The sooner that you move to VoIP, the better. There – that was an easy answer to the question posed by the article title.
Most business owners and decision makers, however, want to know the reasoning behind the theory. “Show your work,” as your fifth-grade math teacher said time and again. Fortunately, justifying the move to Voice over IP makes showing the work easy. There are many advantages that are hard to look over.
Significant Cost Savings
A move to Voice over IP from any traditional system that had its time beforehand immediately saves the business money. The profile and operational benefits are unquestionable. The longer that you put off getting into VoIP, the more time that you will have to wait for the long term accrual benefits to take hold.
The major benefit of VoIP is the ability to combine many communications functions into a single system. Because a company does not have to move from partner to partner to get different services, having a total communications package is much cheaper.
Many companies will actually keep old customers on legacy plans until they ask otherwise. If you have not asked your current communications provider about VoIP services, odds are that you are missing out on significant cost savings that may also improve your company’s efficiency.
Infrastructure Improvement, More Flexibility with VoIP
Voice over IP structure is usually made of better stuff than legacy structures. In order to even support modern VoIP, a company must use Category 5e (Cat5e) or Category 6 (Cat6) cabling. A company must also employ its own network node point wherever it wants a VoIP phone.
Power over Ethernet switches, also known as PoE switches, are a must-have. These switches also require Cat5e or Cat6 cables. If there is no PoE tech available, a company must run a powerpoint wherever it wants a VoIP phone in place.
Improved Levels of Security with VoIP
Voice over IP phones come with increased levels of security that require phones that are highly configured. For instance, if the company needs the ability to intercept certain calls, create membership groups for high-security calls, forward and screen calls, then different user levels of your phone system may be required. This security level is not even available for many types of legacy communications systems, and it may be a bit overwhelming for a company that is just coming into VoIP technology.
VoIP also plays on smartphone technology, allowing users to employ it as an extension of the telephone. If a company has VoIP tech on deck, it can reroute any call that it wants to a smartphone, increasing that company’s ability to serve customers and communicate with partners across the globe on a real-time basis. VoIP platforms from Altigen, 3CX, and Nextiva all have excellent remote worker capabilities.
Training Right Now
One of the most important aspects of employing a VoIP system is training employees on its use. As stated before, there are many facilities that Voice over IP creates for a company that may not have even been a possibility for the business beforehand. When new options come into play, new training must be employed.
A company may also have to employ different levels of security access when it comes to a VoIP phone system. Upper-level management may need additional features that the ground level sales team does not need. In order to protect the company’s proprietary information, security tiers can be formed that leaves only the information that is vital to a particular tier available to those people.
In short, do you need Voice over IP? If you plan to create a communications structure that can compete with modern companies, then yes. You need it not now, but right now. The features and structure that you can create with VoIP are simply not available with other types of communications, and you need every bit of technology that you can muster to stay abreast of what is going on right now.