Voice over IP Telephone Systems
Learn about Voice over IP phone systems and how they can boost company communications
Voice over IP Telephone Systems
Learn about Voice over IP phone systems and how they can boost company communications
Voice over IP Telephone Systems
Learn about Voice over IP phone systems and how they can boost company communications
Voice over IP Telephone Systems
Learn about Voice over IP phone systems and how they can boost company communications
Voice over IP (also known as voice over internet protocol or VoIP) is a cornerstone of today’s telecommunications technology. But what exactly are Voice over IP telephone systems and how can you harness its power for your own business?
Don’t worry, we’re here to help. We’ll be discussing everything you need to know about voice over IP telephone systems, and we even have jump links so you can get to the information you’re most interested in:
Voice over IP (also known as voice over internet protocol or VoIP) is a cornerstone of today’s telecommunications technology. But what exactly are Voice over IP telephone systems and how can you harness its power for your own business?
Don’t worry, we’re here to help. We’ll be discussing everything you need to know about voice over IP telephone systems, and we even have jump links so you can get to the information you’re most interested in:
Voice over IP (also known as voice over internet protocol or VoIP) is a cornerstone of today’s telecommunications technology. But what exactly are Voice over IP telephone systems and how can you harness its power for your own business?
Don’t worry, we’re here to help. We’ll be discussing everything you need to know about voice over IP telephone systems, and we even have jump links so you can get to the information you’re most interested in:
Voice over IP (also known as voice over internet protocol or VoIP) is a cornerstone of today’s telecommunications technology. But what exactly are Voice over IP telephone systems and how can you harness its power for your own business?
Don’t worry, we’re here to help. We’ll be discussing everything you need to know about voice over IP telephone systems, and we even have jump links so you can get to the information you’re most interested in:
What is a Voice over IP telephone system?
How does a VoIP phone service work?
Why VoIP phone systems are a big deal for businesses
What you need for a working VoIP phone system
Benefits of a VoIP business phone system
Top VoIP features to look for in a VoIP phone system
How to choose a VoIP system provider
Ready? Let’s go.
What is a Voice over IP telephone system?
How does a VoIP phone service work?
Why VoIP phone systems are a big deal for businesses
What you need for a working VoIP phone system
Benefits of a VoIP business phone system
Top VoIP features to look for in a VoIP phone system
How to choose a VoIP system provider
Ready? Let’s go.
What is a Voice over IP telephone system?
How does a VoIP phone service work?
Why VoIP phone systems are a big deal for businesses
What you need for a working VoIP phone system
Benefits of a VoIP business phone system
Top VoIP features to look for in a VoIP phone system
How to choose a VoIP system provider
Ready? Let’s go.
What is a Voice over IP telephone system?
How does a VoIP phone service work?
Why VoIP phone systems are a big deal for businesses
What you need for a working VoIP phone system
Benefits of a VoIP business phone system
Top VoIP features to look for in a VoIP phone system
How to choose a VoIP system provider
Ready? Let’s go.
Let’s start with the most obvious question: What, exactly, is a Voice over IP telephone system? Generally speaking, it’s a network of phone numbers and devices that uses VoIP to make voice calls happen.
This brings us to the next question: What is VoIP?
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a communications technology that lets you make and receive voice calls over an internet connection. This is opposed to legacy phone systems (a.k.a. landline and cellular telephone services), which rely on the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Let’s start with the most obvious question: What, exactly, is a Voice over IP telephone system? Generally speaking, it’s a network of phone numbers and devices that uses VoIP to make voice calls happen.
This brings us to the next question: What is VoIP?
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a communications technology that lets you make and receive voice calls over an internet connection. This is opposed to legacy phone systems (a.k.a. landline and cellular telephone services), which rely on the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Let’s start with the most obvious question: What, exactly, is a Voice over IP telephone system? Generally speaking, it’s a network of phone numbers and devices that uses VoIP to make voice calls happen.
This brings us to the next question: What is VoIP?
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a communications technology that lets you make and receive voice calls over an internet connection. This is opposed to legacy phone systems (a.k.a. landline and cellular telephone services), which rely on the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Let’s start with the most obvious question: What, exactly, is a Voice over IP telephone system? Generally speaking, it ’s a network of phone numbers and devices that uses VoIP to make voice calls happen.
This brings us to the next question: What is VoIP?
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a communications technology that lets you make and receive voice calls over an internet connection. This is opposed to legacy phone systems (a.k.a. landline and cellular telephone services), which rely on the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Now we know what VoIP is, let’s think about how it works. To get a better sense of this, we must first take a look at how old-school telephony worked.
In legacy phone system setups, the network transmits analog voice signals via the circuits of copper wires that make up the PSTN. It’s to this public infrastructure that internal phone lines (in the case of businesses, said lines are part of a self-contained organizational phone system called private branch exchange or PBX) are connected.
Voice over IP works differently. Instead of sending voice data over physical lines the way PSTN does, Voice over Internet Protocol technology converts analog telephone signals into digital signals that can be transmitted as data packets in real-time over a broadband connection via a local area network (LAN).
These small packets of data travel across an internet connection before voice traffic is “unpacked” into analog voice signals when they reach their destination. This allows the recipient to hear your voice at the other end of the line.
This whole process of compression and decompression is facilitated by audio codecs*, the main ones being session initiation protocol (SIP) and real-time transport protocol (RTP).
Now we know what VoIP is, let’s think about how it works. To get a better sense of this, we must first take a look at how old-school telephony worked.
In legacy phone system setups, the network transmits analog voice signals via the circuits of copper wires that make up the PSTN. It’s to this public infrastructure that internal phone lines (in the case of businesses, said lines are part of a self-contained organizational phone system called private branch exchange or PBX) are connected.
Voice over IP works differently. Instead of sending voice data over physical lines the way PSTN does, Voice over Internet Protocol technology converts analog telephone signals into digital signals that can be transmitted as data packets in real-time over a broadband connection via a local area network (LAN).
These small packets of data travel across an internet connection before voice traffic is “unpacked” into analog voice signals when they reach their destination. This allows the recipient to hear your voice at the other end of the line.
This whole process of compression and decompression is facilitated by audio codecs*, the main ones being session initiation protocol (SIP) and real-time transport protocol (RTP).
Now we know what VoIP is, let’s think about how it works. To get a better sense of this, we must first take a look at how old-school telephony worked.
In legacy phone system setups, the network transmits analog voice signals via the circuits of copper wires that make up the PSTN. It’s to this public infrastructure that internal phone lines (in the case of businesses, said lines are part of a self-contained organizational phone system called private branch exchange or PBX) are connected.
Voice over IP works differently. Instead of sending voice data over physical lines the way PSTN does, Voice over Internet Protocol technology converts analog telephone signals into digital signals that can be transmitted as data packets in real-time over a broadband connection via a local area network (LAN).
These small packets of data travel across an internet connection before voice traffic is “unpacked” into analog voice signals when they reach their destination. This allows the recipient to hear your voice at the other end of the line.
This whole process of compression and decompression is facilitated by audio codecs*, the main ones being session initiation protocol (SIP) and real-time transport protocol (RTP).
Now we know what VoIP is, let’s think about how it works. To get a better sense of this, we must first take a look at how old-school telephony worked.
In legacy phone system setups, the network transmits analog voice signals via the circuits of copper wires that make up the PSTN. It’s to this public infrastructure that internal phone lines (in the case of businesses, said lines are part of a self-contained organizational phone system called private branch exchange or PBX) are connected.
Voice over IP works differently. Instead of sending voice data over physical lines the way PSTN does, Voice over Internet Protocol technology converts analog telephone signals into digital signals that can be transmitted as data packets in real-time over a broadband connection via a local area network (LAN).
