Posted by
Ben Rife on Thu, May 17, 2012 @ 10:25 PM
Almost everyday, I take a call from a peer, client, vendor, even competitors who have a misunderstanding of hosted voice and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. Alot of myths exist about this technology, which can cause some anxiety in the mind of the small business owner as they contemplate a new hosted phone solution using VoIP.
Let's take a quick look at 5 myths:
#1. VoIP means my calls are “free”
The old saying “nothing in life is free” is true, even for VoIP. While VoIP technically can be “free” intra-office or intra-location, when calls are placed outside of your company, there is a cost to someone, either your service provider and/or you if you have a pay-per-minute plan that charges for usage.
#2. If my Internet is down, my phones are down
As mentioned in previous blog articles, one of the main benefits of hosted voice is the feature of survivability, whereby you have a pre-configured number for your calls to forward to in the event of an outage. It’s as simple as your calls being auto-forwarded to your cell phone. You never have to miss a call.
#3. Any Internet connection will work
This is technically true, however, it depends. It depends on what Quality of Service (QoS) can be put in place to guarantee voice priority over data and to reserve bandwidth for your voice traffic, while not starving data. A “fat-pipe” like a 100Mb broadband or metro-Ethernet connection may not be appropriate for your voice traffic if you don’t have QoS in place and/or have burstable traffic. Similarly, a slow circuit, such as a T1 might not be able to handle the volume of calls your business requires. This needs to be taken into consideration before implementing a hosted voice solution.
#4. VoIP is not reliable and sounds b-r-o-k-e-n
VoIP has been around for decades and began corporate adoption in the late 1990’s, with Cisco making a major acquisition of Selsius in 1998, soon to become a billion dollar business for Cisco. According to Wikipedia, mass adoption happened in 2004. I mention all of this to demonstrate the maturity of VoIP. The real problem is not with VoIP but with a lack of properly implementing it. The parameters of latency, jitter, and delay need to be measured and controlled.
#5. T1’s and Analog POTS lines are here to stay
I just had to throw this one in. Service providers that have a large install base of T1 and/or analog infrastructure find it difficult to “change” because they have a significant investment in their solution. Some of them are still pushing their “old” technology. The reality is that 10Mb, 50Mb, even 100Mb + broadband, Wi-Max, Fiber, Metro-Ethernet connections are the new standard. Do NOT, let me repeat; do NOT renew your T1 or Analog line contract without first researching your options. You may be suprised to find that you can ditch your old circuits for a much faster connection, leverage the benefits of VoIP and a hosted voice solution, and save money while doing so.
In today's economy, businesses are looking for innovative ways to save money and be more efficient. One recent development in the field of business communications is the growth of hosted phone systems. Unlike conventional, or legacy systems, a hosted system relies on an outside provider to house and maintain a company's telephone communications. Using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology, hosted phone systems free up companies from installation, maintenance and upgrade concerns, allowing them to focus on their more immediate business interests. Because hosted systems exist off-premise, companies can rely on increased security, reliability and features, as well as lower costs.
The Off-Premise Advantage
The main difference between legacy and hosted phone systems is that in the latter, only the phones exist on-site with the company. All other telephone infrastructure is housed at a separate location, which yields numerous advantages. First of all, many employees find hosted systems much easier to learn and use than legacy systems. Instead of having to learn how to operate physical infrastructure and technology, staff members only need to know how to make phone calls, retrieve messages, forward calls and other simple operations. Many hosted phone systems operators offer training for staff to learn their system.
Secondly, off-premise phone systems are typically cheaper to install and operate, and have monthly costs that are more predictable. With legacy phone systems, companies incur significant capital costs when it comes to purchasing and installing an entirely new system. A hosted system, on the other hand, costs only a fixed monthly charge with no hidden fees. With lower and predictable rates, a hosted phone system makes it easier for companies to budget their expenses month to month.
