Costs Savings and VoIP

In the last blog we talked a little bit about some of conveniences and flexibility that Voice over Internet technology can offer your employees. However, flexibility is not the only advantage: VoIP offers several opportunities for cost reductions.

First of all, VoIP systems may require less capital investment than older PBX technologies because they are reliant less on hardware and more on software. You aren't spending as much for physical on-site hardware. You also have lower external support costs. Because a PBX needed to be re-configured every time you added or deleted a user or phone number, or moved a phone’s physical location, users had to pay for the PBX manufacturer’s support operation to make a service call. Even if the service could be handled by an in house IT employee, they would have had to go through expensive training and each of the re-configurations would be time consuming. With VoIP, configurations are handled via interfaces accessible on a PC or mobile phone.

Every organization needs a good business continuity and disaster recovery plan. VoIP can improve your disaster recovery capacity. Due to their flexibility in re-routing communications, your business can still operate even if a physical location becomes inaccessible.

Lower long distance costs will probably be another advantage of moving to a VoIP system. However, this can be overestimated. You still have to pay for broadband connectivity and per-minute charges may still apply. Also, the entirety of every call may not be carried via broadband. In some cases, the final leg of the call may have to revert to the PSTN because broadband is unavailable. This may be especially true when crossing national boundaries. Some countries have regulations forbidding VoIP. Also, significant sections of the rural United States have no broadband access. Make sure you work very closely with a managed service provider with expertise in configuring your interface with a broadband or telco provider. This is an area where deep knowledge of signaling in interface protocols is critical for the success of your integration of VoIP into your business.