These small packets of data travel across an internet connection before voice traffic is “unpacked” into analog voice signals when they reach their destination. This allows the recipient to hear your voice at the other end of the line.
This whole process of compression and decompression is facilitated by audio codecs*, the main ones being session initiation protocol (SIP) and real-time transport protocol (RTP).
Here’s what you need to know about them:
| Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) | Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) |
| The SIP protocol starts, maintains, and ends phone conversations in real-time using a process called SIP trunking. | The RTP protocol carries different media streams between caller and recipient during a call. |
| SIP trunks connect telephony channels to a private branch exchange (PBX). This allows calls to be made over the internet rather than via a physical connection. | This protocol delivers multimedia audio and video signals over the internet in real-time. |
* Fun fact: A codec is basically a computing program that shrinks large files so they can be more easily transported from one point to another. The term is essentially a portmanteau or blended word combining “code” and “decode” (which is a huge part of what it does to data). There are different types of codecs that support audio and video files.
Here’s what you need to know about them:
| Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) | Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) |
| The SIP protocol starts, maintains, and ends phone conversations in real-time using a process called SIP trunking. | The RTP protocol carries different media streams between caller and recipient during a call. |
| SIP trunks connect telephony channels to a private branch exchange (PBX). This allows calls to be made over the internet rather than via a physical connection. | This protocol delivers multimedia audio and video signals over the internet in real-time. |
* Fun fact: A codec is basically a computing program that shrinks large files so they can be more easily transported from one point to another. The term is essentially a portmanteau or blended word combining “code” and “decode” (which is a huge part of what it does to data). There are different types of codecs that support audio and video files.
Here’s what you need to know about them:
| Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) | Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) |
| The SIP protocol starts, maintains, and ends phone conversations in real-time using a process called SIP trunking. | The RTP protocol carries different media streams between caller and recipient during a call. |
| SIP trunks connect telephony channels to a private branch exchange (PBX). This allows calls to be made over the internet rather than via a physical connection. | This protocol delivers multimedia audio and video signals over the internet in real-time. |
* Fun fact: A codec is basically a computing program that shrinks large files so they can be more easily transported from one point to another. The term is essentially a portmanteau or blended word combining “code” and “decode” (which is a huge part of what it does to data). There are different types of codecs that support audio and video files.
Here’s what you need to know about them:
| Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) | Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) |
| The SIP protocol starts, maintains, and ends phone conversations in real-time using a process called SIP trunking. | The RTP protocol carries different media streams between caller and recipient during a call. |
| SIP trunks connect telephony channels to a private branch exchange (PBX). This allows calls to be made over the internet rather than via a physical connection. | This protocol delivers multimedia audio and video signals over the internet in real-time. |
* Fun fact: A codec is basically a computing program that shrinks large files so they can be more easily transported from one point to another. The term is essentially a portmanteau or blended word combining “code” and “decode” (which is a huge part of what it does to data). There are different types of codecs that support audio and video files.
Voice over IP is transforming the way both small businesses and large-scale enterprises communicate. Thanks to the increasing availability and adoption of this technology for businesses, a growing number of organizations are now able to implement flexible, hybrid working operations. This means more employees can work together from different locations without missing any important calls or meetings.
Because internet telephony transmits signals through the information superhighway, you can access your VoIP line from practically anywhere on the planet. All you’ll need is an internet-enabled mobile device, computer, or VoIP desk phone. Employees, stakeholders, and clients can enjoy calling or SMS capabilities no matter where they are in just a few clicks.
With 8x8, for example, users have access to integrated contact centers, voice, video meetings, and even embedded communications supported across more than a hundred countries. And because its VoIP PBX (private branch exchange) capabilities are part of a unified communications platform, users also get the benefit of team chat, analytics, and other intelligent features. The best part is that you can use all these from any Wi-Fi-enabled device thanks to the 8x8 Work mobile and desktop apps.
Voice over IP is transforming the way both small businesses and large-scale enterprises communicate. Thanks to the increasing availability and adoption of this technology for businesses, a growing number of organizations are now able to implement flexible, hybrid working operations. This means more employees can work together from different locations without missing any important calls or meetings.
Because internet telephony transmits signals through the information superhighway, you can access your VoIP line from practically anywhere on the planet. All you’ll need is an internet-enabled mobile device, computer, or VoIP desk phone. Employees, stakeholders, and clients can enjoy calling or SMS capabilities no matter where they are in just a few clicks.
With 8x8, for example, users have access to integrated contact centers, voice, video meetings, and even embedded communications supported across more than a hundred countries. And because its VoIP PBX (private branch exchange) capabilities are part of a unified communications platform, users also get the benefit of team chat, analytics, and other intelligent features. The best part is that you can use all these from any Wi-Fi-enabled device thanks to the 8x8 Work mobile and desktop apps.
Voice over IP is transforming the way both small businesses and large-scale enterprises communicate. Thanks to the increasing availability and adoption of this technology for businesses, a growing number of organizations are now able to implement flexible, hybrid working operations. This means more employees can work together from different locations without missing any important calls or meetings.
Because internet telephony transmits signals through the information superhighway, you can access your VoIP line from practically anywhere on the planet. All you’ll need is an internet-enabled mobile device, computer, or VoIP desk phone. Employees, stakeholders, and clients can enjoy calling or SMS capabilities no matter where they are in just a few clicks.
With 8x8, for example, users have access to integrated contact centers, voice, video meetings, and even embedded communications supported across more than a hundred countries. And because its VoIP PBX (private branch exchange) capabilities are part of a unified communications platform, users also get the benefit of team chat, analytics, and other intelligent features. The best part is that you can use all these from any Wi-Fi-enabled device thanks to the 8x8 Work mobile and desktop apps.
Voice over IP is transforming the way both small businesses and large-scale enterprises communicate. Thanks to the increasing availability and adoption of this technology for businesses, a growing number of organizations are now able to implement flexible, hybrid working operations. This means more employees can work together from different locations without missing any important calls or meetings.
Because internet telephony transmits signals through the information superhighway, you can access your VoIP line from practically anywhere on the planet. All you’ll need is an internet-enabled mobile device, computer, or VoIP desk phone. Employees, stakeholders, and clients can enjoy calling or SMS capabilities no matter where they are in just a few clicks.
With 8x8, for example, users have access to integrated contact centers, voice, video meetings, and even embedded communications supported across more than a hundred countries. And because its VoIP PBX (private branch exchange) capabilities are part of a unified communications platform, users also get the benefit of team chat, analytics, and other intelligent features. The best part is that you can use all these from any Wi-Fi-enabled device thanks to the 8x8 Work mobile and desktop apps.
In order to get a VoIP phone system to work properly, you need the right components. This doesn’t mean you need to invest in a lot of new, specialized hardware and specialist personnel that can handle them. It just means you need to know what elements make this technology operational for users.
If you go for a hosted VoIP service, your service provider will be responsible for managing, updating, and monitoring the entire backend from a remote third-party location. All you’ll need to worry about is ensuring you have:
Let’s get into each of these a bit more.
VoIP relies on the internet to function, so this is pretty darn essential. In order to get the best voice quality and performance out of Voice over IP, you’re going to need an excellent internet connection. It doesn’t matter if it’s broadband (with a really good Wi-Fi router) or data; just make sure you have the bandwidth to support voice calls on top of other communications like email and instant messaging.
You can choose your main VoIP device from a range of different devices. This makes it a super convenient option for businesses with employees on the move or working remotely. The two main options you have are a “hardphone” or a softphone.
If you’re new to the world of VoIP phone options, the concept of hardphones as opposed to softphones might come off as intimidating. But it’s pretty simple.
Hardphone
A “hardphone” is, as the name suggests, hardware-type technology that typically looks more or less like a traditional office phone. It refers to equipment that can be used for internet calling.
