What do you know about Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)?
Not much?
Then you’re in the right place!
On this month’s blog, we thought we’d do a comprehensive rundown of what VoIP is and how you can get started making the switch. Although it sounds highly technical, it’s actually a pretty simple concept that anyone (even those not fluent in IT!) can understand and implement in their business.
So without further ado:
What is a VoIP system?
Traditional phone systems need physical phone lines to function. As you may have noticed, these are going a little out of style – when was the last time you used a landline? VoIP is the natural next step from a physical line connection to an internet phone connection.
Ok… so what does it actually do?
Similar to the way you can place a call using Zoom, Google Meet or Facebook Messenger, VoIP allows you to run your entire business phone network over the web. Because of that, it means you can use voice, video and chat functions, unlike the traditional voice-only phone line option.
VoIP is the name of the system, or rather, the technology. The hardware can be a few different things, bearing in mind one of the main benefits of VoIP is flexibility across tech devices. You could convert your current desk phones to VoIP with an adapter, or you could nab a brand new set of modern desk phones with exciting features. You can also use most mobile phones, laptops, computers or tablets. Your VoIP software will essentially ‘connect’ all of these devices.
There are a lot of bonuses for the user of a VoIP system:
- Don’t need to be tethered to your desk in-office
- Use smartphones, tablets and laptops for communications across iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac
- Use integrated contact management
- Use video to call
- Use instant messaging/texting
- Save names, extensions and numbers under a single contact
- Answer a call to your desk phone while working from home
However, those are just the benefits for users. There is also a range of benefits of VoIP for businesses.
With VoIP, you can reduce capital expenditure on telecommunications hardware because the cost of upgrading the software is already included – and automatic updates mean you never need to actually worry about upgrading!
You can also lower your ongoing call costs, as these are all included in your internet plan.
Using VoIP on an enterprise cloud solution also means you can enjoy 99.99% uptime. If you set up your system with enterprise-level servers, you’ll have the highest level of call quality facilitated by reliable and redundant infrastructure.
Some VoIP products can integrate with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Some use auto-attendants (‘For Accounts, press one. For Sales, press two’…), and some allow voicemail-to-email transcription.
As you can tell, time-saving, cash saving and flexibility are huge parts of why VoIP is such an amazing technology!
It sounds amazing – so how do I do it?!
What you need to get started with VoIP depends entirely on what your business needs are. VoIP systems are modular, so you only pay for what you will really use. If your team will definitely use their mobile phones, you want that included – but if you won’t use a CRM, you don’t need to pay for it.
A quick chat with Xenex can help determine exactly what you will and won’t use. After that, we can recommend a system perfect for you.
Xenex can design a VoIP solution, supply the hardware required, then install and commission a VoIP system from start to finish – so if you’re keen, let’s get started!
