Business phones are crucial components of business communications. Not only are they needed for interacting with customers, but they also enable seamless communication between employees.
Over time, offerings of business phones have improved tremendously. From being a measly phone box, crawling its wires across the office floors, business phone lines are now taking the advantages of cloud communications.
Transitioning to VoIP based services, business phone lines are now more equipped to handle business communication. They now have a plethora of features that enable them to route calls automatically, integrate with smart IVR systems, manage callers through an auto-attendant or virtual receptionist, or even enable automatic calls through different types of auto-diallers.
However, when it comes to making a decision, an overflow of information on the types of business phones may often confuse business leaders. Every type of phone system has its pros and cons, but it is up to the requirements of a business to identify which of the features suit them the most.
In this article, we will talk about three different types of phone systems that you can choose from. We will list out what each of them offers, their benefits and their shortcomings. Let us dive straight in.
Dedicated VoIP phones
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is, simply put, a method to communicate voice through the Internet. One can look at Best Database Provider it as a method to place and receive phone calls through the Internet. Behind the obvious, of course, is a group of technologies that capture, transmit and receive voice across two or more users who are connected to the Internet.
Voice over IP converts voice into a digital signal, compresses it, and then sends it over the Internet. A VoIP service provider sets up the call between all intended participants. On the receiving end, the digital data is then uncompressed and converted back into the voice. At both ends, necessary are devices that have a microphone and a speaker.
In usage, VoIP phones look similar to regular desk phones. Apart from the regular earpiece or speaker for calls, they also have a small screen to display information along with a variety of buttons for specific functions. They are available in a wide variety at different price points. The more expensive ones usually provide colour and touch-sensitive screens, better quality hardware and support HD voice for better clarity.
Advantages of VoIP
There are many benefits to using VoIP, or IP telephony if you prefer to use the nomenclature, for business. Here are the top four:
Direct cost savings
With IP telephony, you pay only for your Internet connection. All calls between people using VoIP are free, even international calls made over long distances.
Features
Current IP telephony implementations are feature-rich. From call forwarding, call blocking, caller ID, voicemail, to remote management, automatic call distribution and Interactive Voice Response, the list runs long and deep. These features not only make communication efficient but also drive down total costs of ownership.
Collaborative working
With seamless integration of VoIP Telephone numbers in Greece with other systems, IP telephony implementation enables individuals and teams to collaborate through voice, video, web conferencing or instant messaging—all from a single user interface.
Higher productivity
Employees can use the communication system flexibly and remotely, whenever and wherever. And at the same time, they have access to data that they need to remain productive.
Potential risks to VoIP implementation
While it is well established that IP telephony is more efficient, more flexible and available at lower costs than traditional phone systems, it is pertinent to know the potential risks and problems with a plan in place to mitigate them. The top four are:
Bandwidth dependence
IP telephony runs on your Internet connection. Any outage of your Internet connection will also bring down your communications. Even insufficient bandwidth can cause quality-related issues with your implementation. Hence it is imperative to have a fail-safe Internet connection.
Quality of audio
Beyond the bandwidth of your broadband connections, other related hardware and services, if insufficient, may cause latency, noise or echo in voice or video communication. It is important to plan accordingly.
Security
It is certainly a major consideration Greece Phone Number List with IP telephony implementations. Usual Internet-related threats like phishing, identity theft, malware, spamming, call tampering are all relevant here as well. You need to continue to invest in Infrastructure and cloud security. The good part is that the enterprise-wide security implementations all become effective on IP telephony implementations as well. Regular security audits and correctives that you run for your organisation work here.
Extra costs
If you use VoIP to call someone without VoIP capabilities, you may incur additional costs. Hence it is important to plan.