Hosted VoIP – Changing the Business Communications Landscape

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - Oct. 6, 2015 - PRLog -- Every day, companies all across America are trying to accomplish the same thing to improve their businesses.  Whether you’re an SMB, a mid-size business or a Fortune 500, you all share the same four basic goals.  1) Reduce costs.  2) Increase revenue.  3) Become more flexible to changing market conditions and 4) Reduce any risk of disruptions to your business model.  In a nutshell, every business wants a better way to accomplish their “Business Continuity” strategies.

How are these businesses accomplishing these lofty goals?  One of the quickest and easiest ways to tackle all four items at once is to understand that technology has again changed the way we do business…and now is the time to embrace the change.

Today, businesses are changing how they communicate with one another. Gone are the old, expensive models of communicating.  Think back to the days of expensive long distance.  Remember when you would ask to use someone’s  phone and the person paying the bill would always ask the same question, “Are you calling long distance?”  Thankfully, with the breakup of Ma-Bell in the ‘90’s, competition drove the costs down from $0.40 per minute to $0.03.

Transition came again with the advent of the internet, then email, again with conference calling and mobile services.  Each new technology experienced its own bumps in the road, and it took time for the masses to adopt them, but ultimately, each new step brought us closer to the four goals noted above.

Today, technology has blessed us with yet another advancement.  Over the last decade or so, we have seen the advent of Cloud and Hosted technologies.  What began as a slow crawl has sped up to an Usain Bolt paced sprint in technological advancements thanks to cloud computing.  As is the norm, it took a few years for the mass market to understand the cloud and adopt these new technologies, but now its here and there is no turning back.  These days, businesses looking to ramp up their technology or capitalize on the very impressive catalog of feature sets (now standard in most offerings), have their business continuity goals finally within reach.

If you haven’t already begun the transition of replacing your old dilapidated PRI based phone system, then you are doing your business a huge disservice, and that is a delicately phrased understatement.  Sure, you see your old phone system as an asset, that is tangible and yours.  However if you think about it beyond the obvious, what has your phone system done for you lately?  I’m sure it rings and can place a call for you, but what if you could have your extension ring at any location you are visiting for the day, or even ring simultaneously with your mobile device?  Never missing a new customer’s call will drastically help you increase your revenue.  Or, consider the amount of time it takes you each month to understand and rectify your paper billing.  Are your rates all billing correctly?  Doubtful, but imagine having an online portal tracking each and every call (down to the extension level), so you not only know where your clients are calling from but who they are speaking to as well.  Further, you can now be sure that each outbound call is actually included, FREE of charge, with the system? That’s both cost reduction and flexibility.

Did you ever have to close during inclement weather?  Your competitor who already uses Hosted VoIP services didn’t, because when they awoke to find 6 feet of snow on the ground, they simply opened up their smart phone, logged into the portal and with one click of a button, re-routed all of their calls to their predesignated emergency overrides!  Guess what, they never lost a dollar in existing revenue and likely, they took your client because they were open for business while your company was closed.

The most common misconception when considering a Hosted VoIP PBX is the price.  Most fear that such an advanced UC system is priced the way the old phone systems were; a huge capital outlay, strapping your business for cash until you got some sort of ROI.  That is patently incorrect.  Todays Hosted VoIP PBX’s cost little to nothing in upfront costs, and are simply charged monthly just like your phone bill of old.

Included in the monthly costs are your brand new phone system and handsets, all of the usage (calls are usually FREE or UNLIMITED), dozens of features and voice mail options, auto attendants, software upgrades, break fix, installation, training, administration and user portals (to manage the service, pay your bill, chat, monitor extensions and even view trouble tickets in real time!) and a variety of other bells and whistles.  Best of all, these systems, typically priced by the number of handsets ordered, are usually within 15% of your total current spend!

So, the next time that you have a staff or budget meeting and you are trying to determine how to hit your four main goals (again)  - Increasing Revenue, Decreasing Costs, Becoming More Flexible and Reducing Downtime Risk - I would recommend that you take a good hard look at Hosted VoIP PBX as an option.  The only downside is that you haven’t done it sooner.

About the author:

Jeff Keane, 38, is an expert in business telecommunications services, with over 15 years of experience.  Jeff is the highest producing sales rep in his company and over the course of his career has helped thousands of clients save millions of dollars annually by implementing his recommendations for various voice, data, VoIP, IT and Cloud services.

For more information, please contact:

Jeff Keane
M:  856-304-5258
O:  856-628-8398
jkeane@broadviewnet.com
jeff76er@gmail.com
Twitter:  @HostedVoIPandUC