Maintenance and Reliability
Hosted phone systems are designed to include maintenance. When a conventional phone system breaks down, it can lead to enormous headaches for a company. In addition to having to call in and pay for a repair service, companies can feel helpless that they are on their own managing the situation. Hosted systems usually contain multiple points of redundancy, meaning that even if one aspect of the system fails, there are backup technologies in place to ensure continued service. In the rare event that a hosted system does break down, the service provider will take care of it without cost to the client. With one less thing to worry about, companies can focus on their own business, rather than wasting resources on maintaining their phone system.
Features and Service
Automatic upgrades and customer service are key aspects of hosted phone systems. Companies can continue their day-to-day operations uninterrupted while their phone system is being updated. Most hosted services also offer continuous customer support to help advise on any upgrades that staff need to know about. In addition, hosted phone systems offer key features at no additional cost that are not always present in legacy systems. These typically include basic features such as call waiting, forwarding, holding and voice mail. Some hosted services also include more advanced features, such as voice mail to email transfer, web management and dialing by name directory. Finally, hosted systems can also offer tracking and reporting of outgoing and incoming calls, which can be valuable to certain types of companies.
Hosted phone systems are a valuable piece of technology that are becoming more and more popular. In addition to offering reliability and flexibility, particularly if employees work off-site, they include a wide array of features that many companies find essential.
For more information on how a hosted phone systems can save your business money visit us at www.invoip.com.
Are you a medical office looking to save money? Do you have multiple office locations? Then a VoIP telephone system (hosted phone system) is what you need for your business telephone solutions.
With the uncertainty facing the medical industry today, doctor’s offices are increasingly looking for ways to save money and increase profitability. One trend that is becoming common among doctors is to have multiple office locations. This increases the doctor’s ability to reach more patients, but also carries with it the increased costs of having to operate two offices.
What if some of those redundant costs could be eliminated? Using a hosted phone system for you business telephone solutions can help to eliminate some of those costs.
With a hosted phone system, all incoming and outgoing calls are routed through the Internet, so transferring calls between offices is simple and easy. The incoming calls for all offices can be routed to one location. The calls can then be easily transferred to the appropriate office by using 4-digit dialing. This eliminates the need to hire a receptionist for each and every office.
A hosted phone system will also allow you to eliminate the expense of having multiple phone lines for each office. Instead, all that is needed is an Internet connection. This can result in a sizeable savings across multiple sites.
Probably the greatest costs savings with using a hosted phone system for your business telephone solutions is the ability to avoid large, up-front capital expenses for your actual phone system. Many hosted voice providers will only charge you a monthly rate for the phone and unlimited usage instead of having to purchase all of the telephone equipment and then having to pay monthly management fees. This allows your telephone expenditure to be an operating expense instead of a capital expense.
For more information on how a hosted phone system can benefit your medical office money click here.
It is not earth-shaking news that running a small business is tricky business in today’s uncertain economic climate. The last thing any small business owner wants to do right now is sink a whole lot of capital into a phone system. Fortunately, there are options. One of the most promising alternatives to a traditional phone system is hosted IP telephony with voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Recently, this communication system has shown strong growth among small businesses. For many small business owners, the mention of technology and new seemingly-complicated telephone systems is cause to run the other way. However, this article should put them at ease by taking a brief look at hosted IP telephony and showing why such systems are growing among small businesses.
Having a reliable communications system for your business is essential to the success of the enterprise. For this reason, business owners cannot afford to play games with the office telephone system. It is important to have a grasp of just what is meant by hosted IP telephony. Let’s start with the term telephony. Quite simply, the word refers to the technology utilized for telephone communication. Hosted IP telephony then is a telephone system that is contained off-site and maintained by a service provider. This arrangement certainly saves the small business the space that would be necessary to house a full telephone system as well as the on-going expense of purchasing and maintaining the components of the telephone system. Saving space and money are definitely important benefits for small businesses.
One of the biggest concerns of small businesses is that larger competitors have an advantage in the use of communication technology. With the latest advances in hosted IP telephony, that is no longer the case. Many of the state-of-the-art systems feature the following:
- Random Distribution of Calls allows small businesses to send incoming customer calls to the best person to help them rather than directing them to a single overloaded agent.
