Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP for short is a technology that has been around for a long time now. VoIP works by basically converting your regular analog phone signal, converting it digitally, and then sending the signal over the internet protocol. While many larger businesses have been utilizing VoIP technology for quite a while, it is not until recently that the technology is finally financially viable for small businesses. This is largely due to the general increase in speed and bandwidth of our broadband internet connection.

Although there is much advantage of switching over to a VoIP system, it is still fair bit of money to completely change over from your traditional analog telephone system. The most significant expenses tend to come from the phone systems itself. New VoIP phones usually costs about $300 for an entry level set with support of up to 4 VoIP lines. Multiply that with the number of workstations in your business and you may come up with a prohibitively high number.

So when will VoIP be beneficial for your business?

Although the initial set up and switching over from your traditional analog phone can be expensive, there are many situations when such a change is justifiable.
We will discuss some of the problems that a VoIP system will solve, or processes that will be made more efficient with a VoIP system.

One such example is when your business has multiple offices or branches and you need to communicate daily between all of them. Traditionally you would be making a bunch of phone calls to and fro daily and besides adding up phone call charges, it is also inefficient. With your new VoIP system, you can have VoIP handsets located anywhere around the country or even around the world and because they are linked by the internet, you can communicate seamlessly among all your branches including dialing via extension numbers for free. You can even transfer phone calls to each other as though you are in the same building.

VoIP system will also be an effective option if your business model allows a good portion of your employees to work at home. Your employees will then be able to increase their productivity by cutting out daily commute time which can be huge. As long as they have a laptop or a VoIP handset at home and an internet connection, they can be part of your company’s telephone system in the comfort of their own home.

We have so far gone over the basics of a VoIP system and some advantageous scenario where a VoIP system will be beneficial to your business. In part 2 of our article, we will discuss on more scenarios as well as getting your business ready for a VoIP system.