The Business Buying Guide to Voice Over IP (VoIP)

You’ve probably used VoIP services without even realizing it. Every time you’ve used an instant messenger program to initiate a voice conversation or sent a voice mail, you’ve used this cutting-edge technology.

But how can this benefit your company? Well, for starters, it’s likely to lead to lower phone bills. And it could reduce the need to travel, too. If you have branch offices, they can be connected either through a dedicated lease line or virtual private network (VPN). Since all calls routed over the internet, irrespective of the network, are free, this leads to significant savings over existing voice services for inter-company communications and makes use of any under-utilised network capacity that you’re paying for.

VoIP technology is not new, but some work may be needed before it achieves the reliability of traditional phone systems. Dealing with lots of hardware and service providers as well as handling technology considerations like the integration of VoIP networks with traditional phone systems may sound intimidating. However, with a little help, you will realize that the products on offer are easy to use.

Key requirements in the move to VoIP remain lower costs, abundance of choices, bundled services, high quality, reliability and availability. Most of these issues have already been addressed by VoIP service providers. And if you let them help you implement VoIP services correctly, it can lead to significant savings.

Part Two: How VoIP Can Help Your Business
Summary: Benefits of VoIP
The days of businesses having to spend large amounts on communications due to a lack of affordable, flexible options are over. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and IP telephony allows the creation of appropriately scaled services to meet the requirements of businesses everywhere, especially multi-site ones.

A company’s network will be utilised to its full capacity. This offers improved efficiency in addition to standard features such as teleconferencing, integrated voice mail, e-mail, fax and messaging options, encryption and integrated information services. It also bypasses long-distance phone charges. And once a VoIP platform is in place, it’s incredibly easy to add further applications or upgrade system settings.

But there are some downsides that must be considered. One drawback is that if the network is down, neither the computers nor the phones will work. Further, although there have been dramatic improvements in voice clarity and quality, some vendors’ systems are better than others in terms of infrastructure robustness and service reliability. To overcome these concerns, many providers offer guarantees and certified assurances of quality of service (QoS) and availability.

But most problems are related to lack of clarity on actual user requirements and attempts to simply throw bandwidth at the problem. Before choosing a platform, you need to determine your usage requirements. Once you’ve done this, you can work with a VoIP vendor to choose the most appropriate solution for your needs.