Hosted VoIP: Changing the Landscape of Business Communications
Every day, companies across the United States are trying to do the same thing to improve their business. Whether you’re a typical “mom and pop” SME, a midsize company with 250 employees, or a Fortune 100 company, everyone shares the same four basic goals. 1) Reduce costs. 2) Increase revenue. 3) Be more flexible to changing market conditions and 4) Reduce any risk of disruptions to your business model. Simply put, every business wants a better way to achieve their “Business Continuity” strategies.
So how are these various companies achieving these lofty goals? One of the quickest and easiest ways to address all four elements at once is to understand that technology has again changed the way we do business…for the better, and now is the time to embrace change.
Businesses today (and tomorrow) are changing the way they communicate with each other. Gone are the old and expensive communication models. For those of us willing to show our age, you may remember the days of expensive long distance calls. Remember when you asked to use someone’s home or business phone and the person paying the bill would always ask the same question: “Are you calling long distance?” Fortunately, with the breakup of Ma-Bell in the 1990s, the competition brought costs down to a manageable $0.03 per minute from the norm at the time, where it was around $0.40 per minute.
The transition occurred again with the advent of the Internet, and then email, and again with conference calls and mobile services. Each new technology certainly experienced its own bumps in the road, and each took time for the masses to adopt, but ultimately, each new step brought us closer to the four goals mentioned above. Reduced cost, higher revenue, market flexibility, and reduced risk of downtime.
Today, technology has hurt us with yet another advance. Over the last decade, we have seen the advent of cloud and hosted technologies. What started as a slow crawl has accelerated into a Usain Bolt-paced sprint in technological advances, thanks to cloud computing. As is the norm, it always takes a few years for the masses to understand and in turn adopt these new technologies, but once that happens, there is no going back. That’s where we are today, and luckily for companies looking to enhance their technology or capitalize on the impressive catalog of feature sets (now standard across most offerings), their business continuity goals are finally within reach.
If you haven’t yet begun the transition of replacing your old and dilapidated PRI-based phone system, then you’re doing your business a huge disservice, and that’s a finely phrased understatement. Sure, you see your old phone system as an asset, something you own that is tangible and yours, but if you think beyond the obvious, what has your phone system done for you lately? I’m sure it rings and can make a call for you, but what if you could have your extension ring anywhere you visit during the day, or even have it ring simultaneously with your mobile device? Never missing a call from a potential client will drastically help you increase your income. However, consider the amount of time it takes you each month to understand and correct your paper bill. Are your rates billed correctly for each type of call you make? It’s iffy, but imagine having an online portal that tracks each and every call, to and from (down to the extension level), so you not only know where your customers are calling from and who they’re talking to, but also make sure that every outgoing call is actually included, FREE, with the system? That’s both cost reduction and flexibility.
Have you ever had to close during inclement weather? Their competitor already using hosted VoIP services didn’t, because when they woke up to 6 feet of snow on the ground, they just opened their smartphone, logged into the portal, and with the click of a button, redirected everything from your calls to your pre-designated emergency overrides, in real time! Guess what, they never lost a dollar in existing revenue, and better yet, they even gained back their lost revenue, because they were open while their business was closed.
The most common misconception when considering a hosted VoIP PBX is price. Most fear that such an advanced unified communications system (and that’s what it really is; this ‘isn’t your grandpa’s phone system) will be priced the same as old phone systems, with a huge capital outlay, limiting your business for cash until you get some sort of return on investment. That is obviously wrong. Hosted VoIP PBXs today cost little to nothing in upfront costs, and are simply charged monthly just like your phone bill of old.
Included in the monthly costs are your new phone system and phones, all usage (national calls are generally FREE or UNLIMITED), dozens of voicemail features and options, automated attendants, software updates, troubleshooting, installation, training, intuitive admin and user portals (to manage service, pay your bill, chat, monitor extensions and even view trouble tickets in real time) and a variety of other bells and whistles. Best of all, these systems, which are typically priced based on the number of phones ordered, are typically within 15% of your total current spend!
So the next time you have a staff or budget meeting and you’re trying to figure out how to achieve your top four goals (again): increase revenue, decrease costs, become more flexible, and reduce the risk of downtime, you I would recommend that you take a good look at the Hosted VoIP PBX as an option. The only drawback is that you haven’t done it before.
About the Author:
Jeff Keane, 38, is an expert in commercial telecommunications services, with more than 15 years of experience in the industry. Jeff is frequently the highest producing sales representative in his company and throughout his career has helped thousands of customers save millions of dollars a year by implementing his recommendations for various voice, data, VoIP, IT and in the cloud. Jeff lives in South Jersey with his wife Brandy, 36, and their two children, Ryan Christopher, 14, and Emma Grace, 10. Jeff is an avid sports fan and also enjoys a variety of music, art, food and technology.