Business Phone System

Mobility. It’s a word that gets tossed around a lot these days in relation to both business practices and telecommunications systems. Generally speaking, mobility is nothing more than the practice of doing business from locations outside the office, and the tools (such as mobile phones) that make this activity possible.

 

Of course, the concept of mobility is nothing new for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Small business owners know all-to-well the challenges that come from doing business no matter where they are—at the office, in the car, at home, at the golf course or beach. The introduction of mobile phones has made it much easier to conduct business-on-the-go, but until even more recently the underlying structure of business phone systems hasn’t caught up.

 

The problem is that traditional SMB-class phone systems aren’t very accessible from outside the office. You may be able to dial into the company system to check your voicemail, or possibly get calls forwarded to your cell phone, but that’s about it. But, what if you want your calls to ring on multiple phones—say, in the office, at home, your cell—so you are aware a call is coming in no matter where you are? Or, what if you want to be able to dial from your office phone number even when you’re not in the office?

 

These types of features in the past were available only on high-end business phone systems used by enterprises but priced too high for SMBs. In the past few years, though, this inequality has been reduced or eliminated thanks to the introduction of Internet telephony (also referred to as VoIP). By sending voice signal over the Internet, IP telephony not only reduces per-minute rates, but also adds a new layer of flexibility to business phone systems.

 

Using a system like Nuvio’s (News - Alert) hosted nPBX, for example, an SMB could set up a system that gives employees access to full functionality, whether they’re in the office or not. This means that an employee can plug any phone into any Internet connection anywhere in the world, and get access to the system just as if he or she were sitting in the office. When you dial, you’re calling from your office phone; no-one has to know that you’re actually in China meeting with a client.

 

This type of mobility is becoming increasingly vital for SMBs to stay competitive in a global marketplace. Today, business truly is an activity not a location.

 

To learn more about how a hosted business phone system can work for your company, please visit the Business Phone System channel on TMCnet.com, sponsored by Nuvio.