Cut costs and work smarter by switching to VoIP | Ross McLachlan, pre-sales technical consultant, Network ROI
Ross McLachlan is a pre-sales technical consultant at Network ROI, an Edinburgh-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and Small Business Specialist providing a range of IT and Voice over IP services and converged solutions across Scotland and beyond.
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Question: I run a small business with five employees who are in and out of the office a lot, so our mobile and landline bills are a concern to me. I’m also worried about my employees not being available when customers call their landline while they’re out of the office. It would also help if we could quickly assign incoming calls to the appropriate staff member. I keep being told that VoIP telephony is worth considering. Can you tell me what that’s about and if it sounds right for us? - Fran, Reading
Answer: Hi Fran. Lots of our small business customers are delighted with a VoIP system, so it’s certainly worth considering. First let me tell you a little bit about it – then we can explore its advantages. What I say here applies to small businesses right through to larger operations and even corporates.
What is VoIP?
VoIP is a term which can mean many things to different people, but the definition of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is that speech is converted into a stream of digital data packets by an IP handset and passed over the same network(s) as computers use to talk to each other. The data packets are then converted back into analogue signals at the receiving end.
VoIP is often used synonymously with ‘free calls’ but in business terms VoIP technology is a three-way play on
| • | Telephone system cost of ownership and operational savings | | • | Benefits to the business in terms of telephone system features | | • | Call quality and reliability |
Quality of calls and reliability must not be underestimated for business use. For domestic use, people are largely happy to put up with quality issues if they can get free or very low cost calls. Business users, on the other hand, expect their telephones to just work. Although traditional telephony systems are now completely outdated and outclassed, great care must be taken when implementing a VoIP solution as there are pitfalls to catch the unwary and, like any technology, there are plenty of people out there happy to regurgitate hype.
There are several key decisions to be made regarding a telephony system for business, and expert guidance is needed. Key questions include:
| • | What business problems or issues am I trying to solve with a new telephony system? | | • | Do I a need physical phone system unit (known as a PBX or PABX) on site, or can I have hosted VoIP? | | • | How does my telephony connect to the outside world - traditional telecoms lines, VoIP trunks or a mixture of both? | | • | Is cutting down on call costs a significant driver in consider the telephony solution and how much can I actually save? | | • | What features and capabilities do I need my phone system to deliver, eg voicemail, access to voicemail remotely or via email, IVR (interactive Voice Response - eg “press 1 for Sales, 2 for Accounts”, etc), conference calling, call recording, etc? | | • | Do I want unified billing and a single point of contact for my telephony system, lines and calls? | | • | For multiple sites, do I want one telephony system with inter-site calls free? | | • | What is the ongoing cost of ownership of the telephone system in terms of my business expanding, i.e. adding users, additional features, etc? | | • | Would it be of benefit if my employees can work from home or even on the road? |
Making the right choices can yield significant business benefits and here are just a few.
Serious savings
For businesses, it’s important not to get carried away with simply thinking that VoIP technology will yield significant call cost savings. It can of course, but only in the right circumstances and with the right implementation. A VoIP based system connected to traditional telecoms lines will be the recommended solution for many companies. This has the added advantage that it will be able to accommodate changes in the telecoms connectivity to the outside world. These changes are inevitable over the next few years, so implement a system which is future-proofed as far as possible as this will save the business money.
With a truly open VoIP system (and there are many which are not open - you are tied in to buying specific manufacturers’ handsets for a start), there are real savings to be made in terms of cost of ownership. Particularly if your business is going to grow, you will save when you add new users and want to make use of new features. The only likely hardware costs will be new handsets. You don’t even need an engineer on site to install a new user or move existing users. This can all be done remotely, the only on-site activity being plugging in the new or existing handset. Thjs model of ownership differs considerably from the ones operated by the traditional phone system providers.
If your telephony is connected to the outside world using broadband, then there are line rental and call savings to be made. Packages are available which offer unlimited calls to geographic numbers for a fixed monthly fee. You can have multiple (virtual) telephone lines operating across the same broadband link.
Appeal to new markets
But saving money isn't the only benefit you can get from VoIP - its flexibility can also help you win new customers. For instance, VoIP technology can allow you to have a telephone number different from your geographical location, eg you can have a London telephone number even although it connects to your office in Edinburgh. This allows businesses to own numbers anywhere in the country and appear ‘local’ wherever you choose. Imagine being ‘just round the corner’ to everyone!
Streamline Business Processes
A VoIP system can be integrated with your email or CRM software (if you have one) to streamline business processes and have customer information to hand when they call. Similarly, customers can be called directly from your email or CRM software using ‘click to dial’.
VoIP systems provide easy access to reports about call trends and call information. This allows you to make informed decisions about how to organise your staff to best handle calls. Flexibility and adaptability are key features of VoIP systems.
Added to this, you can use simple call management controls to make sure calls from prospects are answered faster and by the most relevant person. Thanks to intelligent Caller ID functions, for example, you might choose to direct existing clients automatically to their account manager.
Be here, there, anywhere…
Now, you’re probably reading this sitting at your desk. And the chances are you've got a phone next to your PC. When anyone calls your number the phone on your desk rings. But if you go home or you’re away for a few days, when someone calls, your desk phone still rings - except you're not there to answer it. You miss the call, and perhaps some business.
There’s always call forwarding, of course, but it’s a bit of a chore and you have to remember to keep turning it on and off. Or you may have an answering machine, which is fine, but I'm sure callers would prefer to speak to you than leave a message - and I’m sure you'd rather talk to them straightaway.
With VoIP systems, you can provide the caller with a variety of choices - voicemail, speak to someone else in the office, try your mobile. Or you can ‘twin’ your mobile with your desk number so that your number can follow you wherever you go. Another form of this is ‘hot-desking’ which allows you to go to any phone and sign in as yourself. This can even be done using a ‘soft’ phone on your PC, so wherever you are (with an internet connection), to the outside world it's business as usual.
With VoIP solutions, you can also get access to your whole system wherever you are. Log in through an easy-to-use private web page and you can do everything - from making calls to dealing with your voicemail, setting call diverts and managing every aspect of the system. So, where traditional phone systems can restrict the way your employees operate, VoIP solutions provide a great deal of freedom and flexibility.
Make the switch
So let me just summarise the main benefits of a VoIP solution for business.
| • | It will save you money on a number of fronts and provide a degree of future-proofing. | | • | It will help you appeal to new markets and attract more customers. | | • | By linking your phone system to your email or CRM software, you’ll have faster access to details of callers, so calls and messages will be handled by the right people faster. Equally, calls can be made much faster. | | • | You’ll be able to streamline business processes and use call data to manage phone operations, reacting quickly to changing needs and situations. | | • | It will help your employees work smarter. When they’re away from the office, they can still be completely in touch with what's going on. |
So what’s the downside? Well, if you get the right advice and implement the right solution, there is no downside. If you get it wrong, then it could be a painful and detract from the task of running your business, but then that’s no different to any other IT system which is not selected and implemented properly! Find a company your can work with and trust, who you know will fix things for you when and if they go wrong.
I hope this helps and do get in touch again if you need any more help,
--Ross
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