When talking about this type of phone, there are several different styles to choose from.
Softphone
A “softphone” (also known as a virtual phone), in contrast, is software that you can download onto internet-enabled devices like smartphones, laptops, and personal computers. Pretty much every business VoIP service provider offers a mobile or desktop application as part of their solution.
The softphone option is ideal for users that need flexibility, which is arguably tricky to have with a desk-friendly IP phone. If you have remote or field employees in your workforce, having an app that allows them to use the company’s phone service (and their professional caller ID) on a mobile phone can be a lifesaver. This is also an excellent option for contact center agents, who may find having a desk phone on top of a computer for customer data management unwieldy.
In order to get a VoIP phone system to work properly, you need the right components. This doesn’t mean you need to invest in a lot of new, specialized hardware and specialist personnel that can handle them. It just means you need to know what elements make this technology operational for users.
If you go for a hosted VoIP service, your service provider will be responsible for managing, updating, and monitoring the entire backend from a remote third-party location. All you’ll need to worry about is ensuring you have:
Let’s get into each of these a bit more.
VoIP relies on the internet to function, so this is pretty darn essential. In order to get the best voice quality and performance out of Voice over IP, you’re going to need an excellent internet connection. It doesn’t matter if it’s broadband (with a really good Wi-Fi router) or data; just make sure you have the bandwidth to support voice calls on top of other communications like email and instant messaging.
You can choose your main VoIP device from a range of different devices. This makes it a super convenient option for businesses with employees on the move or working remotely. The two main options you have are a “hardphone” or a softphone.
If you’re new to the world of VoIP phone options, the concept of hardphones as opposed to softphones might come off as intimidating. But it’s pretty simple.
Hardphone
A “hardphone” is, as the name suggests, hardware-type technology that typically looks more or less like a traditional office phone. It refers to equipment that can be used for internet calling.
When talking about this type of phone, there are several different styles to choose from.
Softphone
A “softphone” (also known as a virtual phone), in contrast, is software that you can download onto internet-enabled devices like smartphones, laptops, and personal computers. Pretty much every business VoIP service provider offers a mobile or desktop application as part of their solution.
The softphone option is ideal for users that need flexibility, which is arguably tricky to have with a desk-friendly IP phone. If you have remote or field employees in your workforce, having an app that allows them to use the company’s phone service (and their professional caller ID) on a mobile phone can be a lifesaver. This is also an excellent option for contact center agents, who may find having a desk phone on top of a computer for customer data management unwieldy.
In order to get a VoIP phone system to work properly, you need the right components. This doesn’t mean you need to invest in a lot of new, specialized hardware and specialist personnel that can handle them. It just means you need to know what elements make this technology operational for users.
If you go for a hosted VoIP service, your service provider will be responsible for managing, updating, and monitoring the entire backend from a remote third-party location. All you’ll need to worry about is ensuring you have:
Let’s get into each of these a bit more.
VoIP relies on the internet to function, so this is pretty darn essential. In order to get the best voice quality and performance out of Voice over IP, you’re going to need an excellent internet connection. It doesn’t matter if it’s broadband (with a really good Wi-Fi router) or data; just make sure you have the bandwidth to support voice calls on top of other communications like email and instant messaging.
You can choose your main VoIP device from a range of different devices. This makes it a super convenient option for businesses with employees on the move or working remotely. The two main options you have are a “hardphone” or a softphone.
If you’re new to the world of VoIP phone options, the concept of hardphones as opposed to softphones might come off as intimidating. But it’s pretty simple.
Hardphone
A “hardphone” is, as the name suggests, hardware-type technology that typically looks more or less like a traditional office phone. It refers to equipment that can be used for internet calling.
When talking about this type of phone, there are several different styles to choose from.
Softphone
A “softphone” (also known as a virtual phone), in contrast, is software that you can download onto internet-enabled devices like smartphones, laptops, and personal computers. Pretty much every business VoIP service provider offers a mobile or desktop application as part of their solution.
The softphone option is ideal for users that need flexibility, which is arguably tricky to have with a desk-friendly IP phone. If you have remote or field employees in your workforce, having an app that allows them to use the company’s phone service (and their professional caller ID) on a mobile phone can be a lifesaver. This is also an excellent option for contact center agents, who may find having a desk phone on top of a computer for customer data management unwieldy.
In order to get a VoIP phone system to work properly, you need the right components. This doesn’t mean you need to invest in a lot of new, specialized hardware and specialist personnel that can handle them. It just means you need to know what elements make this technology operational for users.
If you go for a hosted VoIP service, your service provider will be responsible for managing, updating, and monitoring the entire backend from a remote third-party location. All you’ll need to worry about is ensuring you have:
Let’s get into each of these a bit more.
VoIP relies on the internet to function, so this is pretty darn essential. In order to get the best voice quality and performance out of Voice over IP, you’re going to need an excellent internet connection. It doesn’t matter if it’s broadband (with a really good Wi-Fi router) or data; just make sure you have the bandwidth to support voice calls on top of other communications like email and instant messaging.
You can choose your main VoIP device from a range of different devices. This makes it a super convenient option for businesses with employees on the move or working remotely. The two main options you have are a “hardphone” or a softphone.
If you’re new to the world of VoIP phone options, the concept of hardphones as opposed to softphones might come off as intimidating. But it’s pretty simple.
Hardphone
A “hardphone” is, as the name suggests, hardware-type technology that typically looks more or less like a traditional office phone. It refers to equipment that can be used for internet calling.
When talking about this type of phone, there are several different styles to choose from.
Softphone
A “softphone” (also known as a virtual phone), in contrast, is software that you can download onto internet-enabled devices like smartphones, laptops, and personal computers. Pretty much every business VoIP service provider offers a mobile or desktop application as part of their solution.
The softphone option is ideal for users that need flexibility, which is arguably tricky to have with a desk-friendly IP phone. If you have remote or field employees in your workforce, having an app that allows them to use the company’s phone service (and their professional caller ID) on a mobile phone can be a lifesaver. This is also an excellent option for contact center agents, who may find having a desk phone on top of a computer for customer data management unwieldy.
Making the transition to business VoIP can be very rewarding. There are so many benefits associated with Voice over Internet Protocol technology; from savings to super scalability. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest and best benefits below.
Employing a Voice over IP telephony system in your workplace saves you a lot of money in the long term. It does this by minimizing and eliminating expenses associated with traditional telephone systems, like traditional phone lines and costly hardware installation and maintenance. This is especially true if you avoid on-premises internet telephony in favor of hosted or virtual VoIP.
Typically, a hosted VoIP service provider operates on a pay-monthly basis and will be responsible for all hardware, maintenance, and service management costs, resulting in lower recurring expenses, cheaper long-distance and international calls, and fewer outages.
Many businesses find that they save even more money through indirect cost savings after switching to VoIP. Think of it this way—with VoIP, you can facilitate a hybrid or fully remote work setup. This means you’ll be able to cut back on expenses for renting office space, maintaining utilities, and provisioning work supplies.
Plus, more advanced VoIP solutions that serve as a backbone for a full-fledged PBX system let you automate call management tasks (such as call routing), so you won’t need to hire employees to manually manage all incoming phone calls. The automated attendant and call answering rules will help connect callers to the right department for you, and can even do much more.
Another benefit of VoIP is that it can improve your overall call quality. Modern VoIP technologies have come a long, long way since IP technology was first introduced into the telephony mix. As long as you have access to strong internet connection, your audio will be clear.
With a super-fast broadband connection under your belt, the quality of your VoIP calls can equal that of traditional local calls—even when you’re talking to someone in another country. If call quality is your top priority, look for business VoIP providers offering HD calling options.
