Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems are gaining popularity among businesses. By making calls over the Internet rather than through phone lines, business VoIP plans provide an affordable and dependable phone service with more features and better call quality than traditional phones.
Before switching to a brand new phone system and throwing out all the old telephones however, there are a couple of things to consider beforehand. Without the right knowledge, users can end up paying for services they don’t need, or signing up with too many extension lines. These following tips should help businesses figure out how to find the best VoIP plan to maximize satisfaction and savings.
1. Know What You Need
This one may seem pretty obvious, but it gets forgotten so often that it deserves to be #1. Research, research, research! Picking the right VoIP plan involves knowing how many employees will be making phone calls at any given time, including during peak hours. It also involves knowing what telephony software and hardware already exists in the office.
Most companies will probably just want an unlimited plan, but small companies that only make a few phone calls a month might only need 1000 monthly minutes or less. The needs of a small and a large business are very different. Knowing the business before getting an appropriate phone solution is absolutely critical.
2. Make Sure the Company Internet Connection is Up to the Task
Most businesses already have their own Internet connections. For business VoIP to function, a high-speed broadband Internet connection is absolutely necessary. When businesses choose to run VoIP over a slower Internet service that is already strained with employee’s devices, they wind up with choppy connections. They end up blaming this on the VoIP provider, when the real culprit is a burdened Internet connection.
With a proper Internet connection, calls made over VoIP come in with crystal-clear quality. VoIP calls will not slow down Internet by an appreciable amount, but they do need access to an unclogged network.
3. Hosted or On-Site PBX?
A Private Branch Exchange (PBX) connects and manages multiple phone lines with multiple extensions. When an incoming call comes in, the PBX provides the automated attendant that asks which department the caller would like to reach, and when the appropriate number is selected, the call goes to the appropriate department. Outbound calls are also managed through the PBX so that they are paired with open phone lines. This ensures that customers making phone calls will almost never have to deal with a busy signal.
A PBX comes in two flavors: hosted, and on-site. A hosted PBX is hosted off-site by the business VoIP provider, while an on-site PBX is directly located within the office. Installing a PBX system is expensive and time consuming, and also requires a dedicated IT staff to keep up with maintenance. Unless a business already has an on-site PBX installed for a legacy phone system, the hosted PBX is almost always a better option.
4. Don’t Overspend on Hardware
When seeing how much money VoIP saves, it might be tempting to throw out all the old phones in favor of a bunch of brand-new IP phones, but a lot of the time, companies can simply use what they already have. Analog-to-digital converters exist to translate the data coming through a standard telephone so that it is usable by VoIP programs. Furthermore, there are also PBX converters so companies with existing PBX hardware can still enjoy cheap VoIP prices.
There are many reasons to switch to VoIP, and almost as many factors to consider when picking out the right VoIP provider. Finding a balance between price, features, and ease of use can be quite tricky, but once solved, the results are well worth it.