VoIP: Problems and Solutions for Business Communications
As a business owner, you may find yourself questioning whether you need a VoIP service provider. You may wonder how VoIP services actually benefit your business. Keep reading to learn more about common VoIP problems and solutions and how a service provider can help you streamline your business communications.
VoIP Is Your Modern Business Communication Solution
Voice over Internet Protocol, commonly referred to as VoIP, allows businesses to send and receive calls, and messages, and perform other business communication services over their broadband internet connection. Compared to traditional phone systems, which require a physical telephone wire to perform business communications, VoIP use of the internet to send and receive voice packets provides your business with increased flexibility and efficiency.
What Business Problems Does VoIP Solve?
VoIP phone systems mitigate a number of business phone system problems, allowing you to focus more on the core of your business. This allows you to be more productive and efficient. Below, we’ll explore some of the key VoIP problems and solutions that help make your business run more smoothly.
Rising Communication Cost
Businesses are always looking for ways to cut costs as they expand and grow. However, using an outdated legacy system makes it difficult to scale your business upward in a seamless, cost-effective way. Each new phone line or handset requires intensive hardware installation and integration, making it challenging—and expensive—to expand your communication network.
Problem
Traditional analog business phone systems can be rather expensive. This is because, in practice, your business is “renting” a phone line for use each time you need to make a call. When you factor in international calling, the price rises substantially, as there are fewer accessible lines. With traditional business phone systems, each minute you spend on the phone costs you money.
Solution
Since VoIP phone systems use the internet to send and receive calls, there’s no need to “rent” an expensive phone line. VoIP phone systems significantly decrease the amount of money that your business has to spend on business communications each month. It’s estimated that businesses can save between 30% and 50% on communications costs each month. In addition, the cost of VoIP services declines over time—each year that you use VoIP saves you money.
Business Rigidity
In our fast-moving digital world, flexibility is crucial to the success of your business. You need to be able to operate quickly and adapt to changing circumstances with ease. Unfortunately, many businesses struggle with legacy communication technology that makes agility a challenge.
Problem
Traditional business phone systems require bulky, intensive physical infrastructure for them to stay online. It’s challenging to scale them up and down with your business needs since that requires you to install more hardware like wiring and physical handsets.
Solution
VoIP phone systems tackle this issue by providing a fast, non-intrusive network solution for your business communications. Since VoIP connects to your business network, you can easily configure and manage your business phone system from any connected device.
When it comes to scalability, VoIP provides the most straightforward, streamlined approach to business communications. When your business needs change in the future—whether you need more or fewer phone lines—VoIP allows you to easily scale up and down.
Incompatible Communication Services
Another common VoIP problem is incompatible communication tools. In order for your business to be as productive and efficient as possible, your systems need to be interconnected, but those different tools aren’t always designed to work together.
Problem
With a traditional business communication system, your phone, email, and fax systems are all separate from one another. When these systems don’t automatically communicate with each other, you have to do the legwork and manually connect them. For example, if you want to print a copy of a voicemail message, you need to transcribe it and send it over to the printer.
Solution
One of the biggest advantages of VoIP services is that your communications systems become integrated with each other. Customer accounts—their phone numbers, email addresses, and records—are all linked together within your system. You can easily send and receive both phone calls and emails from the same portal. You can even have voicemails sent straight to your email. This is because VoIP services use softphones, a type of desktop application that allows users to manage their calls from their connected devices.
Not sure if your business can benefit from VoIP services? We can help!
In-Person vs. Remote Work Environments
Hybrid and remote work environments have become more common, and it seems they’re here for the long haul. However, many businesses struggle with ensuring that employees are able to work as efficiently at home as they do in the office.
Problem
Traditional business communication systems are hyperlocal. Your handset needs to be connected to your physical infrastructure on-site for you to send and receive calls. Employees that work remotely have to use their personal devices for communication, which can be detrimental to the security of your business.
Solution
VoIP phone systems circumvent this issue through their use of softphones, which are described above. When you have access to all of your communication features in one, centralized location on a network, you can work from anywhere. This allows your business to be more flexible and efficient no matter what the circumstances are.
Endpoint Security
For your business to operate at its highest capacity, it needs to be secure. You need to know that your sensitive business information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, but it’s impossible to centralize and manage endpoint security with legacy communication systems.
Problem
With traditional business phone systems, there’s no way to centralize management. The endpoints of these legacy systems aren’t readily visible, making it impossible to ensure security throughout your business phone system.
Solution
VoIP phone systems are a way to ensure security for the entirety of your business communications. VoIPs provide a central hub through which you can access every communication feature within your network. Through this central hub, you can easily view endpoint security and address it as needed.
Your Business Needs a VoIP Service Provider
With the assistance of a managed service provider, you can easily navigate business communication and common VoIP issues. At Upfront Computer Solutions, we partner with reputable VoIP suppliers to provide you with a comprehensive, customized business communications solution. If you’re looking to make the switch to VoIP, contact us today!