VoIP telephony is more flexible than traditional phone systems. Instead of having all of your employees stuck to their desks just to receive work calls, VoIP frees up teams to work from anywhere and embrace telecommuting more sustainably.
The only criteria to ensure top-level communications can be maintained is a fast, secure, and reliable internet connection from a reliable internet service provider (ISP). You can do this by coordinating not just with the providers for your office locations, but also coordinating with staff to make sure they can access those resources from where they’re working
Implementing a multi-site VoIP system means your teams can stay connected and make affordable calls between remote offices and departments, even when some are out on the field or working from home. Plus, since you can use VoIP on any smart mobile device like a cell phone, laptop, or tablet, you’ll be able to take calls while taking a workation.
VoIP office phone systems don’t just give you geographical freedom. They also provide you the flexibility to scale your operations up or down at will. That means you can make it so your communications channels will always be enough to meet demand (whether it’s high or low).
Simply add or remove lines and extensions as needed. And if your Voice over IP solution happens to work as a virtual PBX system, you won’t have to add physical extensions—just use an online admin dashboard to manage your phone lines. You’ll only ever pay for what you actually need.
Last, but most certainly not least, VoIP is full of fantastic functionalities. On top of HD voice communications, VoIP offers users the ability to to explore a wealth of extras. This, of course, include call management features we’ve mentioned before like call routing, call queues, and auto attendants.
Some VoIP vendors even offer this technology as part of more advanced tool suites like unified communications systems. This involves presenting customers with complete business communications solutions covering video conferencing, video calls, SMS (aka Text Messaging), and team chat.
Making the transition to business VoIP can be very rewarding. There are so many benefits associated with Voice over Internet Protocol technology; from savings to super scalability. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest and best benefits below.
Employing a Voice over IP telephony system in your workplace saves you a lot of money in the long term. It does this by minimizing and eliminating expenses associated with traditional telephone systems, like traditional phone lines and costly hardware installation and maintenance. This is especially true if you avoid on-premises internet telephony in favor of hosted or virtual VoIP.
Typically, a hosted VoIP service provider operates on a pay-monthly basis and will be responsible for all hardware, maintenance, and service management costs, resulting in lower recurring expenses, cheaper long-distance and international calls, and fewer outages.
Many businesses find that they save even more money through indirect cost savings after switching to VoIP. Think of it this way—with VoIP, you can facilitate a hybrid or fully remote work setup. This means you’ll be able to cut back on expenses for renting office space, maintaining utilities, and provisioning work supplies.
Plus, more advanced VoIP solutions that serve as a backbone for a full-fledged PBX system let you automate call management tasks (such as call routing), so you won’t need to hire employees to manually manage all incoming phone calls. The automated attendant and call answering rules will help connect callers to the right department for you, and can even do much more.
Another benefit of VoIP is that it can improve your overall call quality. Modern VoIP technologies have come a long, long way since IP technology was first introduced into the telephony mix. As long as you have access to strong internet connection, your audio will be clear.
With a super-fast broadband connection under your belt, the quality of your VoIP calls can equal that of traditional local calls—even when you’re talking to someone in another country. If call quality is your top priority, look for business VoIP providers offering HD calling options.
VoIP telephony is more flexible than traditional phone systems. Instead of having all of your employees stuck to their desks just to receive work calls, VoIP frees up teams to work from anywhere and embrace telecommuting more sustainably.
The only criteria to ensure top-level communications can be maintained is a fast, secure, and reliable internet connection from a reliable internet service provider (ISP). You can do this by coordinating not just with the providers for your office locations, but also coordinating with staff to make sure they can access those resources from where they’re working
Implementing a multi-site VoIP system means your teams can stay connected and make affordable calls between remote offices and departments, even when some are out on the field or working from home. Plus, since you can use VoIP on any smart mobile device like a cell phone, laptop, or tablet, you’ll be able to take calls while taking a workation.
VoIP office phone systems don’t just give you geographical freedom. They also provide you the flexibility to scale your operations up or down at will. That means you can make it so your communications channels will always be enough to meet demand (whether it’s high or low).
Simply add or remove lines and extensions as needed. And if your Voice over IP solution happens to work as a virtual PBX system, you won’t have to add physical extensions—just use an online admin dashboard to manage your phone lines. You’ll only ever pay for what you actually need.
Last, but most certainly not least, VoIP is full of fantastic functionalities. On top of HD voice communications, VoIP offers users the ability to to explore a wealth of extras. This, of course, include call management features we’ve mentioned before like call routing, call queues, and auto attendants.
Some VoIP vendors even offer this technology as part of more advanced tool suites like unified communications systems. This involves presenting customers with complete business communications solutions covering video conferencing, video calls, SMS (aka Text Messaging), and team chat.
Making the transition to business VoIP can be very rewarding. There are so many benefits associated with Voice over Internet Protocol technology; from savings to super scalability. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest and best benefits below.
Employing a Voice over IP telephony system in your workplace saves you a lot of money in the long term. It does this by minimizing and eliminating expenses associated with traditional telephone systems, like traditional phone lines and costly hardware installation and maintenance. This is especially true if you avoid on-premises internet telephony in favor of hosted or virtual VoIP.
Typically, a hosted VoIP service provider operates on a pay-monthly basis and will be responsible for all hardware, maintenance, and service management costs, resulting in lower recurring expenses, cheaper long-distance and international calls, and fewer outages.
Many businesses find that they save even more money through indirect cost savings after switching to VoIP. Think of it this way—with VoIP, you can facilitate a hybrid or fully remote work setup. This means you’ll be able to cut back on expenses for renting office space, maintaining utilities, and provisioning work supplies.
Plus, more advanced VoIP solutions that serve as a backbone for a full-fledged PBX system let you automate call management tasks (such as call routing), so you won’t need to hire employees to manually manage all incoming phone calls. The automated attendant and call answering rules will help connect callers to the right department for you, and can even do much more.
Another benefit of VoIP is that it can improve your overall call quality. Modern VoIP technologies have come a long, long way since IP technology was first introduced into the telephony mix. As long as you have access to strong internet connection, your audio will be clear.
With a super-fast broadband connection under your belt, the quality of your VoIP calls can equal that of traditional local calls—even when you’re talking to someone in another country. If call quality is your top priority, look for business VoIP providers offering HD calling options.
VoIP telephony is more flexible than traditional phone systems. Instead of having all of your employees stuck to their desks just to receive work calls, VoIP frees up teams to work from anywhere and embrace telecommuting more sustainably.
The only criteria to ensure top-level communications can be maintained is a fast, secure, and reliable internet connection from a reliable internet service provider (ISP). You can do this by coordinating not just with the providers for your office locations, but also coordinating with staff to make sure they can access those resources from where they’re working
Implementing a multi-site VoIP system means your teams can stay connected and make affordable calls between remote offices and departments, even when some are out on the field or working from home. Plus, since you can use VoIP on any smart mobile device like a cell phone, laptop, or tablet, you’ll be able to take calls while taking a workation.
VoIP office phone systems don’t just give you geographical freedom. They also provide you the flexibility to scale your operations up or down at will. That means you can make it so your communications channels will always be enough to meet demand (whether it’s high or low).
Simply add or remove lines and extensions as needed. And if your Voice over IP solution happens to work as a virtual PBX system, you won’t have to add physical extensions—just use an online admin dashboard to manage your phone lines. You’ll only ever pay for what you actually need.
Last, but most certainly not least, VoIP is full of fantastic functionalities. On top of HD voice communications, VoIP offers users the ability to to explore a wealth of extras. This, of course, include call management features we’ve mentioned before like call routing, call queues, and auto attendants.
Some VoIP vendors even offer this technology as part of more advanced tool suites like unified communications systems. This involves presenting customers with complete business communications solutions covering video conferencing, video calls, SMS (aka Text Messaging), and team chat.
