VOIP Explained

I get calls all the time from customers telling me they want to purchase a VOIP phone system. When I ask them what it is about VOIP that will benefit them most of them think that they can save money. At this point, I tell them that VOIP really does not mean any one thing. There are a number of different ways to use VOIP with your business phone system. Here are some of the different applications for VOIP:

VOIP Phone Calls: You can make phone calls over the internet using VOIP. These calls go out over your internet connection not a telephone line. You can make domestic calls for free and international calls very cheaply.

VOIP Phones: VOIP Phones are hard wired telephones that connect to your LAN and access your internet connection. They will synch up with your VOIP PBX phone system and allow you to function just as if you were connected to your office where your PBX resides. You can make and receive calls, transfer calls, intercom & check voice mail from wherever you are connected. It is all seamless to the outside caller, they have no way of knowing that you are at a remote site.
There are also software VOIP phones that you can use on a laptop, ipad or smartphone. These work the same way as a hard wired phone. It is a seamless connection to your office and you can stay in touch wherever you have a wi-fi connection. If you are out of the Country, you can intercom back and forth with your office and make calls in the US without incurring any charges.

The Avaya IP Office 500 has a teleworker application that uses VOIP and your local landline together. You can make and receive calls on your analog phone line (such as your home line) and the outside caller will only see your office phone line where your VOIP PBX resides. Callers can call the office number and the IP Office 500 will route the call to your home number. Companies are saving a lot of money by getting rid of offices full of cubicles and setting those people up in home offices using this technology. Employees are much happier working from home and they can be more productive without the downtime of a commute every morning.

Site to Site: You can have an office in DC and an office in California with a VOIP PBX at each
end. With VOIP you can transfer calls and intercom site to site just as if both offices were all on one phone system. Many fortune 500 companies with offices all over the world use their data network and VOIP to seamlessly route calls between offices. If you are on a tech support call for example, you may start out in a call center in India and wind up being transferred back to a US call center as the call is escalated or if you need to go to a different department.

You do not have to go what is called "full VOIP" to utilize these technologies. Many of the VOIP capable phone systems are what they call "converged" systems. They will allow you to use analog phone lines, a PRI circuit or SIP trunking. You can have digital telephones in the office and just use VOIP to connect phones outside the office or to transfer calls between offices. The telephone PBX manufacturers started coming out with converged systems about five years ago so that you could utilize your traditional telco technology and deploy VOIP as needed.

One thing that is worth mentioning too is that there is some IT work involved to deploy VOIP for your business. If you do not have an in-house IT department. You will need an IT consultant to configure your network. You need to make sure you have enough bandwidth and that the voice traffic is being handled properly over your network so that you get good call quality.

If you would like to discuss how to deploy VOIP for your business, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Adam Stern





410-239-2227 direct

www.absphones.com