Does VOIP even make sense?

Like all business decisions, you will need to justify your decision from a financial perspective in addition to understating the technology and what it can do for you business. Studying your options you will need to do some very detailed prep work to clearly identify all of your phone system needs before you decide.

For example;

• Will the IP PBX system fully support remote employees’ needs?
• Will the system support ACD (automatic call distribution) or routing to specific employees?
• Can it be easily integrated with your current systems namely your email and CRM services?
• How many calls will employees make per day and how quickly?
• Do my employees need to be accessible at all times?

Simple features like click to call can dramatically increase productivity. You can’t underestimate the importance of clearly identifying and quantifying all of your phone system needs before you talk to vendors.

In addition, these 3 questions are critical to understand before making any decisions on VOIP migration.

1.    Do I have the proper infrastructure to support the new phone system, such as adequate network capabilities?

If you’re going with VoIP, consider the increased demands on your network. You’ll want to make sure that you can fully support your new system, in addition to your other Internet usage activities – without sacrificing the data speed and quality of any of them.

If you need to make some equipment and connection upgrades to support the new system, be sure to factor these into your overall costs.

2.    Will the new phone system integrate easily with the other technologies my employees are using?

You’ll want to make sure that your new phone system can be integrated with other technologies you use, such as Microsoft Outlook for email and sharing calendars, and as mentioned, your CRM tool integration with virtual PBX, and even existing business phones if you’re not planning on buying new ones.

Your sales rep should be forthright about explaining how well their equipment will integrate with your other technologies, and if you feel like they’re trying to sell you too much other equipment, be sure to get a second opinion! There are many highly flexible systems on the market. Along these lines, consider getting an SIP-based system. SIP is an initializing protocol used for setting up sessions in an Internet Protocol network, and it is now the protocol of substitute among VoIP users. SIP works splendidly with Internet apps, and with an SIP-based system, you have access to a multitude of pioneering services, including: voice-working e-commerce; click-to- call on interactive Web pages; instant message sending with friend list; collaborative, multi-party, multimedia conference calls; and more. Ensuring that your phone system is SIP-based can save you a lot of headaches over the long term.

3.    Does the phone system provider have enough capacity to support my business?

From both an infrastructure standpoint and a customer service standpoint, you want to know that your phone system provider is going to be able to fully support your business needs today and in three-to-five years, perhaps longer. Depending on where all of your employees are calling from and where they are calling to, check to see that the providers you talk to will be able to fully support your call volume wherever and whenever it takes place – and at the speed and frequency you’re going to need it. In addition, think about the level of support you may need over time, in each time zone you’ll need it, and to what extent. Be careful of hosted PBX providers that may betray once they get a signed contract!

For expert advice reach out to nQuery Telecom Solutions, a non-fee based consulting company specializing in VOIP migrations. With over 50 carrier relationships, you will be assured to find the right provider specific to your business needs.  We can be reached at 305-760-8491 or info@nquerysolutions.com