VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) systems are becoming more and more popular, with statistics stating that by 2018 there will be nearly 1 billion users signed up for mobile. But what is it, and how does it affect your business? And is it really worth “cutting the cord” (moving away from traditional business phone systems) for?
There are two ways to approach VoIP business systems; hosting the service on your own servers, and having someone (typically a company that runs a service) host them for you. Hosting yourself takes a little more work, and means getting the necessary hardware to keep the servers running and stable.
Having another company provide the service for you, however, means that you just have to focus on the business side of things. The provider will handle all the heavy lifting, delivering calls to your phones and software client. In general, you’ll at most need to find a space for a small box of hardware somewhere on-site.
Now, depending on the size of your company, moving into a VoIP system could cost next to nothing, or cost a significant up-front expense. You’re going to need a lot of bandwidth on your internet in order to handle multiple clients at the same time, and your internal network needs to be able to handle the burden.
But is it worth getting for your business?
VoIP is significantly less expensive than traditional business phone services. You need to lease less hardware, and often don’t need to get any new hardware at all, unlike switching to new phone systems. You also don’t need to worry about location costs if some of your employees work in different locations.
The utility, price, and freedom of the product are what makes VoIP business systems a great investment. Especially with mobile VoIP becoming more popular, and no extra costs. Just register with your provider and your phone is now a mobile VoIP device.
The biggest drawback, however, is that your entire business relies on the internet, and so if it goes out, so does your company’s ability to run. That’s why it is imperative that you have a provider that is stable and offers services to assist in these circumstances.
VoIP could be a huge step forward for your business, but make sure you do your research to see if it’s right for you. Contact us for more details!