VoIP For the Small Business - Reducing Your Telecom Costs

Until recently, small businesses had no other real alternative to the traditional phone system, often screwed to a wall in the corner of the office and linked to traditional BT connections, usually digital ISDN lines. However, today a technology called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has become a viable solution for even small companies since broadband internet access has become more affordable and popular among small businesses. VoIP is a revolutionary technology that provides inexpensive voice communications and can be used in more than one location, offering the chance to provide 'joined up' telecoms at an affordable price.

How can VoIP Save You Money?
VoIP offers many benefits and useful features over traditional telephony. The most significant benefit is that it brings together all of your companies users into a single system and a single point of billing. This means you no longer need to worry about individuals claiming for call expenses each month if they've been working from home or other locations. It also means that anyone calling within your organization, regardless of location, experiences a free call. Internal calls on VoIP are always free, even if it's to another office or geographical location. Finally, the biggest cost saving comes from an ability for Hosted VoIP providers to offer bundle deals for calls.

Lower costs
By providing a bundle deal, Hosted VoIP providers can save you significant costs on your standard calls. It is not uncommon to see a flat fee per month to cover a large amount of included calls to UK landlines and a generous allowance for calls to UK mobiles. Some providers are also now offering bundles that include a near unlimited number of International calls too. In summary, all of these features and benefits saves your business money by reducing your phone bills through network convergence, and by providing you with many useful telecom features at no additional charges.

No additional charges for special features
Almost all of the VoIP service providers offer many useful features free of cost, as these services are bundled with a VoIP service. For instance, it is common to receive the following services as part of a Business Hosted VoIP system:

Call Recording
Per Extension Voicemail
Call Divert (based on time of day or day of week)
Conference Rooms for multi user conversations
Call Redirect to external numbers
Plus many more..

Savings on adds, moves, and changes
As your business grows, many new employees may be added to your company, and over time some of your existing employees may leave the company. With a traditional phone system, adding a new phone line or changing an existing line is an expensive and a very time consuming job, often requiring the services of an expert who charges per service call. VoIP is very suitable for your growing business needs as adds, moves, and changes are very easy to perform yourself via a Web-based control panel.

VoIP increases your employees' productivity
VoIP provides you with several large, enterprise-level communications capabilities, such as auto-attendant (answering system) and find/follow features. Until now, these capabilities were very expensive and were only possible through Private Branch Exchange (PBX) telephony systems. However, with today's VoIP solution, your small business can have access to these advanced capabilities.
No need for separate networks

With VoIP, you do not need to maintain separate networks for voice and data. You can converge both networks into a single network, making the overall management quite simple.
Hosted VoIP vs. Premises-Based Key Benefits of Hosted VoIP

You have two options available to you: you can manage your VoIP system in-house, or you can opt for hosted VoIP services. In a premises-based model, all hardware related to the IP phone system will reside at your company's site. You will purchase, install, and maintain all the equipment, and you will need in-house expertise to operate the system. Premises-based systems are complex to install and maintain. In addition, you must invest money in equipment.

In contrast to a premises-based system, hosted VoIP solutions involve limited upfront costs. You simply need to make a small investment on VoIP handsets for users desks (or homes). All the equipment is managed off-premises by a service provider, and there is no physical hardware onsite to maintain. The service provider maintains and supports the equipment, and you get the services for a flat monthly fee.

Small companies are quickly adopting the hosted Voice over IP (VoIP) model as it is the more reliable and cost effective solution. You get services at flat monthly expenses based on the number of lines and features.

Conclusions and Recommendations
Until recently, smaller companies have had no real alternative to expensive conventional phone systems. Now, as broadband internet access has become affordable even for small businesses, VoIP is becoming a cost-effective, feature-rich alternative to traditional phone systems. Small companies are quickly adopting hosted VoIP solutions to lower their tele¬communication costs and benefit from Enterprise features at little or no additional cost.

Recommendations:

Network assessment is essential to implement VoIP solutions effectively. Your IT support provider can do this for you.

A hosted VoIP solution is the best alternative for you if you do not want to invest in equipment and you do not have a dedicated IT staff to manage the service in-house.
The service provider who offers their VoIP services within a 'flat monthly fee model' may prove to be more suitable as you will have predictable monthly expenses.

Craig Sharp
Abussi VoIP - (44) 845 862 0200
http://www.abussivoip.co.uk

We provide a range of VoIP, Hosted Telephony and business phone system services in Birmingham and throughout the West Midlands and surrounding areas including: Coventry, Solihull, Wolverhampton, Bromsgrove, Redditch and Birmingham