Q&A with FreedomVOICE's Joe Schiavone: Selling VoIP to Small Businesses

“HD Voice has great potential and is a technology that will be important in the future,” an official with VoIP phone systems provider FreedomVOICE (News - Alert) recently shared with TMCnet.

 

“People love business VoIP because it offers cost savings and advanced features you can’t get anywhere else,” said Joe Schiavone, director of sales at FreedomVOICE.

 

The company’s FreedomIQ solution makes it possible for businesses to communicate more effectively and cost efficiently without the risks associated with on-site PBX’s (News - Alert) - since the phone system is hosted from FreedomVOICE’s provider-class call switching equipment.

 

Schiavone recently took some time to share his thoughts on how service providers can win over the SMB space with their VoIP offerings – particularly hosted PBX services.

 

 

 

JS: Google Voice can’t hurt hosted VoIP PBX or premise based providers, it will only raise awareness. Overall we are encouraged because it will create more exposure for the industry. Everyone in the business should be looking forward to riding the buzz of Google Voice.

 

 

JS: We do believe that HD Voice has great potential and is a technology that will be important in the future. But there are some technical issues which we as an industry need to be overcome before we can move forward. For example, G.722 doesn’t use any more bandwidth than G.711 - our current codec - so bandwidth is not one of the major issues. But if you have HD Voice and the person you are talking to does not have HD Voice then you are really not having an HD conversation. It’s similar to HD TV, really. If you have an HD TV but don’t have HD TV service then what’s the point?

 

We already offer SIP quality that is better than a normal PSTN.   One major factor in better audio quality is the phone itself.  Another is less interference or “fully digital.” Also, as soon as you get the PSTN involved you lose the HD connection. So HD Voice does have potential, but there are some issues that need to be addressed.

 

 

JS: People love business VoIP because it offers cost savings and advanced features you can’t get anywhere else.

 

 

JS: We’re a business communications management tool that allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of your business day-to-day. With our service, you can see your whole business. We offer tons of great features including: Dynamic Auto Attendant, Advanced ACD & Call Queue, Unified Voice & Fax Messaging, Internet Control Panel, Visual Call Reports, Recorded Calls, Softphone Software, Teleconferencing Service, Voicemail Transcription and more.

 

 

JS: Hosted VoIP grew at a rate of 22 percent last year and it was really a booming sector. This year we expect it to grow by even more; possibly 30 percent or more. As more people become educated about business VoIP PBX systems more people are going to want it.  VoIP is already set to become the standard for dial tone over the next 5 to 10 years.  Most businesses lack the resources or simply don’t want to manage their own phone system.  This is the perfect scenario for a hosted PBX.

 

We do around 40 webinars a week! That has allowed people to see how good our hosted voice over IP service really is.

 

 

JS: The general public needs more education in the SMB area of Unified Communications (News - Alert). Unified communications need to be on the SMB radar for several reasons. For instance, small offices that lack dedicated departments can become more organized. Also, managers that need to oversee an entire company and not just one department gain more overall visibility and costs are minimized by subscribing to fewer services. 

 

I think, once they learn about these benefits added at no extra expense - SMBs will be jumping all over it and, with all our training and education, people are realizing that hosted works even for larger phone systems.