5 Ways to Save Money With VoIP

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shutterstock_242227783Old-fashioned private branch exchange (PBX) systems are being replaced by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services in many businesses. VoIP has a number of benefits, not the least of which is that it can save a company money. The top five ways VoIP saves money are:

  • low-cost installation and replacement,
  • lack of replacement parts,
  • free premium features,
  • affordable company phone numbers, and
  • reduction in IT costs.

Installation and Replacement

Legacy phone systems can become quite expensive to install or replace due to the hardware they require. In contrast, there are some VoIP systems that require nothing more than a headset and software. For businesses that already have a legacy system but are looking to switch, some VoIP providers can even adapt and use the existing infrastructure.

Replacement Parts

VoIP’s lack of reliance on hardware also means that it doesn’t need as many replacement parts as a legacy phone system, which can break down due to age. With technology constantly evolving and traditional PBX losing popularity, businesses may find that replacement parts for a legacy system become harder to find and more expensive to purchase as the years pass. An IP system, on the other hand, has few components that may break in the first place, and anything that does need to be replaced can easily be found.

Premium Features

Legacy systems often add extra charges for necessary features like long distance calls, call forwarding, and voicemail. With VoIP, many of these features are already included in the base software. Because the internet connects in the same way both locally and internationally, this can be especially beneficial for businesses that often make long distance calls.

Company Numbers

Being able to contact core employees quickly can help a business succeed, but many employees prefer to keep their personal numbers private. Because VoIP numbers can connect directly to an employee’s phone, a business can reach employees without requiring their personal numbers. With the recent FCC ruling that gives VoIP providers the same access to numbers as telecom providers, businesses will no longer have to deal with third parties in order to contact essential employees quickly.

IT Cost Reduction

An increase in technology often means growth of the IT department, but a major benefit of VoIP is that it doesn’t require multiple professionals to function. With VoIP, the professional who fixes the phones also fixes any network issues because they’re both internet-based.

While switching over to VoIP may require an adjustment period, these five benefits make it cost-efficient for most companies. Businesses will reduce IT costs, keep in contact with core employees, have free access to necessary features, and save money on both installation and replacement costs.

Improving Communications in the Hospitality Industry with Hosted VoIP

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shutterstock_289575950In a hotel, phone service is just as important as a comfortable bed and a hot shower. Like an old bed or a defective shower, analog telephony is becoming a liability. Hotels and other establishments in the hospitality industry that want to attract more customers, stand out from the competition, and streamline their internal communications need to consider the value that hosted VoIP (voice-over Internet protocol) phone systems offer.

Searching to satisfy the technology-driven needs of their guests and staff, leaders in the hospitality industry are choosing ramping up their communication systems with VoIP technology.

Benefits of VoIP

Hotels are beginning to see the benefits that hosted VoIP phone systems have over on-premise PBX systems. Cost is a major consideration. Hosted VoIP offers few upfront costs, easy maintenance, and low repair costs. In addition, the VoIP provider monitors the system’s operations, reducing manpower costs.

Flexibility, ease of use, scalability, automatic updates and upgrades, and access to advanced features are other advantages that improve productivity for hotel employees while delivering the ultimate hotel experience for guests.

Security has long been a concern in hosted models. Thus, hosting companies and cloud providers have concentrated on improving the security of their products and have succeeded in the challenge. Encryption, firewalls, strong passwords, separation of voice and data, anti-virus protection, and other tools are now par for the course with hosted solutions.

VoIP Analytics Improve Service

Hotel guests want reliable, excellent phone service and evaluate the quality of the establishment based partly on the quality of the phone service. When competing for guests, hotel administrators need to be aware of how their communication systems are performing, asking questions like these:

  • Is the Internet connection fluctuating?
  • Are the routers performing adequately?
  • Is voice quality choppy or clear?

Hosted VoIP systems typically are paired with a VoIP analytics tool that provides administrators with answers to the above questions—and more.

VoIP analytics includes the recording, capturing, tracking, scoring, managing, and reporting of calls and other data that pass through the system. These reports provide real-time visibility into network, operational, and customer issues as well as other actionable information to help hotel administrators find ways to improve the system.

Responding to Mobility

Fixed lines and desk phones are losing relevance in an increasingly mobile work environment. Hotel guests deserve personalized service and real-time response to any request. Hosted VoIP accommodates the integration of mobile devices to allow employees to always remain connected.

Mobile devices are especially useful for hotel employees, who need to have immediate access to one another from anywhere within the hotel–from the front desk to room service to an external affiliate restaurant. Staff can better handle unplanned events such as the arrival of walk-in clients or VIPs if they are able to immediately connect with one another. Hotel managers can use hosted VoIP to more effectively manage their teams while ensuring guest satisfaction regardless of location.

Developers continue to look for ways to reinvent the guest room phone. It may soon be integrated with the guest’s mobile device to perform other functions.

Hosted VoIP is a communications staple that streamlines calls for hotel employees and offers an array of communications options to hotel guests.

How Resellers Can Effectively Utilize SIP Trunking in Network Migration

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Cloud telephonyMoving away from private branch exchange (PBX) telephony systems is a big deal for most businesses, especially given the huge time commitment and expense that go into such a move. Nevertheless, organizations are being encouraged to shun PBX in favor of cloud-based telephony–all in the name of cost reduction and improvements in efficiency.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be a bit frustrating. Fortunately, there’s always the hybrid approach, which leaves most of the legacy system in place while taking advantage of the latest and greatest in networking hardware. At the heart of it all is the session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking solution, which is designed to allow the implementation of cloud-based telephony over existing PBX infrastructure.

What’s the ROI?

The first thing that any reseller should do over the course of overseeing such a migration is to review how much of a return on investment (ROI) an extension of PBX to a future hybrid system offers. Companies can make quick and useful cost comparisons by comparing the costs of maintaining the current system versus implementing a hybrid system with SIP trunking.

Moving to SIP Trunks

Resellers also can do their part to make the transition to cloud-based telephony services by converting existing long-distance carrier circuits to SIP trunks. This way, resellers can place much of their focus on reducing the overall costs of the conversion process. Further reductions may occur through natural downsizing of vendors and the reduced necessity of several redundant SIP trunks.

Deploying E-SBCs

Enterprise session border controllers (E-SBCs) also play a role in the migration process. These devices are instrumental for managing voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) communications as well as mitigating hostile attacks. It’s important to have a sufficient number of E-SBCs deployed to cover a wide variety of potential cloud services.

Transition from UC to SIP

Another aspect of SIP trunking deployment involves transitioning existing unified communications (UC) services to SIP trunks. Resellers can play an instrumental role in guiding and overseeing the transition from existing UC services to those based on the SIP trunk infrastructure.

How It All Stacks Up

It’s important to take a snapshot of the company’s dedicated access costs (along with long-distance calls) prior to SIP trunking and after the migration process is complete. This gives the company a clear picture of its savings and a chance to inspect areas of the SIP trunking migration where improvements in cost-effectiveness and efficiency can be made.

Migrating to the cloud can be an adventure in its own right, fraught with a variety of challenges for businesses to overcome. However, the hybrid method of SIP trunking migration can help ease and simplify that process to a significant degree.