Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a rapidly growing technology that is now being used for unified communications across the world and businesses are capitalising on this technology for increased value-added realisation. That said, would it be correct to say that VOIP will have it's own share of advantages and disadvantages when compared to traditional phone systems? In this blog, you are invited to join in as we explore the potentials and options for voice over IP as a feasible technology for business communication and phone calls.

What is VOIP and are there Key Considerations for Small Businesses?
VOIP a network technology based service that allows users to make calls over the Internet as the primary communication medium instead of traditional phone lines. VOIP service primarily converts analogue signals into digital transmission packets and rout them from source to destination using the internet as the connectivity medium.

Upon arrival at the receive end, these datagram packets are then converted into voice signals via a decoding engine so humans can understand them in intelligible forms.

Are There Identifiable Advantages of Voice Over IP for Small Businesses?

The answer is Yes! With VoIP small businesses across the globe are able to leverage functionalities and services that were once privileged by only large enterprises. Amongst these obvious key benefits are:

Lower Costs

Small businesses with limited budgets are now able to leverage massive cost-savings through the introduction of VOIP technology without breaking the bank for such benefits. Also, unlike traditional PSTN telephone systems which tool long time to install and proved overly expensive to maintain and make calls VoIP introduces minimal hardware and software purchasing requirements for similar technology experiences.

Additionally, when compared to conventional phone systems, VOIP call costs are significantly cheaper than the monthly fees for the same call time and destination.

We've also seen scenarios where VOIP services providers are offering 24/7 support to their clients for VOIP services, which means which means IT operation expenditures can now be budgeted for upfront without worrying about unexpected surprises.

Higher Scalability

Having VoIP implemented within your business doesn't mean the buck stops there. The flexibility of the service readily lends it to easy growth and expansion via quick addition of extra lines, extension numbers and licenses agreement revision. This means that tart-ups and small businesses can define their technology road-map and gradually scale their operations and services through a deliberate strategy than lends itself to the strategy of the business instead of being wagged about by restricted arrangements.

With this approach, it is least likely that a business that doesn't have a healthy budget at the outset is least likely to overspend on technology that is not yet meet their needs, this is a wonderful benefit that VOIP brings to the table.

As more and more businesses get warm up to the concept of VOIP, it is clear that they can budget upfront and only pay for service usage based on consumption. No longer is there a need to purchase dedicated hardware, fixed-line packages and rigid contracts that cost an arm and leg. Flexibility is now the new way for saving cost and let technology facilitate organic brand growth.

Increased Security

With VOIP being established on internet protocol (IP) technology, it is possible to harness security layer features for improving data privacy and threat mitigation. One such features applicable for VOIP based telephony is identity management and encryption.

By integrating these two key security features into VOIP, data protections and threat mitigation from cyber attacks is achievable. Although technology becomes obsolete rapidly, it will take some time before these security features become irrelevant. Therefore, the possibility for increased data communication and protection against eavesdropping is now achievable.