In recent white papers, and in our latest newsletter, we’ve discussed how VoIP offers many advantages over traditional phone systems. However, VoIP must be carefully considered and implemented to gain the most value. A solid understanding of long-term goals of your company also comes into play. Some common considerations include:
- Business demands – It’s important that solutions carefully selected today will still be relevant in the future. Scalability (up or down) is an important concept. Another is “expandability” – serving other locations as needed. And don’t forget the ability to customize. You might not need to customize during the initial installation, but could need customization at a later date.
- Calling features – Features available through VoIP phone systems are much more robust than those available through traditional phone systems. In addition to traditional features such as caller ID or call waiting, businesses can also opt from services such as email-to-voicemail and auto call re-routing. For smaller companies with tighter budgets, choosing the right features to address the right issues can mean the difference between a smart, affordable VoIP deployment and mismanagement and excessive costs.
- Cost considerations – Hosted VoIP solutions can result in reduced costs and are a valid consideration for most small businesses with fewer than 30 phones. Your VoIP hosted by a trusted provider frees your business from costs including maintaining your system, managing equipment life cycles, and deployment expenses.
- Integration – Selecting a trusted VoIP solution provider like the Fulcrum Group ensures the VoIP system being deployed is compatible with company applications and utilities. This includes direct integration with CRM and ERP apps as well as custom integration with other 3rd party applications through the use of API programming.
- Mobility – one of the most popular aspects of a hosted VoIP system is the ability to transparently re-route calls to any phone, anywhere. From voice communications to total task collaboration, mobile capability has huge potential for many businesses. Integrating remote or traveling users into your phone system using Mobility could be the killer app for moving to hosted VoIP.
- Service expectations – Running your hosted VoIP solution over the Internet can help reduce costs, but can also result in voice quality issues. Consider increasing your Internet bandwidth, adding a 2nd Internet connection, or upgrading your firewall to a Next Generation Firewall that can provide bandwidth shaping functionality.
Stay aware of these VoIP – and other – features we discuss regularly in our blog and throughout our website. Feel free to explore our recent white papers and recent newsletters for specific articles on VoIP and other topics of interest to small-medium business owners. As always, give us a shout if we can assist you!