Benefits of Voice over IP for SME's
No matter what type of business you run, infrastructure costs are among your most critical concerns. In particular, communications infrastructure — not only connecting customers to staff but interconnecting a staff that may be spread between different sites — is among the leading factors in the overall costs of running a business. In today's rapid paced marketing environment where a single missed call can lose a long-term customer, your business can't survive without communications services; but at the same time, communications costs can put a serious squeeze on your budget.
Now imagine if there was a way to bypass traditional communications in the same way that staff can call different extensions within the same office building without incurring any per-minute costs. Such a scenario could result in a cut to communications costs by 50% or more. Well the good news is that's exactly what the technology known as voice over IP (VoIP) provides!
What is Voice over IP?
Without going into the technical details, VoIP is essentially a way of moving your business's voice communications from traditional PSTN (Publicly Switched Telephone Network) telephone lines to the Internet where data is simply data, regardless of what it is, where it came from, and where it's going. In the case of VoIP, that data just happens to be a phone call; more accurately, a phone call without the heavy toll fees and per-minute charges to which most have grown accustomed.
From that basic premise, the functionality of VoIP technology expands in a number of directions, from each of which your business could benefit.
| Traditional Telephone Calls | Voice over IP Calls |
|
|
How VoIP Works
Using a VoIP provider and a bit of moderately priced equipment, your business's telephone service is seamlessly converted to an Internet-based model where per-minute charges no longer apply to interstate calling. Acting as a bridge between your internal PBX system, the conventional telephone network, and a provider's VoIP network, that VoIP equipment connects each vital aspect of your communications infrastructure.
This is made possible by VoIP providers having services based in each state, allowing calls to effectively hop over the most overpriced points in connecting a telephone call and routing it via the cheapest available path. Based on the destination of each call made, your VoIP equipment routes your call to your PBX, the conventional PSTN, or your VoIP provider's network.
The behind-the-scenes action gets complicated but to end users (i.e. both your staff and your customers) it is totally transparent. You just make the calls and answer the phones the same way you always have; the only noticeable difference being all that money you'll start saving!
Basic VoIP
For the most basic example of VoIP, suppose your business is run entirely out of one office. Keeping in touch with customers, suppliers, and distributors in other states normally means racking up expensive per-minute charges but utilizing a VoIP provider's own network manages to turn your interstate calls into the cost equivalent of in-state calls. Even international and mobile calls are impacted to varying degrees, resulting in enormous savings from top to bottom in your communications costs.
For example, suppose you were to call a supplier in another state to place an order for raw materials. You pick up your regular phone and dial the supplier's number just as you always have. Your VoIP equipment looks at the number and determines that you are placing an interstate call; it therefore routes that call through one of your VoIP provider's switching centers in the state where your call is destined. Your provider then routes your call into the conventional PSTN as a local call to your supplier who probably doesn't have a VoIP system and has no idea that you do either.
