Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is growing in popularity among small businesses as many eliminate landlines due to the lower costs and ease of use of VoIP. However, before switching a small business over to the protocol, it is important to follow a few tips in order to be sure what you choose is suitable for your needs.
How Does VoIP Work?
Before choosing a VoIP system, it is important to understand how it works. In some cases, a VoIP provider handles most of the difficult parts of the service, connecting calls to phones and software clients through their own hardware.
However, the money savings often falls in a self-hosted VoIP system. For that, you will need an IP-based private branch exchange which is a version of the PBX phone system used by most offices to route calls to the appropriate phones in your network as well as a PSTN gateway.
This gateway sits between the VOiP PBX software and the analog signals of a public switch network that converts calls to and from the digital signals necessary for operation.
What You Need
You will need a broadband connection that will accommodate the number of users you will have on the system at any given time. Small companies with very few employees will not need a significant amount of bandwidth while larger companies will require extra bandwidth.
Your routers and switches must also be able to handle the load which is why many providers suggest configurable settings along with the ability to assign VoIP traffic as a high priority.
You should also be sure the phone system can communicate over VoIP. The phone system should be SIP-enabled, although some VoIP systems require phones with H 323 technology.
Cautions and Advice
There are some cautions to keep in mind before choosing a VoIP phone system. It is important to learn how easy it is to customize the system. An on-premise system will offer more customization than a hosted system.
There are customizations available through vendors so it is important to discuss what can be done to customize your service before purchasing.
Be sure to ask about technical support as well. Although you may already have a tech support staff that can handle the majority of issues that may arise using VOiP, situations could arise where you need assistance with the system. In some businesses, there may be no technical staff which is why it is important to learn what support is available and what costs could be involved should something go wrong.
These tips and suggestions can help you choose the right VOiP system for your small business, helping you save money on your phone systems and provide better quality in telecommunications overall.
Dana Davis
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VOIP has become more popular and for the last 2 years I have also used a virtual phone number for my business.
Quite handy guidelines for choosing the right VoIP system for small business. Nowadays, small business are using VoIP technology instead of using traditional telephone. When choosing VoIP system for your small business you should make sure that it matches all your business needs.
Excellent post. I really enjoyed reading this post. Choosing the best VOIP service provider is always very important. Because you have many options when choosing it.
Nice Dana. and it’s great to see someone putting everything up front. because most will just mention the goods of VoIP and turn a blind eye to some of the limitations we have in this gen.
Karl would love you to read ..What is VoIP? A Brief Overview
This site is very good and also helpful for the person who want to learn more about internet…
Great Advice on choosing the perfect VOIP service and I was giving some thought too and will ping when I choose the one I will be going with.
Hey Dana,
The best thing which I like most about your articles is that they are so easy to understand because they are written in simple language and it really focuses on growing small businesses.
Thanks to share this useful post:)
Have a good day!
Regards,
Mohd Arif
Mohd Arif would love you to read ..ULTIMATE LIST OF CONTENT MARKETING TOOLS
In 2012 i was working with Vopium. They were providing best services at that. Now i don’t have idea about it.
Syed Qasim would love you to read ..In Kabul Suicide Attack: Five Killed Including British Diplomat
Hi Davis,
VOIP i believe now important for any business today whether you are doing business on small scale or on large scale and finding reliable VOIP service is always a concern. You have great tips and tricks about how to perfectly use the VOIP Services. Thanks a lot .
Regards,
Ovais Mirza
Very informative posting,keep doing
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We also used VOIP service for our small business. Its really work and have good responses. It is a best gateway.