Voice Over IP – the real advantages

Perhaps the most oft-cited benefit of Voice-Over IP telephony (VoIP) these days is the long distance cost savings available to businesses by installing and using this technology. These cost savings are real, to be sure, and can be significant for companies with offices scattered over large geographical distances, especially when there is a need for frequent voice communications with colleagues and clients in diverse corners of the country or the globe. But with global competition forcing long distance rates ever downwards, for many companies these days the real advantages lie in superior features and functionality.

Take the simple example of adding a new employee to your phone system. Or removing one. After all, periodic staff changes are a relatively common occurrence for any business these days. With traditional phone systems, even these simple modifications can be relatively time consuming, and may even require external technicians. In the case of modern generation Voice-Over IP telephony systems, they take seconds, and can almost always be done in-house, even for small enterprises without formal IT departments.

And the list continues. Recording and changing standard greetings, call recording, periodic system upgrades, managing and synchronizing voicemail and email, whether remotely or in the office, are all out-of-the-box features available with modern-day Voice-Over IP systems.

In fact, where traditional phone systems typically come accompanied with ongoing service and maintenance costs that can run as high as 30% of the original system investment, annually, the ongoing costs of maintaining current Voice-Over IP telephony systems are a fraction of that. In many cases, when these maintenance costs are redeployed instead towards VoIP technology, they can more than pay for the system in as little as 3 years. This is, of course, a very compelling ROI.

And quality has never been better. Gone are the days of broken, time-delayed internet-based voice transmissions that characterized early versions of this technology. Today’s VoIP solutions, if properly configured and installed, can and do enable seamless voice communications every bit on a par with traditional telephony.

To be sure, there are some requirements that must be met in order to take full advantage of these systems. Robust internet connectivity and network security top that list. But these days, both are commonly already present anyway (or really should be), to meet the demands of modern Internet-based business communications.

The critical mass needed for VoIP technology to make solid business sense has also dropped as these systems have matured. In our experience, if your business has 25 or more employees currently using traditional telephony, there are most likely solid benefits available from this technology. A relatively straightforward cost-benefit analysis can quickly quantify the expected business impact.

Today’s Voice-Over IP is increasingly feature-rich, easy to use and maintain, robust, and very cost-effective.

I recommend you check it out.

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About the Author:
Marco D’Ercole is the Executive Vice President of 360 Visibility Inc. and is the undisputable champion at building and aligning an organization’s technology with their business strategy. For over a decade, Marco has been the driving implementation force behind many complex IT initiatives at mid to large scale North American companies. Marco can be reached at mdercole@360visibility.com.