Your Business’ Next Great Addition: Voice over Internet Protocol

How does your business communicate? If you are relying on a telephone solution that isn’t optimized to fit the specific needs of your business, you may be hindering your ability to stay efficient and cost-effective.

Think back to when you implemented your in-house telephone system. How many wires did you have to run just to give everyone access to a handset on their desk? What about the contract that you signed? Did you sign up for a plan that nickel and dimed you or prevented you from getting features like call waiting and conferencing? Do you find that you need to spend major money just to add more users to your current phone system? These reasons are why traditional phone systems have fallen out of favor in the modern business world.

It also helps that there are better solutions out there that aren’t nearly as restrictive and promote flexibility within your organization. We’re talking about Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which takes advantage of your organization’s Internet connection. It’s a great way to save a little bit of extra revenue, as it takes a service that you need and combines it with a service that you already have. You might be surprised by how much you stand to gain from implementing a service like VoIP.

VoIP Reduces Costs
Think about all of the fees and service plans associated with setting up a telephone system in your office. Since VoIP uses something that is already in use by your business--its Internet connection--you take full advantage of a service rather than wasting money on something that’s unnecessary. All you have to do is make sure that your network’s bandwidth is adequate to support VoIP for all of your users, as it can add more strain to your connection than you might initially think.

VoIP Simplifies Your Infrastructure
Remember all of those wires and cables that run through your office? Think about all of the time it took to implement it all. More importantly, think about all of the costs of such an implementation. VoIP uses your Internet connection, so you don’t have to add any new wires or knock down walls to add new users. All you need is a device to use it on, like a desktop or smartphone, and a connection to the Internet.

VoIP Offers Extra Features
VoIP allows for much more than just telecommunication. Depending on the phone system, VoIP might include features like instant messaging, video chat, conferencing and so much more. Depending on your needs, you can add these solutions to your VoIP client. These applications combined with VoIP are commonly known as Unified Communication and Collaboration suites.

No matter how you slice it, VoIP is a great technology that your business can surely benefit from. Not only can it cut down on operational costs, but it can make your staff run more efficiently and add a new level of functionality that you could never have dreamed of. To learn more about how your business can take full advantage of VoIP, reach out to us at 607.433.2200.