Is VoIP Telephone Equipment
Right for Your Business?

Since 1983, Davissa has been installing, maintaining and upgrading telephone equipment in and around Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. During this time the technology has obviously evolved tremendously. Considerable media attention to VoIP telephones is currently making VoIp a technology for many IT managers and companies to consider.

There are two basic varieties of VoIP. In its simplest form, VoIP requires a regular phone, an adapter, broadband Internet service, and a subscription to a VoIP service. When you place a call, it is sent over the Internet as data until it nears the recipient’s destination. Then the call is translated back into a more traditional format and completes the trip over standard phone lines. Also known as Internet telephony, this allows for extremely cheap long-distance and international calls.

VoIP phone systems - equipment installed at your business that routes internal calls over your computer network can unite multiple offices on a single phone system. No matter how remote the locations, a VoIP phone system has the ability to completely eliminate long-distance calling charges between them. However, it does not replace your existing phone service to the outside world.

One of the largest advantages of an IP PBX is found in businesses that have multiple locations. Using VoIP, all offices on a LAN or WAN can utilize a common office phone system, including extension dialing, seamless call transfers, and other features. In addition to making it easier to communicate, the ability to share features can enhance team collaboration. Employees at different locations can truly feel like they are part of the same organization. Plus, if they are on the company network, the phone calls are free – even if your offices are located thousands of miles apart. Analyzing your current phone bill for calls between distant offices can give you an idea of potential savings.

If your company has employees that travel or work from home, remote users connected to the company network via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) can utilize the office VoIP. VoIP allows those workers to make phone calls from the road at no extra charge. An example of this use might include a salesperson on an extended trip.

Drawbacks to VoIP systems

Network demands
High quality sound requires quite a bit of system bandwidth. The technology to compress audio and to reconstruct it has been improved to the point where VoIP sound quality over a high-bandwidth connection can be as good as or better than that of regular phone lines. However, many data networks are not up to the demands of VoIP.

Computer networks are designed to handle messy data: packets arrive out of order and some are even lost, but in most cases the data being sent can easily be reconstructed before it is needed. Voice conversations, though, are not as tolerant of these kinds of disturbances. Each packet of sound has to arrive in the correct order because they are being sent in real time – if packets are lost, the conversation sounds distorted, choppy, or falls off all together. This is why VoIP services that rely on the Internet to transmit calls can have uneven phone quality.

Outages
Unlike regular phone systems that get set up and basically forgotten, VoIP systems require more attention. Like any software application, your VoIP server will require occasional upgrades and maintenance.

Regular (traditional analog or digital) phones get all the power they need through the phone line. They will continue to work if there is a power outage. In contrast, most VoIP phones need to be plugged into a power source to work. By definition, VoIP phones are also network-dependent. To businesses where phone service is critical, this can be a concern since computer networks as we all know will occasionally be brought down by a server crash or other problem.

Potential outages are another reason why having a mix of traditional and VoIP can be advantageous. The combination creates a more comfortable level of redundancy. Companies that have backup power systems in place can keep their PBX running, and the digital phone system within the main office will continue to operate even in the event of a data network outage.

Finally, remember that a number of common business devices require analog phone lines. These include: fax machines, credit card processors, some security systems, and other devices. 

Davissa would be happy to help you select the most effective combination of technology, platforms, tools and service based on your specific requirements. Email us or call today to set up a time to chat.

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