VoIP – What is it and How Can it Help Your Business?

Reliable VoIP technology has been around for a number of years but has become increasingly popular with businesses over the last few years as broadband speeds have increased. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, which basically means internet phone calls.

With high quality, reliable VoIP services now common, more businesses are making the switch as it offers them a number of advantages:

1. It’s Cheaper

When compared with traditional phone systems, VoIP offers more features at a greatly reduced price. Generally, savvy business users who make the switch to internet telephony end up with a more advanced phone system, which costs them less than before.

Even so, the old rule still applies that you get what you pay for. Free and low-cost VoIP operators may be a good option for occasional home users, but businesses should still opt for a business grade service that costs a little more. Reliability and high call quality are vital for a business, so it pays to invest in a quality service.

A VoIP system offers much cheaper call costs, but choosing a hosted solution also means there is no requirement to buy any expensive switchboard (PBX) hardware. Businesses can therefore save thousands in upfront costs, as well as avoid significant fees to cover maintenance, repair, and eventually hardware replacement.

If you want to bring some predictability into your monthly phone bills, some reputable business VoIP operators also offer an all-inclusive, fixed price service, so you know exactly what you’re going to spend and can budget accordingly.

2. More Flexibility

A business VoIP service is generally used in combination with a Virtual PBX switchboard and a range of other hosted phone services, as required. These include simple, everyday services such as an voicemail, call diversion and fax-to-email, as well as more sophisticated services like hunt groups (to distribute calls to a group), auto scheduling, call recording / storage and various additional functions for supervisors.

To have the same functionality with a traditional phone system would mean investing in expensive PBX hardware. A hosted VoIP system offers all the same features, regardless of how large or small your business is. What’s more, all services are designed to be combined in any way to allow your business to build the phone system it actually needs.

3. It’s Scalable

It’s easy to add new users, extensions, and services in just a couple of minutes via an online control panel. It’s possible to completely change the size of your VoIP phone system in a short period of time, making it incredibly scalable. Your phone system can grow and shrink as fast as your business.

This is ideal for businesses with seasonal variations. Just expand your phone system during peak periods and reduce it to the essentials when the rush is over. A business with a traditional phone system would either have to make do with a limited system during busy periods, or have a large system sitting redundant for long periods when business is quiet.

Whether your business is a start-up experiencing explosive growth, or a more established business with varied requirements, the flexibility and scalability of VoIP system is a huge advantage.

4. Connect People at Multiple Locations

VoIP systems are cloud-hosted and are therefore location independent. This makes it easy to connect people working in different locations within a single phone system.

With a VoIP system it doesn’t matter where your staff are based. They can work from offices in different cities, on the road, or at home – with VoIP you can divert calls to any phone number and transfer calls to someone wherever they are located, even if they are using a cell phone or are on business abroad.

This location independence is also a huge advantage if you ever need to move premises. Maybe you have to transfer to new offices as your business grows, or maybe you have to move at short notice due to a disaster (for example, if you are unlucky enough to be affected by a fire or flood). Your phone system is not tied to a single physical location, so you just need to log in to your account and divert calls to an alternative number instead.

Conclusion

It’s clear that in today’s highly connected world, business VoIP provides great flexibility and other advantages at a very attractive price. Whatever your business needs, a VoIP system can provide it and more.