Making the transition to business VoIP can be very rewarding. There are so many benefits associated with Voice over Internet Protocol technology; from savings to super scalability. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest and best benefits below.
Employing a Voice over IP telephony system in your workplace saves you a lot of money in the long term. It does this by minimizing and eliminating expenses associated with traditional telephone systems, like traditional phone lines and costly hardware installation and maintenance. This is especially true if you avoid on-premises internet telephony in favor of hosted or virtual VoIP.
Typically, a hosted VoIP service provider operates on a pay-monthly basis and will be responsible for all hardware, maintenance, and service management costs, resulting in lower recurring expenses, cheaper long-distance and international calls, and fewer outages.
Many businesses find that they save even more money through indirect cost savings after switching to VoIP. Think of it this way—with VoIP, you can facilitate a hybrid or fully remote work setup. This means you’ll be able to cut back on expenses for renting office space, maintaining utilities, and provisioning work supplies.
Plus, more advanced VoIP solutions that serve as a backbone for a full-fledged PBX system let you automate call management tasks (such as call routing), so you won’t need to hire employees to manually manage all incoming phone calls. The automated attendant and call answering rules will help connect callers to the right department for you, and can even do much more.
Another benefit of VoIP is that it can improve your overall call quality. Modern VoIP technologies have come a long, long way since IP technology was first introduced into the telephony mix. As long as you have access to strong internet connection, your audio will be clear.
With a super-fast broadband connection under your belt, the quality of your VoIP calls can equal that of traditional local calls—even when you’re talking to someone in another country. If call quality is your top priority, look for business VoIP providers offering HD calling options.
VoIP telephony is more flexible than traditional phone systems. Instead of having all of your employees stuck to their desks just to receive work calls, VoIP frees up teams to work from anywhere and embrace telecommuting more sustainably.
The only criteria to ensure top-level communications can be maintained is a fast, secure, and reliable internet connection from a reliable internet service provider (ISP). You can do this by coordinating not just with the providers for your office locations, but also coordinating with staff to make sure they can access those resources from where they’re working
Implementing a multi-site VoIP system means your teams can stay connected and make affordable calls between remote offices and departments, even when some are out on the field or working from home. Plus, since you can use VoIP on any smart mobile device like a cell phone, laptop, or tablet, you’ll be able to take calls while taking a workation.
VoIP office phone systems don’t just give you geographical freedom. They also provide you the flexibility to scale your operations up or down at will. That means you can make it so your communications channels will always be enough to meet demand (whether it’s high or low).
Simply add or remove lines and extensions as needed. And if your Voice over IP solution happens to work as a virtual PBX system, you won’t have to add physical extensions—just use an online admin dashboard to manage your phone lines. You’ll only ever pay for what you actually need.
Last, but most certainly not least, VoIP is full of fantastic functionalities. On top of HD voice communications, VoIP offers users the ability to to explore a wealth of extras. This, of course, include call management features we’ve mentioned before like call routing, call queues, and auto attendants.
Some VoIP vendors even offer this technology as part of more advanced tool suites like unified communications systems. This involves presenting customers with complete business communications solutions covering video conferencing, video calls, SMS (aka Text Messaging), and team chat.
Speaking of features—
Not sure what features you should prioritize looking for in a VoIP phone system? No worries, we’ve put together a list of essentials you can use as a checklist when shopping for a business telephony solution.
Here are the top features to look into when evaluating vendors:
Let’s dive a little bit deeper into these.
The automated attendant (better known as “auto attendant”), which we’ve brought up more than a few times before, is basically a digital receptionist that’s meant to answer calls made to your business.
The great thing about having this is that it ensures customers and even business partners won’t have to endure persistent ringing even outside of office hours. You can simply have this feature pick up the call after a ring or two and assist the caller by providing information and routing options (example: forward to a different line during lunch or voicemail past closing time) via interactive menus.
What’s more, you can even customize callers’ experiences through branded music on hold and recorded announcements. In fact, some providers offer multi-level auto attendant capabilities that can be programmed to provide self-service options.
Call forwarding lets you intelligently redirect incoming calls to relevant people, teams, and departments. Because this technology tends to be automated, busy organizations can use this to set up custom rules for a range of different extensions and scenarios. So if, for example, you’re out for lunch, you can have the call routed to your mobile phone, to a co-worker’s phone, or to a voicemail inbox.
Call forwarding capabilities in general often work in conjunction with the auto attendant (the auto attendant answers the calls, while call forwarding sends the calls to the right places). When deployed as part of a VoIP phone system, you can even have it so calls are sent to your home’s landline phone or any similar device.
Many business communications solutions providers offer this feature in conjunction with call transfer capabilities, which let users manually send live calls to another phone line as needed. This is especially useful if the caller needs information that can only be provided by another person or team.
Another really useful feature to look out for is the ability to set up call queues. This places incoming calls on a waitlist if the person or department they need to speak to is on a live call and can’t pick up a new call yet.
This is especially useful for organizations that have an inbound call center. Many customers prefer being placed in a queue over being sent to voicemail or getting told via a pre-recorded message to use a different means of contacting the company(outside of the business phone number). So this translates to better experiences which, in turn, help translate to brand loyalty.
While voicemail is generally familiar to most of us—it’s a technology that lets callers leave voice messages, which can be accessed by the person they’re calling at a later date—voice over IP for business made it possible for this to be taken to the next level.
Advanced voicemail functionality comes in different forms. Sometimes, it’s as simple as getting an email notification (along with a copy of the recording) for each message left for you. Other times, it involves visual voicemail, which lets you view a list of voice messages you’ve received so you can choose which ones to listen to first.
8x8 has some really great virtual voicemail functionality, which doesn’t just include visual voicemail and notifications but transcriptions too.
The best VoIP phone systems should offer call recording options that allow you to automatically record phone calls made on your VoIP system. This is ideal not just for call centers that need a record of customer-agent interactions for coaching purposes, but for other types of interactions like project meetings attendees may want to review.
Other use cases in the context of contact centers include dispute resolutions, order tracking, and fact-checking (for ensuring regulatory compliance).
Caller ID is most commonly recognized as a feature that lets a person know who’s calling them. In the context of businesses, this has two main functions—controlling the identity each person presents when they use their professional phone numbers to make calls and managing incoming calls more effectively.
The second use case we just mentioned is the reason why caller ID capabilities are often marketed in conjunction with call blocking features. Call blocking ensures you can stop calls from spam numbers from going through to your lines, meaning your time won’t be wasted.
Speaking of features—
Not sure what features you should prioritize looking for in a VoIP phone system? No worries, we’ve put together a list of essentials you can use as a checklist when shopping for a business telephony solution.
Here are the top features to look into when evaluating vendors:
Let’s dive a little bit deeper into these.
The automated attendant (better known as “auto attendant”), which we’ve brought up more than a few times before, is basically a digital receptionist that’s meant to answer calls made to your business.
The great thing about having this is that it ensures customers and even business partners won’t have to endure persistent ringing even outside of office hours. You can simply have this feature pick up the call after a ring or two and assist the caller by providing information and routing options (example: forward to a different line during lunch or voicemail past closing time) via interactive menus.
What’s more, you can even customize callers’ experiences through branded music on hold and recorded announcements. In fact, some providers offer multi-level auto attendant capabilities that can be programmed to provide self-service options.
Call forwarding lets you intelligently redirect incoming calls to relevant people, teams, and departments. Because this technology tends to be automated, busy organizations can use this to set up custom rules for a range of different extensions and scenarios. So if, for example, you’re out for lunch, you can have the call routed to your mobile phone, to a co-worker’s phone, or to a voicemail inbox.
