Lee Hogan I have been in telecommunications for over 10 years, and with the experience, I can say that nothing has changed this area more than the internet. Today, voice over net protocol or VoIP is the most talked about subject amongst my clients and the salespeople selling telecommunications offerings. As a consultant, I am frequently asked by commercial enterprise proprietors, “Should I go voice over IP?” For my clients asking this question, allow me in brief and, in layman’s terms, to answer this right here and now. Maybe.
VoIP’s positive elements can be beautiful, relying on the patron I consult with. Let me come up with some things to contemplate about your very own business to determine if VoIP is probably a savvy strategy for your company or a waste of money.
First of all, what is VoIP, and how does it work? Most VoIP groups will charge you an according to cellphone month-to-month cost of between $20 and $50 in step with the month. Inside of that fee is usually bundled all your functions and lengthy distance. You nevertheless want to purchase the VoIP handset that may range from $80 to $ seven hundred, with the average cellphone being a $250 one-time rate. On top of that, you want a web provider company on your telephones to paintings–DSL, Cable, internet T1, etc.
Add up all of the prices to go VoIP. You will quickly determine that only in positive cases does VoIP make sense. What are the eventualities? Let me share with you most of the most commonplace questions I ask to determine if VoIP will advantage you:
1. Do you have got more than one place? Many of my larger customers with multiple locations experience VoIP solutions because you can connect all your offices as if they are on one network with VoIP. For example, my organization, Telcom National, has places of work in specific elements of Utah, Arizona, and Colorado. In the beyond, we communicated through calling every other’s desk phones and paid for long-distance fees for the one’s calls. Today, with VoIP, we’re all extensions on the equal network as though we’re all inside the equal workplace! For example, I am extension 101 in Arizona, and one of my far-flung workers is extension 103 in Montana. We can speak with each other using dialing each other’s extensions or even hitting the intercom. This gives our organization a sense of cohesion were earlier than we felt separated all on separate systems.
2. Do you make several lengthy-distance? Long-distance has gotten so reasonably priced. I can get maximum of my client’s lengthy distance plans as low as one cent consistent with the minute and once in a while less, but I do have clients who also spend a lot on lengthy distance. With these heavy users, we may consider going VoIP because long-distance is genuinely free with maximum VoIP plans. I even have had customers pass from spending hundreds of dollars a month to 3 hundred simply by switching to a perfect VoIP plan. The fact is, even though maximum customers do no longer make sufficient long distances to warrant going VoIP for long distances on my own.
3. Are you in multiple markets, or do you need to be? One of the neatest matters approximately VoIP is how you may supply telephone numbers from many demands on one circuit. Let me provide you with an example. I have a customer who has one region but wants a countrywide presence. Out of this one area with the handiest 12 VoIP phones, they’ve phone numbers ringing of their workplace from each user in the United States in addition to from many parts of the sector. On VoIP, that is quite simple and costs after nothing, so this may be a considerable advantage. You would possibly have many market expansion lines that you pay the smartphone business enterprise for monthly–this fee after nothing on VoIP, so this will be a massive cost financial savings for you.
4. Do you’ve got many cell employees? Most of our organization’s workers are cellular, which means our personnel is not often inside the workplace. The unique element about VoIP is being capable of moving mobile from both a computer customer (software built into your pc that imitates your desk smartphone at paintings) or having a VoIP cellphone at home or your far-flung office. In any of these conditions, you’re nonetheless able to make calls from your desk smartphone despite now not being in the workplace. For me, this is a first-rate gain. If I am in California touring my American Red Cross client, so long as I have a web connection, I can still make and take my calls as if I become on my table phone in the workplace. My voice mails visit my emails as correctly! I virtually love the ability that VoIP offers me.