Ten reasons why businesses should consider hosted telephony
Forward-thinking businesses are considering VoIP and transitioning to cloud-based telephony to reduce ongoing call costs, eliminate substantial on-premise hardware, and leverage value-adding telephone features.
The possibility of saving thousands of pounds is appealing, but it isn’t the sole benefit of a hosted solution.
VoIP telephony is one of the most significant communications technologies currently available to businesses. So what are the main reasons for choosing VoIP for business?
Ten Business Benefits to VoIP
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Prepare for the future
VoIP is now essential to businesses because of the PSTN Switch Off. VoIP can be hosted remotely, making it astoundingly future-proof thanks to its lack of reliance on in-house hardware. Any necessary upgrades can be implemented by the provider, leaving you free to reap the benefits without having to worry about costs or your hardware becoming obsolete.
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Look to the past
Although VoIP does offer an impressive degree of future-proofing, it’s not a technology which requires that you ditch all your legacy systems. Most VoIP solutions are flexible and compatible enough to fit in with whatever telephone service or PBX system you have been running on site, which means that you can migrate to a digital telephony package with relative ease. This will also aid in reducing hardware procurement costs. While VoIP-oriented components are available for those starting from scratch, this isn’t a necessity for businesses with pre-existing internal hardware setups.
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Embrace flexible and remote working
VoIP can break the shackles that usually tie employees to their desks in order to remain contactable. Various studies have shown that flexible working conditions can enhance staff morale and increase productivity. Traditional workplaces are evolving and employees are expected to work effectively whether they are at home or in the office. With VoIP, calls can be forwarded to any connected device, ensuring consistent responsiveness.. Additionally, VoIP facilitates collaboration among team members dispersed across large geographical areas.
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Scalability
VoIP isn’t solely tailored to meet the requirements of large corporations or expansive call centres. In fact it is the scalability of this type of service that makes it so powerful and popular.
VoIP’s infrastructure is hosted remotely, catering to both the self-employed or an entire corporation. It also means VoIP is perfect for businesses which are rapidly growing and need an unrestricted solution. You’ll then be able to adapt to busy periods and then scale back once normal levels have resumed. -
Geographic reach & marketing
With analogue phone services restricting a business to a specific location because of an area code. However, with VoIP, it’s hosted virtually so it’s not constrained in the same way. This makes it easy to move your headquarters to a different area and still retain the same number. You can use this to your advantage when it comes to marketing and establishing your business in new regions. Choosing non-geographic numbers for your business can help you promote an air of professionalism and attract a national audience. However, picking a local number in an area away from your office allows you to target a specific audience, that might not otherwise have considered using your company.
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Enhanced features & management
VoIP boasts an array of top-notch telephony features, including call forwarding, call handling, voicemail, and various other functions, making it a standout choice in today’s telecommunications landscape. In addition to this, it is actually much easier to control the specifics of your service because many providers allow you to do so via a web-based interface which is an empowering capability to have on-tap.
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Lower call costs
Businesses using VoIP will significantly reduce expenditure on calls. This can be a major expense for some companies, particularly if they rely on a large number of employees using the phone to answer queries and make sales throughout the day. VoIP-to-VoIP calls are often free of charge, with no per-minute rate to worry about. This applies whether the people communicating are on the other side of town or the other side of the planet, eliminating the issues with international charges.
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Resilience
As with many externally hosted services, VoIP uptime is generally not the responsibility of individual businesses. Instead the provider has to ensure that the platform remains operational and available at all times. This allows businesses to save money that would have otherwise been allocated to maintenance costs. The continuous monitoring of infrastructure performed by VoIP providers surpasses what could reasonably be achieved internally.
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Conferencing
The collaborative capabilities mentioned earlier are improved thanks to the conferencing features of VoIP. Multiple users can get in touch simultaneously and host meetings without having to physically be in the same room. This can deliver further benefits, such as reducing long distance travel for business meetings, lowering costs and improving productivity.
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Audio quality
VoIP consumes more bandwidth than analogue telephony and uses this to deliver better quality audio. This means it is easier to understand one another when communicating through a VoIP service. Tying VoIP in with more data-intensive platforms leads to a range of additional possibilities and benefits.
As shown by these ten reasons, VoIP for business is well worth considering by any business.
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