Member Article

Is VoIP right for my Business? - Part 2

Last week, I introduced you to the concept of VoIP and started to discuss if it was the right solution for your business. Today, I am going to look at some of the positives and negatives of VoIP solutions. It is important to see what makes it so attractive to some businesses yet greatly unappealing to others. That way, you are best placed to come up with a balanced argument and judgement on whether it is the right solution for your business.

Positives

The biggest attraction of VoIP is its low costs. VoIP services for businesses have significantly less costs than traditional phone services and there are a number of reasons for this. First of all, you have much less hardware to buy or lease; in fact, many hosted services require no new hardware investment at all. If you do need hardware, it’s typically based on standardized technologies such as SIP, as opposed to proprietary products that tie you to a particular service provider.

Monthly costs also tend to be a lot lower also. VoIP is cheaper than a traditional landline if you have staff in various locations. This is because the in-network calls made travel exclusively over data networks and don’t need to hit the public phone lines. The majority of VoIP providers will let you make calls to your colleagues for free, even if you’re on opposite sides of the World. The technology and functionality exists through VoIP and SIP solutions to offer this fantastic feature and is one that should be made the most of.

Another fantastic feature offered by many hosted VoIP providers is the ability to make and receive calls from the road using your data connection. This is often done through apps and, even better, usually you can adjust the apps to ring simultaneously with your office phone or to act as a stand-alone extension.

Scalability is another great advantage. Rather than having to invest in costly new hardware, adding new extensions to a VoIP network is typically as easy as connecting your SIP-enabled phone to the network and tinkering with some software settings. This is great for large or expanding companies where new employment is a regular action. What’s more, if you are using a phone that is designed for use with your provider or software, it could be as simple as plug and play.

Most VoIP providers and IP software packages deliver a much more robust feature set than traditional phone providers do. All the basics features you would expect are present; such as conference calling, voicemail, Internet faxing, and caller ID, but VoIP services can offer a lot more too. Additional available features from VoIP solutions includes the supply of virtual receptionists and greeting functionality, customisable advanced call screening and forwarding rules, integration with office software and the ability to forward voicemail to your email or your mobile phone. Many providers offer these advanced features as part of a subscription. Even when you must pay extra for these services, the cost is usually less than you would pay a traditional phone provider for the same services but with these additional features.

Negatives

The most significant problem VoIP users have is to do with their internet connection. As VoIP requires an internet connection to function on, any power cuts, drop outs or general internet connectivity issues will impact on the VoIP offering. Hosted services skirt around this issue by bumping incoming calls to voicemail automatically, or by rerouting calls to your mobile phone, in the event of a service disruption; but that doesn’t hide away from the fact that you won’t be able to make or receive calls from your office phones in this scenario.

Some VoIP services offer unlimited calling but connecting to mobile phones or special lines (such as free conference-call services) might incur an extra charge. Though not always the case, it is on occasions and something which should be checked with your provider beforehand to avoid facing unwanted additional costs. Reaching foreign locations can be sometimes present difficulties, especially if you’re calling a less-prominent country. To counter that however, the per-minute rates tend to be very competitive. If you make international calls on a frequent basis, again, you should check with your provider beforehand so you are aware of what costs may be incurred.

Finally, although VoIP voice quality typically rivals that of a landline or a good mobile phone connection, your network quality can seriously affect call quality. If you have a busy network or experience of slow behavior previously then the audio quality can suffer greatly; or even drop out in a worst-case scenario.

On Thursday, we will talk through some of the varying levels of complexity in solutions that are available in order to assist which solution would best suit your business. In the meantime, if you want assistance with discussing a VoIP solution for your business, contact Agile Group today on 0871 700 2228.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Agile Group .