Though the humble landline has been serving business communication needs for over a century, there’s little doubt that it’s on the way out. Over the last decade, VoIP technology has advanced in leaps and bounds, driven by changing consumer habits and the evolving needs of modern businesses. Offering unprecedented flexibility, scalability, and mobility, VoIP makes sense on every level, especially for small organizations with limited budgets and that lack a dedicated IT department necessary to maintain a complicated in-house PBX system.
#1. Reduced Costs
Commercial VoIP systems proliferated in 2004, as businesses started to realize the enormous cost-saving benefits of using their internet connections for all their communications needs. Today, even the smallest businesses can tap into the global marketplace, thanks in large part to modern VoIP technology. Calls between internet-connected devices are free, and international calls between VoIP systems and landlines are much cheaper too. Furthermore, a hosted VoIP service, which tends to be the best option for SMBs, costs a monthly subscription fee, and there’s no need to invest in additional hardware.
#2. Unlimited Scalability
Since a hosted VoIP service eliminates the need for any on-site hardware, other than any internet-connected device, there’s no need to invest in expensive hardware every time you need to increase capacity. The only limit is the speed of your internet, which is unlikely to present a problem for most businesses. A cloud-hosted VoIP system typically comes as a subscription-based service, whereby you pay per user. That means the system can easily scale with demand so you don’t end up paying for resources you don’t need or being held back by the limitations of your existing infrastructure.
#3. Enhanced Mobility
Back in the days of landlines, business telephony was typically restricted to the office desk and using mobile phones incurred large costs. Today’s workforce also expects a degree of mobility and flexibility in terms of when and where they work. VoIP offers businesses the opportunity to enable workforce mobility, since there’s no longer any need to be stuck in the office monitoring the deskphone. Being a cloud-based software solution, a hosted VoIP service is accessible using any device with an internet connection.
#4. Better Onboarding
Training new employees used to be a burden, when the only practical option for monitoring and onboarding new staff was to, literally, have a supervisor looking over their shoulders. Today’s business-ready VoIP systems typically ship with integrated coaching features that allow supervisors to monitor calls in real time, whisper to the person taking the call without interrupting, or even take over the call remotely.
#5. Improved Performance
With their relatively limited bandwidth, landlines are often fraught with quality issues, especially when taking international calls. By contrast, VoIP enables high-definition audio for crystal-clear calls, particularly between internet-connected devices. Many business-grade VoIP solutions integrate seamlessly with your existing systems, such as customer relationship management and enterprise resource management, which helps improve productivity as well. Finally, many VoIP systems come with unified communications features for instant messaging, video conferencing, and more.
#6. Robust Security
Although you’ll often hear about security risks concerning VoIP systems, most of these issues are actually network-related. However, with the right implementation, VoIP is potentially much more secure. For example, by securing your network with full end-to-end encryption, intruders won’t be able to intercept your calls. Provided you choose a reputable service provider that offers full encryption, user authentication and compliance with industry regulations, you shouldn’t have any issues with security. Furthermore, hosted VoIP systems are housed in secure data centers with all the necessary technological, physical, and administrative security measures in place.
Affordable, scalable, and available anywhere, hosted VoIP systems from OC-IT will revolutionize your corporate communications infrastructure. If you’re ready to find out more, contact us today to get your free IT assessment.