See what today’s VoIP and unified communications solutions have to offer and get an overview of the top five current SMB and enterprise VoIP/UC solutions.
Business phone services are no longer just telephone services. They have evolved and are now often VoIP based and paired with unified communications (UCaaS) as services such as conferencing, instant messaging, email, voicemail and business SMS. This potentially saves businesses money by providing integrated features rather than disjointed business applications. In addition, many business VoIP services offer unlimited calling plans and low-priced international plans. A choice of hosting is often available, including on-site, cloud-based PBX and hybrid. Many also work with a mixture of IP and traditional phone lines.
Cloud-based services, which are soon to completely replace traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) phone lines, are affordable and easily managed. Managed services require few internal resources, since the service manages the servers, service and backup. That just leaves configuration, monitoring and service adjustments to the business owner or IT staff.
Pricing
VoIP businesses services often charge by the phone line or extension. But you also may have hardware costs to consider if you plan to host on-site and phone costs if you need to purchase new phones or headsets. Some services may also charge additional fees for things such as voice-to-email services, conferencing or international calling. Nowadays, many services do not require a long-term contract but may offer lower pricing if you pay a year or more in advance.
Is It Time to Upgrade?
For most, the answer is yes. VoIP business phone services are more affordable in the long run and offer many features beyond just telephone services. If you are not quite ready to make the leap and have a lot of fully functional analog phones you want to keep using, you can upgrade to VoIP and use an adapter to continue using your older phones, or you can add low-priced softphones (headsets) to your PCs to use VoIP services. Eventually, you’ll likely make the full conversion, so you might give some thought to what’s currently holding you back. Plan for adequate internet bandwidth to support your new phone system. Generally, you need to allocate for up to 100 Kbps per phone line.
What Services Do VoIP and UCaaS Provide?
These phone services provide all advanced phone features such as virtual call receptionists, call forwarding and recording, voicemail, inbound and outbound calls, hold music, forward to mobile, call holding, and multiple-party calls.
Most services also offer unified communications. This means that additional collaboration tools such as video and audio conferencing, business SMS, instant messaging, presence indicators, and screen sharing are included with the phone services. These features usually integrate with CRM-type services and/or Outlook so users can easily connect with contacts or customers in a variety of ways. All features are integrated and low-priced.
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