Call forwarding capabilities in general often work in conjunction with the auto attendant (the auto attendant answers the calls, while call forwarding sends the calls to the right places). When deployed as part of a VoIP phone system, you can even have it so calls are sent to your home’s landline phone or any similar device.
Many business communications solutions providers offer this feature in conjunction with call transfer capabilities, which let users manually send live calls to another phone line as needed. This is especially useful if the caller needs information that can only be provided by another person or team.
Another really useful feature to look out for is the ability to set up call queues. This places incoming calls on a waitlist if the person or department they need to speak to is on a live call and can’t pick up a new call yet.
This is especially useful for organizations that have an inbound call center. Many customers prefer being placed in a queue over being sent to voicemail or getting told via a pre-recorded message to use a different means of contacting the company(outside of the business phone number). So this translates to better experiences which, in turn, help translate to brand loyalty.
While voicemail is generally familiar to most of us—it’s a technology that lets callers leave voice messages, which can be accessed by the person they’re calling at a later date—voice over IP for business made it possible for this to be taken to the next level.
Advanced voicemail functionality comes in different forms. Sometimes, it’s as simple as getting an email notification (along with a copy of the recording) for each message left for you. Other times, it involves visual voicemail, which lets you view a list of voice messages you’ve received so you can choose which ones to listen to first.
8x8 has some really great virtual voicemail functionality, which doesn’t just include visual voicemail and notifications but transcriptions too.
The best VoIP phone systems should offer call recording options that allow you to automatically record phone calls made on your VoIP system. This is ideal not just for call centers that need a record of customer-agent interactions for coaching purposes, but for other types of interactions like project meetings attendees may want to review.
Other use cases in the context of contact centers include dispute resolutions, order tracking, and fact-checking (for ensuring regulatory compliance).
Caller ID is most commonly recognized as a feature that lets a person know who’s calling them. In the context of businesses, this has two main functions—controlling the identity each person presents when they use their professional phone numbers to make calls and managing incoming calls more effectively.
The second use case we just mentioned is the reason why caller ID capabilities are often marketed in conjunction with call blocking features. Call blocking ensures you can stop calls from spam numbers from going through to your lines, meaning your time won’t be wasted.
Speaking of features—
Not sure what features you should prioritize looking for in a VoIP phone system? No worries, we’ve put together a list of essentials you can use as a checklist when shopping for a business telephony solution.
Here are the top features to look into when evaluating vendors:
Let’s dive a little bit deeper into these.
The automated attendant (better known as “auto attendant”), which we’ve brought up more than a few times before, is basically a digital receptionist that’s meant to answer calls made to your business.
The great thing about having this is that it ensures customers and even business partners won’t have to endure persistent ringing even outside of office hours. You can simply have this feature pick up the call after a ring or two and assist the caller by providing information and routing options (example: forward to a different line during lunch or voicemail past closing time) via interactive menus.
What’s more, you can even customize callers’ experiences through branded music on hold and recorded announcements. In fact, some providers offer multi-level auto attendant capabilities that can be programmed to provide self-service options.
Call forwarding lets you intelligently redirect incoming calls to relevant people, teams, and departments. Because this technology tends to be automated, busy organizations can use this to set up custom rules for a range of different extensions and scenarios. So if, for example, you’re out for lunch, you can have the call routed to your mobile phone, to a co-worker’s phone, or to a voicemail inbox.
Call forwarding capabilities in general often work in conjunction with the auto attendant (the auto attendant answers the calls, while call forwarding sends the calls to the right places). When deployed as part of a VoIP phone system, you can even have it so calls are sent to your home’s landline phone or any similar device.
Many business communications solutions providers offer this feature in conjunction with call transfer capabilities, which let users manually send live calls to another phone line as needed. This is especially useful if the caller needs information that can only be provided by another person or team.
Another really useful feature to look out for is the ability to set up call queues. This places incoming calls on a waitlist if the person or department they need to speak to is on a live call and can’t pick up a new call yet.
This is especially useful for organizations that have an inbound call center. Many customers prefer being placed in a queue over being sent to voicemail or getting told via a pre-recorded message to use a different means of contacting the company(outside of the business phone number). So this translates to better experiences which, in turn, help translate to brand loyalty.
While voicemail is generally familiar to most of us—it’s a technology that lets callers leave voice messages, which can be accessed by the person they’re calling at a later date—voice over IP for business made it possible for this to be taken to the next level.
Advanced voicemail functionality comes in different forms. Sometimes, it’s as simple as getting an email notification (along with a copy of the recording) for each message left for you. Other times, it involves visual voicemail, which lets you view a list of voice messages you’ve received so you can choose which ones to listen to first.
8x8 has some really great virtual voicemail functionality, which doesn’t just include visual voicemail and notifications but transcriptions too.
The best VoIP phone systems should offer call recording options that allow you to automatically record phone calls made on your VoIP system. This is ideal not just for call centers that need a record of customer-agent interactions for coaching purposes, but for other types of interactions like project meetings attendees may want to review.
Other use cases in the context of contact centers include dispute resolutions, order tracking, and fact-checking (for ensuring regulatory compliance).
Caller ID is most commonly recognized as a feature that lets a person know who’s calling them. In the context of businesses, this has two main functions—controlling the identity each person presents when they use their professional phone numbers to make calls and managing incoming calls more effectively.
The second use case we just mentioned is the reason why caller ID capabilities are often marketed in conjunction with call blocking features. Call blocking ensures you can stop calls from spam numbers from going through to your lines, meaning your time won’t be wasted.
Speaking of features—
Not sure what features you should prioritize looking for in a VoIP phone system? No worries, we’ve put together a list of essentials you can use as a checklist when shopping for a business telephony solution.
Here are the top features to look into when evaluating vendors:
Let’s dive a little bit deeper into these.
The automated attendant (better known as “auto attendant”), which we’ve brought up more than a few times before, is basically a digital receptionist that’s meant to answer calls made to your business.
The great thing about having this is that it ensures customers and even business partners won’t have to endure persistent ringing even outside of office hours. You can simply have this feature pick up the call after a ring or two and assist the caller by providing information and routing options (example: forward to a different line during lunch or voicemail past closing time) via interactive menus.
What’s more, you can even customize callers’ experiences through branded music on hold and recorded announcements. In fact, some providers offer multi-level auto attendant capabilities that can be programmed to provide self-service options.
Call forwarding lets you intelligently redirect incoming calls to relevant people, teams, and departments. Because this technology tends to be automated, busy organizations can use this to set up custom rules for a range of different extensions and scenarios. So if, for example, you’re out for lunch, you can have the call routed to your mobile phone, to a co-worker’s phone, or to a voicemail inbox.
Call forwarding capabilities in general often work in conjunction with the auto attendant (the auto attendant answers the calls, while call forwarding sends the calls to the right places). When deployed as part of a VoIP phone system, you can even have it so calls are sent to your home’s landline phone or any similar device.
Many business communications solutions providers offer this feature in conjunction with call transfer capabilities, which let users manually send live calls to another phone line as needed. This is especially useful if the caller needs information that can only be provided by another person or team.
Another really useful feature to look out for is the ability to set up call queues. This places incoming calls on a waitlist if the person or department they need to speak to is on a live call and can’t pick up a new call yet.
This is especially useful for organizations that have an inbound call center. Many customers prefer being placed in a queue over being sent to voicemail or getting told via a pre-recorded message to use a different means of contacting the company(outside of the business phone number). So this translates to better experiences which, in turn, help translate to brand loyalty.
While voicemail is generally familiar to most of us—it’s a technology that lets callers leave voice messages, which can be accessed by the person they’re calling at a later date—voice over IP for business made it possible for this to be taken to the next level.
