VoIP Telephony
Recently, many companies will have noticed an increase in their phone bills, and in the current financial climate any cost savings that can be made need to be considered. One way of reducing your phone bill is to use your IT network for external telephone calls, including calls between your branches, calls to homeworkers and calls to your customers and suppliers. This is known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Why should you consider using VoIP as your telephone network? The main benefit of VoIP is cheaper phone calls. External phone calls are at a significantly lower charge rate, and with a VPN in place you can speak to colleagues in different branches or on the road free of charge. This is particularly useful for the increasing number of small businesses who have multiple sites. As the cost of broadband internet access also comes down, VoIP systems are now within the reach of small businesses. Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are even offering VoIP deals specifically for the small business sector.
How can calls be cheaper? Traditional telephone calls work by allocating an entire phone line to each call. With VoIP, voice data is compressed and transmitted over a computer network in packages using up to 90% less bandwidth, consequently making it more cost effective and efficient than a traditional telephone call.
Are there any other benefits? With VoIP you can merge your phone and data networks allowing you to work more efficiently and make your companies phone network easier to look after. Having VoIP on your computer network allows you to add telephones and increase call capacity without running additional cabling. Other benefits that often come as standard are call forwarding, voicemail and caller ID.
How do I get started? For SME’s there is a range of hosted options that offer easy access to VoIP services without needing indepth technical knowledge, and can provide a cost effective route to benefiting form VoIP. These service can be charged as a pay-as-you go or monthly subscription basis, and often require no upfront capital investment.