Is your traditional phone system keeping
up with your growing business? If your
company could benefit from such advances as automatic call forwarding, digital voice mail and built-in disaster recovery, it may be time to consider Voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP).
“With VoIP, you have a lot of functionality
that will support your business, even in the
event that something happens at your location,” says Frank Ruffolo, Senior Vice
President at CIMCO Communications.
Smart Business asked Ruffolo about
what VoIP can do for businesses of all
sizes.
Is VoIP technology right for every small business?
Voice over Internet Protocol is one of the
most heavily adopted new technologies in
voice and data communications. Rather
than transmitting voice over traditional
analog phone lines, VoIP packages voice
and digital data and transfers it over data
networks.
VoIP is not just for large corporations
anymore. For small businesses, VoIP technology can be a way of integrating, streamlining and lowering the costs of their overall communications. Companies with
small remote offices, telecommuters,
moderate Internet use or significant outgoing calls can be great candidates for
VoIP. With the ability to outsource, any
business can have VoIP.
What key factors should a company consider
before selecting a VoIP solution?
Start with determining what internal
resources you have available to deploy a
VoIP solution. Consider the current status
of technology expertise your company possesses and decide whether or not you have
the ability to run the application in-house
or will need to partner with an experienced
carrier.
In either scenario, when selecting a carrier-grade solution, take the time to interview potential partners and verify their
experience in deploying these types of
services.
What benefits do small businesses stand to
gain from implementing a VoIP solution?
Most importantly, there are built-in disaster recovery options with VoIP. Imagine
your circuit goes down, and there’s no dial
tone at the office. In traditional telephony,
anyone who is calling your office would be
getting a busy signal. He or she is not able
to connect with you at all. With some VoIP
solutions, the calls are rerouted to another
phone number anywhere and at a minimum are going to a voicemail box.
VoIP provides your business with flexibility. Some providers offer the ‘find me, follow me’ functionality, which requires only
one number to call to reach the user. For
example, if you leave the office, you can
have all of your calls routed to your cell
phone; if your cell phone is busy, the calls
go back to your office voice mail.
Another benefit is unified messaging.
Since VoIP is really an application going
over a company’s data network, it is very
easy to integrate other services. Voice and
e-mail can be delivered on one network,
which allows carriers to bundle services
more aggressively. In the traditional phone
world, the same solution would require a separate circuit for each voice and data
application.
VoIP also provides an enhanced messaging functionality that provides an unlimited
list of new features and functions not
always available in traditional solutions.
You can actually receive your voice mail
via e-mail.
Lastly, a commonly recognized benefit is
long distance cost savings. Depending on
the type of business, a majority of calling
may happen between offices. It’s called an
in-network call and with a VoIP solution
there’s no charge for those calls.
What are some common misconceptions
about VoIP?
VoIP solutions are more popular than
ever. From residential to business, every
company has a different story about their
solution, so make sure you take the time to
determine fact from fiction. One common
misconception is that the quality of service
suffers. Not all carriers have Quality of
Service (QoS) standards in place that
ensure that your voice is taking priority
over your data and that your data arrives in
the correct order. Another misconception
is that voice quality is lower compared to
traditional solutions. QoS and network
technology advancement have improved
and removed voice quality as an issue.
How does a small business owner go about
selecting a VoIP partner?
With VoIP, it’s important to choose an
established provider who has proven success in implementing and servicing this
new technology. It’s in your best interest to
ask the service provider tough questions to
determine whether it is the right partner
for your business. How long have you been
in business? How long have you been providing VoIP? How many VoIP customers
have you deployed? Who are your underlying network providers? The answers to
these questions will help you find the right
VoIP provider and get the best solution for
your business.
FRANK RUFFOLO is Senior Vice President at CIMCO Communications. Reach him at (630) 691-8080 or [email protected].