- Call Forwarding enables calls to follow the appropriate employee in order to cut down on misrouted calls.
- Auto Attendant sends incoming calls to a greeting and then onto a self-service voicemail directory.
- Conferencing Capability enables small businesses to conduct telephone conferences via VoIP systems.
- Expanded Voicemail may seem like a standard feature without any great benefit. However, the newest telephony allows user access of voicemail from a variety of devices such as PDAs and laptops.
Small businesses have increasingly adopted hosted IP telephony as a means of meeting the growing challenges presented by the globalization of commerce. Without the financial or network resources available to larger competitors, small businesses must count on having a reliable data network in order to level the playing field.
For more information on how hosted ip telephony can help your small business visit us at www.invoip.com.
Hosted voice is the up and coming solution in business phone systems for small to medium sized companies. Hosted voice leverages cloud-based technology to allow multiple locations to be integrated into a single phone system. This eliminates the need for an on-premise phone infrastructure and the costly maintenance that comes along with it.
Hosted voice leverages VoIP (voice over internet protocol) technology. The phones on your desk register back to the cloud-based PBX/Business Phone System through a secure connection over the Internet.
Hosted business phone systems allow companies to enjoy a high-end enterprise level phone system without the high-end price. Typically, hosted voice providers allow businesses to lease the phone systems. This eliminates the large capital expense and maintenance costs required with purchasing a new business phone system.
With a hosted business phone system, the on-premise requirements are minimal. In addition, all of the maintenance is typically covered under your hosted voice agreement and thereby covered by your hosted voice provider.
In this economy, companies are looking for any way to save cash. By going with a hosted business phone system, companies are able to do just that. To learn just how much money your company could save, visit us at www.invoip.com
Traditionally, when a business utilizes a device such as a credit card machine, postage meter, or Point Of Sale machine it requires installing a separate, landline in order to facilitate the outgoing call. This need for a separate, dedicated line for these types of devices adds an extra expense for your business.
With the advancement of technology, these devices can now be connected via the internet. A hosted phone system allows businesses to securely communicate with vendors through the cloud. Businesses can contact their credit card machine company or postage meter provider and request a new machine that supports voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP). Usually the providers will offer the necessary machines for free.
Transactions that take place using VoIP technology are usually faster and more reliable. Additionally, by using a hosted phone system and running credit card machines through the cloud, it allows your provider to remotely access the machine and fix any glitches that may arise.
In addition to the increased speed and reliability, a company can eliminate the $25 to $35 per month cost for a separate, dedicated landline
Let’s do some quick math on this. Say a small business has one credit card processing machine and pays $25 per month for the analog phone line. What would they save by switching to a hosted phone system?
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Credit card machine phone line cost - Analog
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$300/ year
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Credit card machine phone line cost – Hosted Phone System
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$0/ year
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Cost Savings
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$300/ year
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Credit card machines and postage meters are just one way a hosted phone system can save your company money. To learn more visit us a www.invoip.com.
Business telephone solutions are rapidly changing as technology advances. PCs, applications, and servers are quickly migrating to a cloud-based environment. Soon, your phone system will be in the cloud also.
Business telephone solutions in the past were very infrastructure and hardware heavy. These on-premise solutions required constant maintenance and updating, as well as large up-front capital investment. As business telephone solutions advance many of these challenges are now irrelevant.
Hosted phone systems are the wave of the future. You can leverage the technology of a world-class, enterprise level phone system for a low monthly cost with no hardware to manage and maintain. Another advantage to a hosted phone system is the ability to integrate multiple locations on a single phone network making it easier to geographically expand your business.
Features of a hosted phone system:
- No upfront capital expense
- Multiple locations on one phone system
- Best-in-class Cisco technology
- No internal phone system to maintain
- One provider for your communications
- Simple installation and set up
- Flexibility to grow with business needs
- Unlimited tech support
Check out what some of our customers are saying about their hosted phone system and how it has made their life easier. For more informations visit us at www.invoip.com.
