As your business grows you will want it to keep up with the times. Old dusty servers need to be replaced with slicker, slimmer and faster ones; your software needs to be pushed into the 21st century – those that can’t be upgraded need to be traded in for newer versions – and the way you communicate also needs to be improved.
The best way you can push your business’ communication to the fore is by shifting from the good old cable-and-PBX telephony to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).
What is VoIP?
VoIP Is the collective name for technologies that deliver voice and multimedia communications over IP (Internet Protocol) networks. The internet – which also runs on IP – is the best medium available as the world is getting ever more connected through it.
Hosted VoIP implies that the hardware and PBX is hosted on an offsite server (located at your hosting provider’s site – or their offshore locations).
What are the Advantages for your Business?
Your business should move to hosted VoIP because:
- Global Mobility: with your conventional phones you are tied down to your desk (or as far as the chord or wireless reach will allow). Even your cell phone can be limited to your subscription conditions.
With hosted VoIP everyone in the office – wherever in the world they can be – can use the office phone system, as long as they can get online. Any one of you can be in any spot in the world and you would all communicate using the same telephone number that you use around the office.
- Always Stay in Contact: with VoIP you won’t ever hear one of your colleagues is “out of reach” because they are in some remote spot. Of course, on the flip side, you won’t be able to say you couldn’t call in due to “bad reception.”
You see, VoIP has a find-me/follow me feature that saves a sequence of your phone numbers (cell, home, office, etc.). When someone calls your cell phone and you’re out of reach, it directs the call to your home number. When that isn’t answered either, it moves to your office … until you are located or the list runs out.
- Location Independence: suppose your business grows so big that you need more office space. Or, you have just built your own building and it is time to move in. If you had the conventional telephone system your tech people will probably be down on their knees unplugging cables and collecting devices that they will move to the new place and re-install.
But if you were to have VoIP all that is required is re-routing of calls to the new location. Your clients won’t even know that you are in the middle of a major move as the switching of sites will be transparent to them.
- Easily Scalable: when you have VoIP, scalability is the least of your problems. Adding lines is just a matter of paying for more electronic addresses; the same goes with additional features – you ask, they are simply enabled.
Traditional phone companies might offer you new lines but installing it could take a little longer than just adding a few IP addresses and unlocking subnet masks.
- More than Voice Data: with your VoIP system you will be able to send more than just voice messages. Because it is based on the internet, you can send any multimedia files too. Format doesn’t matter: audio, video, image and document files are all transferable.
This will make it easier for you and your colleagues to communicate – no more misunderstandings – everyone knows exactly what is going on.
- Advanced Features: VoIP comes with its own set of tech goodies. You can integrate it with your other software and administration software; after all, the communication is nothing more than zeros and ones – just like all your software and data.
If, for example, you have a Customer Relation Management (CRM) system, you can have it store your clients’ data (location, phone number, etc.) directly from your VoIP calls.
Social media sites have most of our online data. You can use your VoIP system to mine data from your clients’ interaction with your business.
- Easy Installation and Management: Ok, admitted someone’s probably going to come over and do the initial installation for you. But, first of all, it is very easy and won’t take more than a few configuration clicks and keyboard taps to have you up and running.
Second, once you’re up and running, you can have all your configurations and management done by your hosting provider.
This means, you can have an advanced communication system running in your offices in a matter of hours.
- It is Cheap: we saved this one for last because we want to make you really happy about the thought of actually saving money in more ways than one. There is no overhead to consider, there is no crazy amounts spent on new hardware and the overall cost for calls/communication is a fraction of what it would be using your conventional telephone system.
If all the points we mentioned above don’t convince you to make the move to VoIP then consider this final fact: wouldn’t you like to see the profile of your business raised among your competitors and in the eyes of your customers? It really is cool to be the business that has taken technology to heart.
