VoIP technology is increasingly popular among business users. It is also, of course, gradually replacing older technology across the entire network, as PSTN and ISDN are set to be phased out entirely by 2025. If you are to take full advantage of what it offers, however, you will need to understand a little about the technology and how it can help your business.
Flexibility
One of the major advantages that an IP-based system has over conventional telephony is its flexibility. You can quickly adapt the system to suit your specific needs, adding extra lines and endpoints as you expand the business, or to cope with seasonal peaks in trade.
You also have the option to use local area codes for different regions, even though the calls may be handled centrally in another area. For smaller businesses, there is the opportunity to appear to be a larger organisation to the outside world, with features such as voicemail and automated menu systems. These are highly customisable too, so that calls to different numbers can be met with a different response. This means that they can be tailored to calls from particular regions or to particular advertising campaigns.
You can take advantage of the increasing trend towards flexible working too. Accessing VoIP via a mobile app means that employees can make and receive calls on their business phone number wherever they are. You can take advantage of conference calling and even video calling too, with the opportunity to reduce the costs associated with people travelling to meetings.
Security
Of course you want to keep your business transactions confidential and some worry about the security of VoIP. Because VoIP sends your calls over the internet, they are theoretically at risk of interception. However, in reality, this risk is no greater than with a PSTN phone system.
In many ways, VoIP is actually more secure as you have the option to encrypt traffic so that even if it is intercepted, it’s useless. You can also choose to use a VPN in order to create a secure tunnel. This is particularly useful for mobile users who may be accessing the system via public Wi-Fi networks.
Wholesale VoIP termination rates
The obvious advantage of VoIP is, of course, lower cost. Not only are call rates lower, but you are not paying for expensive ISDN lines to link your in-house PABX to the telephone network. Indeed, you may not need a PABX at all since you can now have exchange functionality in the cloud. This removes the need for a system that takes up valuable office space and costs money in power and maintenance costs.
In addition, billing on VoIP systems with mature providers such as IDT is simplified, with a single bill that will simplify your administration. Add in reporting features and you are able to see exactly where your telecoms budget is being spent, which numbers are making the most calls, the proportion of long distance or overseas traffic and more besides.