Advanced voicemail functionality comes in different forms. Sometimes, it’s as simple as getting an email notification (along with a copy of the recording) for each message left for you. Other times, it involves visual voicemail, which lets you view a list of voice messages you’ve received so you can choose which ones to listen to first.
8x8 has some really great virtual voicemail functionality, which doesn’t just include visual voicemail and notifications but transcriptions too.
The best VoIP phone systems should offer call recording options that allow you to automatically record phone calls made on your VoIP system. This is ideal not just for call centers that need a record of customer-agent interactions for coaching purposes, but for other types of interactions like project meetings attendees may want to review.
Other use cases in the context of contact centers include dispute resolutions, order tracking, and fact-checking (for ensuring regulatory compliance).
Caller ID is most commonly recognized as a feature that lets a person know who’s calling them. In the context of businesses, this has two main functions—controlling the identity each person presents when they use their professional phone numbers to make calls and managing incoming calls more effectively.
The second use case we just mentioned is the reason why caller ID capabilities are often marketed in conjunction with call blocking features. Call blocking ensures you can stop calls from spam numbers from going through to your lines, meaning your time won’t be wasted.
One of the most important decisions you’ll make when transitioning to VoIP is choosing your VoIP system provider. Different vendors offer different price packages, feature sets, specifications, security, and control protocols, so it’s important to do your research before making a final decision.
Start by identifying your unique business requirements and look for a VoIP vendor who can meet your business needs—whether that’s the ability to scale based on seasonal call volumes or added-value features like call paging and parking.
To help you out we’ve devised a go-to list of things to consider before picking a VoIP vendor.
If you’re planning on keeping some of your existing telephony hardware, you need to make sure your VoIP vendor can support this type of transition.
Check that their VoIP technology on offer can work with your existing phone lines and devices. If it can’t, you’ll need to find another provider.
More basic VoIP solutions can only offer voice calling capabilities. If you want to establish a more holistic communications setup, then look for VoIP vendors offering this technology as part of a unified communications (UC) solution. UC solutions include standard VoIP calling features, but also offer video calls, instant messaging, text messages, chat, and file-sharing capabilities. This helps teams collaborate more effectively from different locations.
Chances are, you’re already using some business platforms and tools that you and your employees know and love. Generally speaking, switching to VoIP should not affect your current processes with these. That being said, voice over IP can also help you improve your systems by incorporating its capabilities into your favorite software.
The best VoIP vendors offer the ability to integrate your VoIP software with a wide range of third-party apps and software programs like CRM integrations, productivity management tools, and much more. This means you’ll be able to sync and share data across platforms for a more streamlined, efficient, and unified workflow.
While business-class VoIP is more secure than consumer-level VoIP, providers couldn’t really offer the same level of security. So if you want your confidential, sensitive, and private data to stay safe, you need to dig into a vendor’s credentials and accreditations. You can’t always rely on the built-in security of your IP networks to cover all your bases.
8x8 has advanced third-party verified certifications, ensuring their users’ data is protected. It’s dedicated to ensuring its technology conforms to strict information security standards.
One of the most important decisions you’ll make when transitioning to VoIP is choosing your VoIP system provider. Different vendors offer different price packages, feature sets, specifications, security, and control protocols, so it’s important to do your research before making a final decision.
Start by identifying your unique business requirements and look for a VoIP vendor who can meet your business needs—whether that’s the ability to scale based on seasonal call volumes or added-value features like call paging and parking.
To help you out we’ve devised a go-to list of things to consider before picking a VoIP vendor.
If you’re planning on keeping some of your existing telephony hardware, you need to make sure your VoIP vendor can support this type of transition.
Check that their VoIP technology on offer can work with your existing phone lines and devices. If it can’t, you’ll need to find another provider.
More basic VoIP solutions can only offer voice calling capabilities. If you want to establish a more holistic communications setup, then look for VoIP vendors offering this technology as part of a unified communications (UC) solution. UC solutions include standard VoIP calling features, but also offer video calls, instant messaging, text messages, chat, and file-sharing capabilities. This helps teams collaborate more effectively from different locations.
Chances are, you’re already using some business platforms and tools that you and your employees know and love. Generally speaking, switching to VoIP should not affect your current processes with these. That being said, voice over IP can also help you improve your systems by incorporating its capabilities into your favorite software.
The best VoIP vendors offer the ability to integrate your VoIP software with a wide range of third-party apps and software programs like CRM integrations, productivity management tools, and much more. This means you’ll be able to sync and share data across platforms for a more streamlined, efficient, and unified workflow.
While business-class VoIP is more secure than consumer-level VoIP, providers couldn’t really offer the same level of security. So if you want your confidential, sensitive, and private data to stay safe, you need to dig into a vendor’s credentials and accreditations. You can’t always rely on the built-in security of your IP networks to cover all your bases.
8x8 has advanced third-party verified certifications, ensuring their users’ data is protected. It’s dedicated to ensuring its technology conforms to strict information security standards.
One of the most important decisions you’ll make when transitioning to VoIP is choosing your VoIP system provider. Different vendors offer different price packages, feature sets, specifications, security, and control protocols, so it’s important to do your research before making a final decision.
Start by identifying your unique business requirements and look for a VoIP vendor who can meet your business needs—whether that’s the ability to scale based on seasonal call volumes or added-value features like call paging and parking.
To help you out we’ve devised a go-to list of things to consider before picking a VoIP vendor.
If you’re planning on keeping some of your existing telephony hardware, you need to make sure your VoIP vendor can support this type of transition.
Check that their VoIP technology on offer can work with your existing phone lines and devices. If it can’t, you’ll need to find another provider.
More basic VoIP solutions can only offer voice calling capabilities. If you want to establish a more holistic communications setup, then look for VoIP vendors offering this technology as part of a unified communications (UC) solution. UC solutions include standard VoIP calling features, but also offer video calls, instant messaging, text messages, chat, and file-sharing capabilities. This helps teams collaborate more effectively from different locations.
Chances are, you’re already using some business platforms and tools that you and your employees know and love. Generally speaking, switching to VoIP should not affect your current processes with these. That being said, voice over IP can also help you improve your systems by incorporating its capabilities into your favorite software.
The best VoIP vendors offer the ability to integrate your VoIP software with a wide range of third-party apps and software programs like CRM integrations, productivity management tools, and much more. This means you’ll be able to sync and share data across platforms for a more streamlined, efficient, and unified workflow.
While business-class VoIP is more secure than consumer-level VoIP, providers couldn’t really offer the same level of security. So if you want your confidential, sensitive, and private data to stay safe, you need to dig into a vendor’s credentials and accreditations. You can’t always rely on the built-in security of your IP networks to cover all your bases.
8x8 has advanced third-party verified certifications, ensuring their users’ data is protected. It’s dedicated to ensuring its technology conforms to strict information security standards.
One of the most important decisions you’ll make when transitioning to VoIP is choosing your VoIP system provider. Different vendors offer different price packages, feature sets, specifications, security, and control protocols, so it’s important to do your research before making a final decision.
Start by identifying your unique business requirements and look for a VoIP vendor who can meet your business needs—whether that’s the ability to scale based on seasonal call volumes or added-value features like call paging and parking.
To help you out we’ve devised a go-to list of things to consider before picking a VoIP vendor.
If you’re planning on keeping some of your existing telephony hardware, you need to make sure your VoIP vendor can support this type of transition.
Check that their VoIP technology on offer can work with your existing phone lines and devices. If it can’t, you’ll need to find another provider.
More basic VoIP solutions can only offer voice calling capabilities. If you want to establish a more holistic communications setup, then look for VoIP vendors offering this technology as part of a unified communications (UC) solution. UC solutions include standard VoIP calling features, but also offer video calls, instant messaging, text messages, chat, and file-sharing capabilities. This helps teams collaborate more effectively from different locations.
