Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has become one of twenty first century’s most powerful business technologies. It’s achieved this by offering offers an extremely cost-effective and feature-rich alternative to conventional land-line telephone technology. Increasingly, VoIP in the Cloud, also known as Hosted VoIP, has emerged as the most popular way for small to medium-sized businesses to implement Internet-based phone communications into their business communications strategies. This is essentially because hosted VoIP doesn’t require any specialised equipment, other than a high-speed Internet connection. All it requires is access to an existing Local Area Network (LAN) as well as a new high definition VoIP enabled telephone. Because the costs involved in setting up a VoIP system are relatively low, small businesses now have access to all the unified communications advantages that were once the exclusive preserve of large enterprises with lots of IT staff and large budgets.
Why is hosted VoIP so effective?
A Hosted VoIP system lets small businesses take advantage of the latest communications technologies and extends communications beyond the limits of your physical phone. You can make and receive calls from a variety of different computing platforms like a laptop or tablet computer using a Softphone client, you can reduce or eliminate long distance calling costs with low-cost Internet-based calling, and you can communicate with remote employees and mobile workers just like they are in the same office. There is no need for expensive on-premise equipment, and you won’t have to administer the package yourself. The system can be instantly configured, and you can use either your mobile phone or a conventional phone to stay connected via your office extension anywhere you go. The office functionality travels with you.
Is VoIP call quality as good as fixed line communications?
There have been vast improvements in cloud computing and virtualization technology recently, and these have resulted in dramatically improved call quality and better service reliability. What’s more, they have also led to price reductions, undercutting the cost of monthly expenditure for a comparative traditional business phone system by at least 70%. These factors have made the business case for deploying a Hosted VoIP phone system even more compelling, especially in today’s cost-conscious business environment.
Businesses of all sizes are now moving to Internet-based phone systems. This is because Hosted VoIP is:
Affordable
Hosted VoIP in the Cloud doesn’t require up-front investment and is far less expensive to deploy and maintain than conventional business phone systems or on-premise IP PBXs. The return on investment of most Hosted systems is measured in months not years.
Reliable and High Quality
Hosted VoIP systems are extremely reliable and the call-quality rivals, even surpasses, the conventional old PSTN based telephone line systems of most carriers. High-Definition Audio phones are readily available in a VoIP environment but not in the traditional phone systems on the market today.
Easy to Set Up and Use
Hosted VoIP PBXs are very easy to set up, particularly for today’s mobile workforce which needs powerful business calling and “customizable follow me” features at the user’s fingertips. Even a non-technical administrator or business manager can set up a Hosted VoIP system in a matter of minutes and make all Hosted PBX and Call Centre configurations, additions and changes online.
Fully Featured
Today’s most popular VoIP systems include features such as conference calling, call logs, answering rules, call forwarding to any phone, voicemail to email, call screening, and software to have additional extensions on the PBX for your employees’ smartphone and computer.
This article was submitted by think 7