Business VoIP

Businesses are increasingly adopting VoIP ­and other IP-based communications technologies — market data bears that out regularly. Since its earliest days, the most commonly uttered benefit of VoIP has been its direct benefit on the bottom line — it saves money by directly impacting telephony expenses.

 

However, as service providers and equipment vendors continue to enhance their products and services, introducing new and exciting opportunities for enhancing business communications through collaboration, mobility, and the vast features available with IP systems, the business process enhancements they engender are starting to outweigh to direct cost benefits.

 

That’s not to say lower cost isn’t a driver — it always is — but the potential gains from business process enhancements ultimately can drive even greater financial impact, through better time management capabilities, reductions in travel costs, simplified network management, and a generally more efficient communications process.

 

Again, none of this is new.

 

Still, even with the widespread recognition of these benefits, and as the adoption rate continues to climb, there are still so many businesses that are still using legacy telephony platforms — though many of them have legitimate reasons for doing so.

 

For instance, they may have only recently invested in a new TDM system and are reluctant to give that up yet. Or, they may not rely as heavily on telephony as most businesses. Or, they simply have not yet seen the need to invest in VoIP technology.

 

Whatever the reason, one thing is certain: As each week passes, more and more businesses will begin considering moving from their legacy systems to a modern VoIP platform. For them, the question becomes, “How can I tell if my business is ready to move to VoIP?

 

To help answer that question, as well as to understand the many benefits of VoIP and common hurdles to overcome during migration, TMCnet readers spent more than an hour with Interactive Intelligence’s Senior Manager, Solutions Marketing Brad Herrington (News - Alert) during a live Webinar, “The Transition to VoIP: Five Business Signs that Indicate it’s Time.”

 

If you were unable to join Brad for the live event, the Webinar archive is available so that you, too, can recognize that the time for VoIP is, indeed, now.

 

During the session, Brad discusses five key questions you can ask to decide if your business is ready for the migration to VoIP, including:

 

If they are not, you should certainly consider an alternative, as system support is a must, even with the simplest of platforms in the smallest of companies.

 

Have you recently expanded, or are you anticipating growth? 

Among the many benefits of VoIP solutions is the ability to easily add new locations and employees to the system, including the integration of various platforms and endpoints in different locations.

 

Do you have mobile or remote workers? 

Remote offices and individual users can easily be added to VoIP deployments, and the variety of mobile capabilities, including softphones and wireless integration, available today allow mobile users and remote workers to remain in contact at all times. This is equally important in the call center space, given the prevalence of work-at-home agents.

 

Are you looking for ways to enhance your communications capabilities in order to facilitate greater efficiencies in order to compete more effectively? 

The countless features available with VoIP systems are designed to create a user-friendly and increasingly productive communications environment, which allow your staff to focus on your business, and not on the communications process.

 

Are you looking to drive increased customer satisfaction? 

Process improvements, including effective call routing and significant enhancements to customer service reps’ ability to appropriately communicate with customers — including driving first-call resolution — can substantially increase customer satisfaction. And customer satisfaction drives business success.

 

Finally, a conversation about VoIP wouldn’t be complete without mention of Unified Communications (News - Alert), which combines all of the various IP Communications services onto a single platform, creating a communications infrastructure that is independent of time, location, and device.

 

These are just some of the many considerations addressed by Brad, including a host of audience questions that will help you understand not only the benefits of migrating to VoIP, but also some of the trends and common obstacles when considering transitioning to a next-generation communications platform, as well as what you can expect during the migration process and how you can get the most out of VoIP.

 

To listen to the Webinar archive, click here.