Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems are gaining increased popular support in businesses all around the world due to their money-saving capabilities. By transmitting phone signals over the Internet instead of through traditional analog switch networks, VoIP service providers can save money and offer even higher quality phone service than landlines for a fraction of the cost.
However, VoIP is not completely fool-proof and requires at least a small amount of research before settling on a solution. Even plug-and-play hosted VoIP systems that use cloud-based technology to provide professional features require some preparation to get the most value out of them. Thankfully the preparations for VoIP are as simple as avoiding some of the common mistakes that businesses make when first starting out with VoIP.
VoIP routes phone calls over the Internet to save money, but works best when it has a dedicated broadband connection to use. For smaller businesses with only two to three seats in use at the same time, it is probably okay to share this Internet connection with the same high speed network everything else is connected to, but otherwise businesses are best dedicating an entire channel to a business VoIP system to avoid lag. Larger carrier-grade platforms are also worth the investment over the cheaper and simpler Asterix platforms, which are cheaper and similar in features but generally offer difficult scalability. Considering that easy scalability is one of the primary features of VoIP, not taking advantage of this feature is ill-advised.
In fact, many of the traits that help define what type of VoIP system to get are simply dictated by the size and scope of the business, and how valuable scalability and advanced calling features are. Smaller businesses can get away with using hosted PBX (News - Alert) networks that charge only a small monthly fee for access to a private phone network complete with automated attendants, at a rate that is cheaper than the maintenance fees for an IP-PBX network alone. However for businesses pushing more than 30 users, a premise-based PBX network complete with SIP trunking may be in order.
Edited by Alisen Downey