What does Hosted VoIP provide you? (Read below for full information)
- Lower Total Cost of Ownership
- Minimal IT Support Required
- Operating Expense vs. Capital Expense
- Business Continuity
- Scale Up/Scale Down
- More Functionality
- Automatic Upgrades
- Productivity Anywhere
- Focus On What Matters
What is Hosted VoIP?
(See what VoIP is: http://limitlesstechnology.com/voip-phones)
Now that you have a working understanding of VoIP and what it can do for your business, you need to know the second part of the story, which is how you can get VoIP. There are several approaches you can take, but the two most popular are premises-based and network-based. Without getting technical, they are defined as follows:
For micro/small and medium sized businesses, our view is that hosted VoIP is the best solution
Premises Based VoIP:
The business owns and operates their telephony system, which is usually a PBX or a more updated IP PBX for larger businesses, or a Key System for smaller businesses. This requires a capital investment in hardware, and internal IT resources to manage it.
Network Based VoIP:
This is the outsourced model, better suited for smaller businesses that lack IT resources and/or do not wish to make a capital investment in owning a telephony system. There are several variations of this model, with hosted VoIP being one of them.
For micro/small and medium sized businesses, our view is that hosted VoIP is the best solution. In a hosted model, the business only needs to make a nominal investment in telephone sets that are compatible with VoIP, and does not have to worry about operating, maintaining or upgrading their network to support VoIP. It really offers the best of both worlds by being a cost effective way to get PBX-caliber features without the risk or challenges of managing their network. The only real trade-off is giving up control and ownership over the telephone system, and for micro businesses, there is much more to gain than at stake in the first place.
Hosted VoIP provides you:
Companies can finally replace their old phone systems and get a far more flexible phone solution for a fraction of the cost. But it’s not just replacing one phone system for another. With Hosted VoIP, you get the benefits of outsourcing the management of your phone system, which means you’ll need fewer resident experts to handle things. What’s more, Hosted VoIP expands communications and productivity by providing a range of advanced features and functionality. And it does so without straining your budget.
- Lower Total Cost of Ownership – Business is more unpredictable than ever––growth one year, contraction the next year. Ideally, you’d be able to secure the most advanced technologies without having to spend significant money upfront on hardware. Hosted VoIP makes this possible.With a Hosted VoIP solution, you save from day one on your monthly communications service fees. All you need are VoIP-ready handsets.
That’s right, no expensive boxes or systems required. You save money every month as well because you no longer need to manage both phone and data lines. Traditional phone lines, and the high price associated with them, are now a thing of the very expensive past.
- Minimal IT Support Required – Unlike the complex traditional phone systems that sit in a closet, Hosted VoIP requires very little IT support or training to administer. You can quickly add users, delete users, enable additional features––all without additional support or staff.
The reason? A simple web interface.
In fact, a Hosted VoIP solution is so simple and intuitive; users can manage their own features right from their computers. It’s one management issue that can be taken off the shoulders of IT. Who knows, maybe they’ll even thank you for a change.
- Operating Expense vs. Capital Expense – The last thing you want to do in this economy, or any economic climate for that matter, is spend tens of thousands of dollars on a phone system. With Hosted VoIP, there are no large servers or systems to purchase. Other than phones, there are no capital expenditures to depreciate over time. Which means it comes off of your books. All you have is an affordable monthly service fee that connects your business and employees to a host of capabilities that dramatically improve productivity.
Let’s imagine you were a business that needed to incorporate call center functionality. You received a quote for a traditional telephony system. It’s possible it could cost you an excess of $120,000. By contrast, a call center based on a Hosted VoIP system may be as low as $1,200 per month! Imagine the impact that would have on your finances.
- Business Continuity – Let’s assume some worst case scenarios: Your building is flooded. Or an earthquake wreaks havoc. Or a fire knocks out power for miles around. Now, let’s assume you have Hosted VoIP. Want to know how things would be? Business would go on––uninterrupted. Since no physical box resides on your premises––it resides in redundant and secure data centers––customers can still connect with your business because employees can work from anywhere.
The reason? A web-based portal that allows you to quickly forward calls to cell phones or other phones in unaffected locations. It’s an incredibly fast and easy way to take control of a disastrous situation and ensure that anything major becomes just a minor incident.
- Scale Up/Scale Down – Five year projections? Ten year projections? Frankly, for most businesses, it has become nearly impossible to make accurate predictions. It’s why you need a highly-flexible technology like Hosted VoIP. Hosted VoIP is a sure way to give you the peace of mind that comes from not being constrained by a phone system that only supports a fixed number of employees and can be costly and complicated to expand. If resources become squeezed, you can quickly scale back. On the other hand, if you open a new branch office, or need to provide remote communications, or just need to prepare for a spike in demand around the holidays, it’s quick and easy to scale up without any disruption to your business.
Total flexibility. Easy to manage. Quick to deploy.
Hosted VoIP is a decision with only upside.
- More Functionality – Even if you’re jaded about technology, once you see all of the advanced features and functionality that are available from a Hosted VoIP system, you’ll be seriously impressed by the impact it can have on your business. And the best part is you can activate only those features that you need to make your company more productive. It starts with HD voice, the clearest a business call can get.
That’s just scratching the surface. Through Hosted VoIP, you can have voicemails automatically forwarded to your email account, you can make a call from a cell phone or remote office and have it appear as a call from the main office. You also have the ability to integrate with Outlook or your Customer Relationship Management system. Basically there isn’t much you can’t do with Hosted VoIP.
- Automatic Upgrades – With Hosted VoIP, there’s no box on your premises, so there’s no hardware to upgrade in order to take advantage of new features and technologies. Because your service is outsourced, upgrades are provided through software changes that happen automatically in the background. Of course, you’ll be made aware of any new capabilities as they come on line. That way, you can quickly utilize them to support your employees and better service customers.
So stay focused on your business, and leave the upgrades to your Hosted VoIP service provider.
- Productivity Anywhere – It’s hard to advance your business if it’s tethered to convention. And there’s no ball and chain quite like a desk phone. Hosted VoIP is the ideal solution for existing and emerging workforces who demand constant connectivity and productivity from anywhere––and at anytime. Whether attacking issues from a desk, a conference room, or powering through meetings on the road, Hosted VoIP gives companies the powerful communications features they need to keep things moving forward no matter where or when business is done.
- Focus On What Matters – One of the best ways to stay competitive is to focus on your core business. With a Hosted VoIP solution, the management of increasingly complex business communications is done for you off-site. It all happens in the background while your employees utilize advanced features and productivity tools like voice, video, and wireless to take up new goals and take down obstacles that stand in their way.