Companies today are constantly searching for ways to cut costs and increase profits. That is why VoIP business solutions are such an attractive option for small businesses.
Here are the four big advantages to VoIP and why it makes sense to use VoIP business solutions:
- Cost Effective for Small to Medium Sized Companies: With VoIP business solutions companies can add extensions as they are needed without incurring extra service fees. All of this is done without having to add new LAN lines from your local phone carrier.
- Flexible for Off-Site Users: Because VoIP business solutions are “hosted in the cloud” you can assign extensions to team members working at other locations - even home. These extensions are still connected to the company’s VoIP network, but the phone actually rings to their virtual office location.
- No Hidden Fees or Overage Charges: VoIP business solutions usually include unlimited local and long distance calling, as well as all of the extra features such as call waiting, call forwarding, conference calling, etc. This helps to keep monthly telephone costs consistent and lower than traditional telephone carrier phone bills.
- HD Quality: VoIP business solutions typically offer high-definition, crisp and clear voice quality. There is no “tinny” sound or the “talking in a fishbowl” effect.
VoIP business solutions offer more features than a traditional phone system and without the hassles. Traditional, or legacy, phone systems are quickly becoming outdated dinosaurs of the past, and are being replaced with cutting-edge VoIP (voice over internet protocol) systems. To learn about VoIP business solutions for your organization visit www.invoip.com.
There are a myriad of different options available to you as a business owner seeking to find the best telephone solutions. But one solution stands out head and shoulders above the rest - Hosted Voice.
As technology constantly changes, you as a business owner must also change so that your technology, and thus your business, does not become obsolete and irrelevant. A hosted voice solution offers just such a cutting edge as it is on the leading edge of today’s telephone solutions.
Hosted voice is forward thinking in that it eliminates the dependency on your staff to maintain a complex call routing topology, in addition to a secure, reliable connectivity to the Internet.
Hosted voice allows your company to leverage the cloud to meet your needs, and harness the power of the Internet in the process. Most traditional telephone solutions require your business to expend an inordinate amount of capital up front for a phone system that will be obsolete in a few years.
At Invoip, our hosted voice solution uses the quality of Cisco, which gives you the best hardware available for telephone solutions over the Internet. We provide you with “voice as a service,” which is an operating expense, as opposed to a traditional capital expense. There are no up-front capital expenses for implementation, thereby helping to maintain your cash flow.
If you are scouring the internet in search for telephone solutions for your business, check out Invoip’s hosted voice solution. You can find out more about us at www.invoip.com.
Posted by
Ben Rife on Thu, Mar 22, 2012 @ 03:09 PM
In the 1970's and 1980's when I started my career as a "young man", it was common for a small business to have a phone for each employee, along with a bunch of analog phone lines. Features like call waiting and caller-id didn't exist.
In the late 1980's and into the 1990's, as technology shifted from mainframe to server based, phone systems became more affordable. At that time, most small business phone systems were "key systems" and had limited functionality compared to today. Users were given extensions on the phone system and all phone lines (analog or digital) rang to the receptionist, where she would transfer the call to the respective extension.
Herein lies the problem. If a user on the system has an extension of 1703, and one of his colleagues wants to dial a cusotmer in Virginia, at 703-555-1212, when they dial 1-7-0-3.... the phone system is unable to tell if the call should be routed internally or out the phone lines to the customer in Virginia.
To prevent this senario, most businesses choose a "prefix" to dial before the number to indicate that the call is "off-net", meaning that it isn't a call internal to the company and should be routed out your phone lines.
A word of caution is necessary here. Over the years, we have seen various prefixes used, with 8 & 9 being the most common. The problem with 9, has to do with 911. When dialing long-distance, the caller will dial 9+1, and then begin dialing the area code, however, subliminally, many people, everyday push an extra 1, causing an emergency call. As a result, we recommend only using a prefix of 8 to prevent this from happening. And, yes, we have seen the local police department show up on-site.
