In this economy more than ever, businesses are eager to know that they are getting what they pay for. While many smart business owners have taken the prudent step of adopting business voip solutions, adopting a new phone service or system requires a bit of homework to get the best deal and the best service possible. Here we discuss a few worthwhile considerations for adopting VOIP that help optimize the experience of businesses looking to adopt a VOIP solution in lieu of their existing PSTN/phone carrier.
Since VOIP is on the whole very reliable, reliability is not a primary consideration when it comes to the technology supporting the solution. But vendor reliability ought to be a top concern: good reputations and awards for technology, innovation, and customer support are all good indicators that a provider will be there to help make any modifications to the system or troubleshoot in the highly unlikely event of any glitch.
Next, administration of the network should be intuitive and manageable for a non-IT professional. While a good provider will be happy to assist with changing hold music, adding an extension, etc, and should be easy to reach on the phone, the ability to make these changes easily in-house from one place is truly invaluable. Only a few business VOIP solutions are designed to be easily administered in-house. Of these, opting for a solution with a familiar user interface is ideal. For hosted PBX and VOIP networks, innovative companies will offer an administrator tool accessible through the web, allowing changes to be made almost instantaneously, which frees up time to do actually do business rather than administer a phone system.
It is also worthwhile to consider phone selection. Many budget packages include equally budget first-generation phones. Having the flexibility to choose from a variety of newest-generation phones will ensure higher quality and greater cost effectiveness, as buyers can opt for only the features they need.
And speaking of features, lastly, the “bells and whistles” of a business VOIP network can be extremely useful and truly distinguish one provider from another. Popular features now include advanced voicemail (which transcribes voicemails into e-mails), auto-attendant (which will reroute specific callers’ calls), custom hold messages, and portable extensions that allow the phones to work from any broadband connection beyond the office.
VOIP’s marriage with PBX is one of the best things to have happened to business telecom in the last decade. Before taking the plunge or switching providers, consider vendor reliability, ease of administration, phone selection, and feature richness.