Chances are, you’re already using some business platforms and tools that you and your employees know and love. Generally speaking, switching to VoIP should not affect your current processes with these. That being said, voice over IP can also help you improve your systems by incorporating its capabilities into your favorite software.
The best VoIP vendors offer the ability to integrate your VoIP software with a wide range of third-party apps and software programs like CRM integrations, productivity management tools, and much more. This means you’ll be able to sync and share data across platforms for a more streamlined, efficient, and unified workflow.
While business-class VoIP is more secure than consumer-level VoIP, providers couldn ’t really offer the same level of security. So if you want your confidential, sensitive, and private data to stay safe, you need to dig into a vendor’s credentials and accreditations. You can’t always rely on the built-in security of your IP networks to cover all your bases.
8x8 has advanced third-party verified certifications, ensuring their users’ data is protected. It’s dedicated to ensuring its technology conforms to strict information security standards.
It’s time to choose your telephone system. Opting for a voice over IP telephone system promises to save your business time and money, and boost long-term productivity.
Today’s VoIP systems offer scalable, agile, telephony solutions with higher call quality and security provisions than ever before. So explore your options today—start with 8x8.
It’s time to choose your telephone system. Opting for a voice over IP telephone system promises to save your business time and money, and boost long-term productivity.
Today’s VoIP systems offer scalable, agile, telephony solutions with higher call quality and security provisions than ever before. So explore your options today—start with 8x8.
It’s time to choose your telephone system. Opting for a voice over IP telephone system promises to save your business time and money, and boost long-term productivity.
Today’s VoIP systems offer scalable, agile, telephony solutions with higher call quality and security provisions than ever before. So explore your options today—start with 8x8.
It’s time to choose your telephone system. Opting for a voice over IP telephone system promises to save your business time and money, and boost long-term productivity.
Today’s VoIP systems offer scalable, agile, telephony solutions with higher call quality and security provisions than ever before. So explore your options today—start with 8x8.
No. As we mentioned earlier, Voice over Internet Protocol is not the same as landline technology. VoIP technology transmits digitized voice signals over the internet as opposed to through a circuit-switched network.
One of the best things about VoIP technology is that you can make and receive calls in real-time with any internet-enabled device. That could be a smartphone, laptop, tablet, VoIP handset or desk phone, or desktop computer with a headset.
And if you happen to want to keep using your legacy hardware, it’s also possible to connect a landline telephone to your Voice over IP service using an analog telephone adapter (ATA). With an analog phone adapter, regular voice signals are converted into small data packets that can make a PSTN-dependent piece of phone hardware capable of connecting to VoIP networks.
That being said, IP phones still offer far more functionality than the traditional landline desktop telephone lines ever did—so they’re worth the investment if you want to set up offices.
Generally speaking, there’s little to no difference between VoIP and IP telephone systems. In fact, these terms tend to be used interchangeably by a lot of people working in the IT (information technology) industry.
That’s not to say that IP and voice over IP are the same technology. To clarify:
Beyond that, it’s perfectly fine to refer to any internet-based phone solution as both an “IP phone system” and a “VoIP phone system”. But if you really want to get into the strictest nuances, you can define “IP systems” as the one that covers a broader umbrella of telephony (voice calls, fax, SMS) while “VoIP systems” focus only on voice calls.
As for the terms “commercial phone system” and “phone system for business”, these two are also synonymous—they just refer to voice-based business communications systems.
No. As we mentioned earlier, Voice over Internet Protocol is not the same as landline technology. VoIP technology transmits digitized voice signals over the internet as opposed to through a circuit-switched network.
One of the best things about VoIP technology is that you can make and receive calls in real-time with any internet-enabled device. That could be a smartphone, laptop, tablet, VoIP handset or desk phone, or desktop computer with a headset.
And if you happen to want to keep using your legacy hardware, it’s also possible to connect a landline telephone to your Voice over IP service using an analog telephone adapter (ATA). With an analog phone adapter, regular voice signals are converted into small data packets that can make a PSTN-dependent piece of phone hardware capable of connecting to VoIP networks.
That being said, IP phones still offer far more functionality than the traditional landline desktop telephone lines ever did—so they’re worth the investment if you want to set up offices.
Generally speaking, there’s little to no difference between VoIP and IP telephone systems. In fact, these terms tend to be used interchangeably by a lot of people working in the IT (information technology) industry.
That’s not to say that IP and voice over IP are the same technology. To clarify:
Beyond that, it’s perfectly fine to refer to any internet-based phone solution as both an “IP phone system” and a “VoIP phone system”. But if you really want to get into the strictest nuances, you can define “IP systems” as the one that covers a broader umbrella of telephony (voice calls, fax, SMS) while “VoIP systems” focus only on voice calls.
As for the terms “commercial phone system” and “phone system for business”, these two are also synonymous—they just refer to voice-based business communications systems.
No. As we mentioned earlier, Voice over Internet Protocol is not the same as landline technology. VoIP technology transmits digitized voice signals over the internet as opposed to through a circuit-switched network.
One of the best things about VoIP technology is that you can make and receive calls in real-time with any internet-enabled device. That could be a smartphone, laptop, tablet, VoIP handset or desk phone, or desktop computer with a headset.
And if you happen to want to keep using your legacy hardware, it’s also possible to connect a landline telephone to your Voice over IP service using an analog telephone adapter (ATA). With an analog phone adapter, regular voice signals are converted into small data packets that can make a PSTN-dependent piece of phone hardware capable of connecting to VoIP networks.
That being said, IP phones still offer far more functionality than the traditional landline desktop telephone lines ever did—so they’re worth the investment if you want to set up offices.
Generally speaking, there’s little to no difference between VoIP and IP telephone systems. In fact, these terms tend to be used interchangeably by a lot of people working in the IT (information technology) industry.
That’s not to say that IP and voice over IP are the same technology. To clarify:
Beyond that, it’s perfectly fine to refer to any internet-based phone solution as both an “IP phone system” and a “VoIP phone system”. But if you really want to get into the strictest nuances, you can define “IP systems” as the one that covers a broader umbrella of telephony (voice calls, fax, SMS) while “VoIP systems” focus only on voice calls.
As for the terms “commercial phone system” and “phone system for business”, these two are also synonymous—they just refer to voice-based business communications systems.
No. As we mentioned earlier, Voice over Internet Protocol is not the same as landline technology. VoIP technology transmits digitized voice signals over the internet as opposed to through a circuit-switched network.
One of the best things about VoIP technology is that you can make and receive calls in real-time with any internet-enabled device. That could be a smartphone, laptop, tablet, VoIP handset or desk phone, or desktop computer with a headset.
And if you happen to want to keep using your legacy hardware, it’s also possible to connect a landline telephone to your Voice over IP service using an analog telephone adapter (ATA). With an analog phone adapter, regular voice signals are converted into small data packets that can make a PSTN-dependent piece of phone hardware capable of connecting to VoIP networks.
That being said, IP phones still offer far more functionality than the traditional landline desktop telephone lines ever did—so they’re worth the investment if you want to set up offices.
Generally speaking, there’s little to no difference between VoIP and IP telephone systems. In fact, these terms tend to be used interchangeably by a lot of people working in the IT (information technology) industry.
That’s not to say that IP and voice over IP are the same technology. To clarify:
Beyond that, it’s perfectly fine to refer to any internet-based phone solution as both an “IP phone system” and a “VoIP phone system”. But if you really want to get into the strictest nuances, you can define “IP systems” as the one that covers a broader umbrella of telephony (voice calls, fax, SMS) while “VoIP systems” focus only on voice calls.
As for the terms “commercial phone system” and “phone system for business”, these two are also synonymous—they just refer to voice-based business communications systems.