Want to know what the benefits of VoIP for businesses are? First, you need to know what VoIP is and how it all works.
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What is VoIP?
VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. Basically, VoIP allows you to make low-cost telephone calls (VoIP calls) to anywhere in the world, it just does it over the internet instead. This means you no longer have to use an outdated landline. Technology has come a long way since landlines were first introduced 140 years ago and the needs of businesses like yours have come a long way too. That’s why we like to think of VoIP as an evolution of the ‘wired to the wall’ telephone. The next step-up.
How does VoIP work?
Essentially, VoIP replaces wires and phone lines with the internet. So, when you speak into a VoIP telephone, it converts your voice into data and then transmits it over the internet. Just like an email. Then, on the receiving end of your call, the information is converted back into your voice – clear as day and with no delay. But what’s more important than how it works, is knowing that it will always work. Thankfully, most VoIP problems can be fixed remotely and in a couple of minutes. There’s no need to shut down operations or call in an engineer. That means you can get back to business as usual.
Where is VoIP used?
VoIP is actually the technology behind Skype. If you’ve used it before, you know that the audio quality can be much clearer than a traditional phone call. That’s very handy in a noisy office environment, where it can be difficult to hear a person in the same room, let alone someone in a different country. However, Skype uses this technology for a consumer market. This means you will only get access to a basic feature set, that’s subsidised by adverts. Your business needs something more powerful than this.
Whether you’re a design studio, a recruitment agency or any small or medium enterprise, business-grade VoIP gives you much more than just cheaper calls. It lets you do things you didn’t even think were possible. And, with a VoIP phone system, you are actually paying for the broadband connection – this means that you can pay per user or per connection. So, you can enjoy a predictably low-cost IP telephony service.
The benefits of VOIP for businesses
There are a number of benefits to upgrading your landline to a virtual telephone system – and here we’ve listed just a few of the top reasons businesses make the switch to VoIP:
- Scalability
- Legacy phone systems can be expensive. Many systems are limited to either 2 or 30 channels per circuit, making it very hard to scale up effectively. With a VoIP phone system, you can simply add more employees to the system when necessary.
- More features
- There is a whole range of features that are either not available or just too expensive on landline systems. Things like voicemail, email voicemail and having on-hold music or a voice message of your choice.
- Unified communications
- it’s not just voice – but the integration of email, browsers, instant messaging and call recording that make VoIP an attractive option for businesses, and remote workers.
- Flexibility
- Phones can be moved across the office with limited fuss. You can even travel with your phone number and this can be particularly useful if you prefer or have to work remotely.
- Cheaper
- For almost every business, a VoIP phone system will work out cheaper than an older system such as ISDN. But don’t think of VoIP as ‘the cheap option’ – it’s of a much higher quality. (Note: the quality of a virtual telephone system depends heavily on the quality of your internet connection. Our engineers recommend that you couple any VoIP phone system with a superfast broadband connection).
- Easier to fix
- Most VoIP related issues can be fixed remotely and in a matter of minutes. There’s no need to shut down operations or call in an engineer.
- Robust and mature
- It’s been around for decades and is now the method of choice for communicating during homeworking. Internet connectivity has taken some time to catch up with the technology, but with superfast internet capabilities, VoIP is an attractive option for SMEs.
- Great customer service
- VoIP helps move calls seamlessly between users and offices and connect specialist advisers. Remote staff can use apps to connect back to their office phone and divert calls to mobiles or colleagues – or both. VoIP can also deliver voicemail as a playable email attachment.
Now you know how VoIP phones can help your business, it’s time to find out how Synextra can help you too.
Synextra is a UK based business VoIP provider with a difference. We offer a range of cloud hosting and backup solutions, IT and virtual telecommunications services to help your business compete, collaborate and grow. Want to find out more about the benefits VoIP can bring to your businesses? Call us on 0161 883 1383 or complete our Contact form.
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