Why Consider VoIP Systems?

Since the Bell divestiture in 1983, phone system technology for businesses hasn't changed much, nor have the reasons for acquiring a business phone system, however, VoIP technology has created new motivation for companies to upgrade their phone systems.

Traditionally, company's implement new phone systems as a result of facility relocations, expansion requirements beyond their current systems capacity, system failures and age. Although these will continue to be driving forces in change, there are new technologies available today that can actually help company's reduce monthly costs of communications, improve customer service and truly increase staff productivity and accessibility.

These systems and services are being developed on many different platforms using predominantly what is known as VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol). These VoIP telephone systems and services are changing the way we communicate and manage our businesses today and although the VoIP technology has been around since the late 90's, it has matured to the point of being the standard for the majority of users today.

So how can VoIP systems and services benefit your company? Well the fact is there are many reasons depending on your current and future environment, however, here are some of the more universal benefits:

Most company's must rely heavily on outsourced groups or telephone vendors to handle any moves, relocations, add-ons, changes of features, staff changes, etc... and there is a cost associated with that service. VoIP systems can help eliminate these costs by empowering end users to administer and manage these functions internally, usually with a GUI through a browser. Wow! No more wait times or scheduling vendors to show up on site? No more costly fees for that type of work? What an idea right? Well it gets better.

There are many different types of VoIP systems that incorporate either a "hardware" or "software" centric approach to the architectural design of the system or solution. It is important to understand these differences and determine which is best for you, however, as a general rule, the more software centric a system is, the more beneficial it will be moving forward. Specifically as it relates to add-ons (no circuit cards required), software updates and upgrades (depending on system type.. no changing of CPUs, PCB's, etc..), relocation (plug -n- play), resiliency (easy deployment), disaster recovery ( flexible archiving and recovery), etc...

For those company's with multiple sites, look for systems that are easy to manage all sites as one. This is tricky since some systems require actual systems to be installed at each site networked together and others are simply designed as a single system regardless of how many sites you have. Be sure to see a demonstration of an actual working system that has multiple sites rather than relying solely on marketing information. It is fine to view systems in a Webinar, however, you should insist on also experiencing the real thing rather than relying on a Webinar only approach.

There are many more benefits to these VoIP systems and solutions which help reduce monthly phone line expense, integrate mobile devices (eg: Blackberry, iPhone, standard cell phones) for greater accessibility, Integrate voice mail, faxes and e-mail together in your e-mail system, desktop integration of the VoIP phone with your computer and databases to name a few.

These are all examples of how and why company's are deploying this technology now. Providing opportunities to decrease cost and increase profitability even if there are no relocation or expansion plans in the future.

After 27 years in this business I have never seen such a phenomenal change in voice technology that has had such an enormous impact on our customers bottom line. Most of our customers today have already upgraded or plan to do so in the very near future.

The most important thing to remember is that if you don't have the expertise necessary to evaluate these type solutions, select someone or some vendor that you trust and has a wealth of experience in business telephone systems, VoIP systems/solutions and data networking.

It will pay huge dividends! Do you have a VoIP success story? Let us know in the comments.