Are you a business owner? If so, how many of these six advantages of VOIP services are you aware of? Click here to learn how this product could help to improve communications within your company!
Technology permeates the business environment. You work on notebook computers, tablets, and smartphones. You rely on your IT guy for software licensing and installations.
There’s a good chance you at least discussed whether or not a was the best option for your website. Incidentally, unless you run a high-traffic, high-transaction website, it probably is a good option.
Plus, there’s the phone system in your office that runs over the Internet. Wait, you don’t run a VoIP system?
Not everyone likes VoIP systems because power and Internet outages make them inoperable. On the whole, though, the advantages of VoIP outweigh the disadvantages.
Still on the fence about making phone calls over a computer network? Keep reading and we’ll dig into six of the big VoIP benefits you should know about.
1. Cheaper
One of the main drivers of landline costs is that signals must travel over physical lines and move through multiple exchanges. That journey racks up fees, which helps explain why international calls cost so much.
VoIP calls travel primarily over the internet as data packets. Transmitting data costs substantially less than transmitting analog signals.
This cuts down on the overhead for VoIP providers. In turn, they can offer their phone services at more affordable prices.
With more and more business conducted internationally, the financial savings top the list of VoIP benefits.
2. Scaleable
One of the main problems with traditional phone lines is that adding more lines is rarely simple or cheap. Worse still, you’re stuck with the bill if you add a line you don’t need. Sure, you can get it removed, but that’ll probably cost you as well.
This problem is a particular pain point for entrepreneurs with growing businesses. Predicting the number of your employees more than a couple months in advance is often a nigh-impossible task.
Scaleability is a key VoIP benefit. Adding additional lines is often as easy as making a few mouse clicks. If you reach the point that you’ve got dozens of people in the office, VoIP can accommodate that too.
Some companies offer hosted phone systems, which act a bit like cloud-based VoIP PBX systems. Some, like Gamma Telecom, also offer SIP trunking. SIP trunking is like an on-site VoIP PBX system.
Both of these options make adding or removing lines a comparatively simple exercise.
3. Can Support Old Phone Technology
You wake up one morning and consider making the switch from traditional landlines to VoIP.
Later that day, you look around at your business. You see countless phones and even a fax machine built for landline service.
The thought of replacing all of those phones makes you shudder. Plus, you still need that fax machine for legal documents. Before you abandon all your VoIP plans, there’s good news.
You can avoid the expense of replacing all of those phones. Instead, all you need are some analog telephone adapters. These devices typically let several regular phones and fax machines work through VoIP systems.
You can hang on to your functional equipment and enjoy the advantages of VoIP.
4. Lots of Features
One reason that some businesses hang onto their landline phone systems is the fear of losing important features. For example, a traditional multi-line phone system lets you put calls on hold, transfer calls, or send calls to voicemail.
You needn’t fear losing essential features. Contemporary VoIP phone systems come with an impressive range of features, such as:
- routing calls to mobile devices
- door buzzer integration
- do not disturb options
- conference calls/management
- even voicemail transcriptions sent to your email
- click-to-call
- high-def audio
Of course, each VoIP provider offers their own special blend of features and service tiers. It might take a little comparison shopping, but there are good odds you can get every feature you want.
5. Less Complex Infrastructure
Traditional private branch exchanges are bulky contraptions. The more lines you need, the bulkier and more complicated the PBX system becomes. Depending on your company’s setup, you might end up sacrificing an entire room in the name of letting people make phone calls.
Setting up a PBX generally takes someone with specialized training. By the same token, that also means that it takes someone with specialized training to perform any repairs. So, if anything goes wrong, you wait for the phone company’s repair person to make an appearance.
You can probably handle a VoIP system installation yourself unless it’s an extremely tricky install. There’s little in the way of bulky equipment sitting around because the system lives on your network. Most of the work happens in user-friendly software.
6. Much Easier Upgrades
The physical nature of landline systems makes upgrades problematic. If there is a big technical breakthrough, it probably means tearing out the old infrastructure and replacing it.
One of the advantages of VoIP is that it’s mostly software. Significant breakthroughs typically translate into new audio codecs or algorithms. These improvements get handled through periodic patches to the software.
Assuming your computers and broadband access are up for it, upgrades should rarely require a change in the hardware.
In fact, depending on your setup, you may not even know you’re getting upgrades unless you see a change in service quality.
Parting Thoughts on the Advantages of VoIP
VoIP phone systems have flaws. Power or Internet outages will disrupt VoIP services. Even so, you shouldn’t discount the many advantages of VoIP.
It’s a cheaper system because moving data costs less than transmitting analog signals over copper wires.
VoIP is a software-driven technology. That means less infrastructure and simpler maintenance.
You can add additional lines with a phone call or by visiting your provider’s website.
That also makes upgrades simple. You don’t remodel a room. You sip coffee while a patch installs.
VoIP systems offer robust feature sets that rival or even surpass traditional phone systems. The cherry on top is that you can keep your old phones by using analog telephone adapters.
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