. However, if you are using VoIP right from your PC, then make sure that the security software in your device is always up-to-date and that your PC is not infected by any trojan or virus.
Group hunt is a practical feature that transfers an incoming call to the next available agent if the first line was busy or no one answered it. You can have up to 30 different hunt groups in your system, and you can customize these hunt groups in many different ways. For example, you can set up your hunt group to transfer the call to the next extension in the list until it reaches a non-busy line. Or you can choose to broadcast the call so it simultaneously rings at each non-busy telephone in the hunt group. You can also set your system up to redirect calls to voicemail, landlines or a mobile phone. This is particularly useful in businesses that provide 24 Hours support lines.
There are many tools that a VoIP system provides to help you monitor and develop the way your staff handle the calls of your clients. For example, you can use the “whispering” tool to listen in on a call then “whisper” to the agent some useful feedback or advice that the other caller won’t hear. You can also use the “call recording” tool to listen and identify the best practices to handle certain situations or questions on the phone, or you can use it to assess and review the performance of your employees.
Another handy tool that VoIP provides is the “call analytics”. With this tool, you can track in real-time the duration and call times of all your employee’s phone conversations as well as phone leads, network performance, and more in order to assess your customer experience, identify the weak points, and perform the necessary corrections to maintain a productive and efficient workforce.
The advantages of using VoIP system seems limitless. It’s the underlying technology that powers the way we connect with each other on a daily basis across the world. VoIP abilities, however, are still developing, making it literally the technology of the future. Join this amazing technology now. Fill the form and let us help you choose which VoIP provider is the best for your business.
