VoIP is in essence a term to describe the transmission of telephone calls over the internet as opposed to traditional PSTN. This is accomplished by converting the analogue signal into a digitalised version, transmitting this through the internet connection, and reversing this process at the receiver’s end.
VoIP solutions can be either standalone or, more appropriately for most existing businesses, they can be integrated with existing ISDN or PSTN telephone systems.
By integrating in this way, you can benefit from the flexibility and cost savings associated with VoIP with the convenience of retaining an existing switchboard and telephones.
When compared to the costs of standard telephone calls, VoIP solutions offer significant savings. For example using VoIP, calls to UK landlines can be as low as 25% of the cost of BT’s standard calls. Further savings are available for international calls, with VoIP calls often costing around 10% as much as standard landline rates.
For multi-site operations, free calls can be made using VoIP .
A VoIP telephone system gives significant flexibility to re-route calls, provides telephony links when out of the office, offers an easily-changeable switchboard system, and provides features such as voicemail which enable messages to be emailed. There is no need for additional wiring unlike standard PBXs requiring additional extensions.
Depending on the type of telephone system in place, VoIP offers improved features such as:
Employees spread all over the country working from branch offices or home can all be given extensions of a single number with the ability to route calls between themselves. VoIP offers a seamless link ensuring that customers are unaware that employees aren’t all in one central office location.
Unlike tradition phone systems, a VoIP system offers protection against certain disasters which could render an office PBX unavailable. If required, the VoIP system can be up and running in a matter of hours and employees could be working seamlessly from home or a warm site.
VoIP solutions give greater control and reporting of call logs, duration, destination, etc. This can prove invaluable where remote workers are expected to spend specific amounts of time on the phone.