Did you know, according to the Technology Council of Southern California, overhead costs for businesses start somewhere around 28% of revenues? If you use outdated, overly expensive services for your business, whether it’s dial-up internet, land-line telephones, or otherwise, your overhead is only going to increase as those technologies grow ever more antiquated.
By 2014, an industry known as managed services is expected to be linked with 90% of all American businesses. Managed service providers specialize in everything from website hosting and design to small business IT services. One of the most important and beneficial services managed service companies provide is voice over internet protocol, or VOIP. VOIP service providers give their clients increased communication capacity, without the pitfalls of more traditional telephone services. If you’re on the fence about making the switch to VOIP service providers, here are four reasons to go for it.
- Huge Savings on Domestic, International Calls
- Easier Record Keeping
- A Solution That Grows as You Do
- Mobility with Security
As About.com points out, VOIP service providers are able to greatly reduce telecommunications costs, making them one of the most important and often-used services among small businesses. Consider, when using a traditional landline telephone or cellphone, you pay a set amount for domestic calls and much higher amounts for international phone calls. Since VOIP service providers use the web to power their service, you only have to pay your ISP bill, guaranteeing a flat rate for all calls. This can save you up to 40% on domestic calls and almost 90% on international calls.
In any business, being able to keep track of all pertinent information, whether it comes from a meeting, email, or phone call, is extremely important. When using a traditional phone system, your employees either have to scribble down the details of phone conversations as fast as they can or pound away on their keyboard, potentially drowning out whomever is on the other end of the phone call. According to Tech Republic, the best VOIP technologies use state-of-the-art speech-to-text engines, translating each phone call into document form. In effect, this frees your employees to actually listen to their phone conversations.
Unlike traditional communications technologies, VOIP solutions are easily scalable. When your business grows, you simply need to assign new user accounts and passwords, subscribe to a higher usage program, and train your new employees to use your VOIP system. VOIP service providers are constantly upgrading the software and hardware on their end, ensuring that whenever you need expanded, top-of-the-line service, it’ll be waiting for you.
The Houston Chronicle writes that one of the biggest advantages of using VOIP service providers is increased business mobility and security. When you sign up for VOIP, each employee is assigned a username and password. Wherever your employees are, whether they are working from home or in the office, they can use that information to sign into the system, ensuring a dedicated line. Especially if yours is a business made up of telecommuters, this is a great way to offer all of the aforementioned benefits to all your employees.
VOIP service providers give their clients an easy solution for moving away from the outdated technologies of the past and bringing themselves into the future. If it means saving money, increasing productivity, and gaining a solution that will last, why not make the switch to VOIP?
