For many professionals, installing a PBX in your company may sound like something of the past. Imagine a more than expensive operation of installation and configuration of a PBX, throw meters and meters of cable throughout the office to the tablets where we install the phones that, of course, we must also configure. If in the future we need to make an extension, we must add to the traditional PBXs or expansion cards - as long as there are free spaces - or buy a new one and start the installation process again.
But the future of the PBXs is VoIP, or what is the same: calls over the Internet. This tecnology allows us to use our Internet connection to send and receive voice and video. There are many VoIP telephony platforms available that will help us improve the telephone communications of our company.
The advantages of VoIP telephony for small businesses
Having a VoIP system in our small business is a huge competitive advantage and a improvement in time and money. IP telephony has a series of added benefits and values that we will notice both in the short and long term.
Save costs on phone
When we talk about VoIP telephony, the main benefit to highlight for a SME is, without any doubt, the savings in telephone. The traditional switchboards are based on the distance between the caller and the destination where the receiver is located. Calls through the traditional system must cross borders, progressively increasing the cost while increasing the distance.
In the case of VoIP telephony, calls are made through the Internet and there is no distance, becuase the network is one and, just as we can connect for the same price to a website hosted in Madrid that a web hosted in Taiwan, with calls happens the same. The costs are much cheaper in local and international calls, allowing even very interestingh flat rates.
But the advantages do not end here. Many VoIP telephony providers allow calls at cost 0 between users of the same platform. It can be very intrestingh for a small company to be able to communicate freely with its workers en route to another state, without having to pay extra for the distance.
It's cheaper and easier to install and maintain
The traditional telephone exchanges, as we mentioned at the beginning, have a high cost in intallation and maintenance, not to mention the expansion of lines if one of VoIP telephony, the installation is much simpler.
Here we can choose between two types of VoIP switchboard: physics and software. The physical VoIP exchange or hardware is physically in the company. Instead, the software switchboard can be hosted on your own computer or an external (virtualized) server.
If we want to carry out an expansion of lines, we only have to create them, configure the terminals and start calling (except with the physical VoIP or hardware siwtchboard, which must be extended or renewed). Nothing else. On the other hand, if in our company we already had a traditional digital switchboard system installed and we want to re-use the phones to save costs, the VoIP switches allow adapting them to IP technology easily and comfortably.
VoIP technology goes with you
Few users know that smartphones and tablets already have VoIp systems in applications such as WhatsApp, Skype or Telegram. Many VoIP telephony solutions can be used from our computer or mobile device with what it implies. The calls do not travel through a cale, but through the internet a the web does or an email.
If we are far from the office, we can continue using our phone number as if we were in it. We only need to have an Internet connection of sufficient quality to keep the call. VoIP telephony, unlike traditional cable, is a service on the Internet and not the device itself.
The added value of VoIP telephony for SMEs
The added value services provided by VoIP telephony to SMEs are many and go beyond the simple use as telephones to make calls. One of the most notable is that VoIP phones are truly intelligent and allow access to the calendar, contacts of other services, such as the CRM of the company. They also allow to have a built-in answering machine, multi-call, set the music of the waiting call...
Another service of added value that may be interesting for SMEs is the possibility of configuring commercial service and customer service numbers for specific campaigns. For example, if we have to organize a specific campaign for Christmas, we can create special numbers for that task.
VoIP telephony is the future for small businesses
The competitive advantage that VoIP telephony offers to small and medium enterprises is very large. From savings of up to 80% on the bill, with respect to the costs of calls in conventional digital cable telephony, to the mobility provided by applications for smartphones, tablets and computers, VoIP technology is here to change forever the way in which companies communicate with their customers and suppliers.
