Is VOIP Ready for Mainstream?
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
Voice Over IP – The Newest Technology Brings Computers and Telephones Together
June 3rd, 2008 - As data and voice networks have increasingly overlapped and converged, a new class of applications has emerged. Known generally as IP Telephony, this blend of voice and data technology has given new potential to one of the office’s oldest and most mundane tools: the telephone. With voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service, your phone calls travel over the Internet as data, just as your e-mail does. This type of service can dramatically lower your telecommunications costs and, at the same time, increase your productivity. It also provides useful features and capabilities that conventional telephone technology cannot offer.
Internet communication has been around since 1973. However, the technology we are familiar with today, in regards to VoIP, was not widely available until recently. While VoIP is quickly gaining popularity, some small businesses are still on the fence and concerned that VoIP may have a few drawbacks. Some of these concerns are that VoIP audio quality is substandard, that the technology is difficult or costly to implement, or that phone service will be interrupted if the electricity goes out. While these concerns may have been validated a decade ago, today VoIP’s benefits far outweigh any potential problems.
In fact, the quality of VoIP service has come a long way since its inception. Early VoIP products required both parties in a conversation to be at a computer. Not only was this process extremely limiting, but also the sound quality was often very poor. Today’s technology in VoIP service has evolved and allows you to make and receive calls using standard phones or, even better, feature-rich IP phones. Sound quality has vastly improved as well. In fact, many businesses today have abandoned traditional phone systems altogether in favor of VoIP. Many of these businesses have the ability to leverage their own data networks to carry phone calls originating and terminating within their offices with additional savings and benefits.
An intelligent phone system will enable your business to work smarter and faster. VoIP offers the basic features you would expect in any business phone system including: conference calling, automatic redialing, call forwarding and caller ID. Advanced features of the VoIP service that add to your work efficiency include: dialing from your PC or via your “Contacts” list, dialing numbers directly from a web page, externally assigning your business phone to your home phone or cell phone, advanced multi-party conference calling capabilities, drag-and-drop transfers and single number for voice and fax calls. VoIP also offers services that aid in video conferencing, data file transference, audio conferencing and maintaining an address book.
In addition, using VoIP can significantly reduce your company’s telecommunications costs. Operating costs for VoIP service providers are significantly lower than those for traditional phone companies because traditional phone providers must contend with the existing, expensive-to-maintain phone infrastructure and costly industry regulations. VoIP providers can charge much less than their competitors because their expenses are less.
Another cost-reducing component of VoIP is that businesses no longer have to maintain separate networks for phones and data. Also, the costs associated with employee moves, adds and changes–which can have a fee per occurrence–are virtually eliminated. All you have to do is move your IP phone, or traditional phone with a VoIP adapter, to a different broadband network jack and plug it in.
Not only is VoIP service more cost-effective than traditional phone service, but it also makes your phone system highly flexible and offers features that are not possible with traditional phone technology. For example, with VoIP, you can take your phone system with you. As long as you have access to a broadband connection, you can use your VoIP system anywhere, such as in a hotel room or in your home. Customers and employees can stay in touch just by calling your regular business phone number.
This feature has made VoIP popular with some businesses in the New Orleans area because, in this post-Katrina world, companies are looking for technologies that enable employees to work from remote locations, while still being “connected” to the office. “With VoIP, they can take their telephone numbers with them and do business literally on the road via a laptop computer or handheld device,” says Darryl d’Aquin, president of CommTech Industries. “VoIP gives mobility to a business and allows for no interruption in services in the event of a disaster, such as a hurricane.”
VoIP offers several other unique features such as talking directly on your laptop. Many VoIP systems include telephony software that enables you to send and receive calls using a headphone/microphone unit connected to your computer. You can also receive voice mail and faxes with your e-mail. Many VoIP services allow you to have voice mail and faxes automatically forwarded to your regular e-mail inbox. You get all your messages in one place and your voice mail and faxes can be easily archived or forwarded to others. Users can also get their e-mails “read” to voice mail. In addition, VoIP allows you to have virtual phone numbers. Your phone number can have any available area code, not just the one assigned to your region. For example, if your company is in Louisiana, but you wish to obtain clients in Florida, you can have a Florida area code. Finally, VoIP allows your business to increase productivity because many VoIP phone numbers can be configured to simultaneously ring on multiple devices–such as your cell and phones–before going to voice mail, thus eliminating time-consuming “phone tag.”
VoIP business phone systems are competitively priced with traditional phone systems, yet they offer more features and advanced capabilities. Each VoIP service is tailored to meet your specific needs. As your business grows, you can expand and grow your VoIP services as well. With technology evolving at a heightened pace, VoIP technology is something that is going to become more and more standard within companies large and small.