If you’re a senior employee in your company’s structure, it’s pretty much a given that you want your business to function as smoothly as possible, right?
And if you’ve got your eye on any of your competitors, it’s probably likely that you’ve seen them switch over to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications, right?
You’ve seen them gain an advantage over your organization in the area of communications, which is something that is awfully hard to make up with regular copper-wire phones and a plain old PBX system, even if it’s in the cloud. And if your PBX is still on-premises, then it’s time to catch up with the current generation of technology, even if that PBX is still managing to creak along somehow.
So you see your boss still neck-deep in the technology of the last century, and what’s your instinct? Of course, you want to help. What you really want to do is get your boss to update your phone system, isn’t it?
How do you do it, though? What’s your pitch? What are the talking points you’re going to use to sell VoIP to your boss? In other words, what does your boss need to know about VoIP?
Here we go:
Cost Savings
One of the most attractive features of VoIP is its potential to save you money. As you shift away from PSTN networks and transport calls over the Internet — because that’s essentially what VoIP does — the cost of long-distance calls becomes moot.
You will no longer need to operate, maintain or pay for any separate PBX equipment or lines. All you will have to use are IP-enabled phones and your Internet connection, which should include a high-bandwidth router.
Portability of Phones
With PSTN phone systems, one phone number is permanently wired to one physical phone. If you want to use the same number somewhere else, then some physical rewiring has to take place at the phone company’s office, generally, at some point in the future, that’s rather inconvenient for you.
On the other hand, VoIP offers phone mobility, which means that any device can use any number anywhere, so long as it has a connection to the Internet. Lots of people today bring their phones with them while traveling. They’ve punched a few buttons on their desk phones to forward their calls beforehand, thus letting a caller reach them using the same number they always would.
Much More is Possible
When using a PSTN phone system, you can push voice service through it, fax service, and perhaps some limited data and video as well. Today’s users, though, demand more. Today’s users are used to the type of rich communications that are possible when using the Internet. They want to be able to see presence information about their colleagues (whether they are online, offline, or in a busy/do not disturb state), transfer images, make video or voice calls, send instant messages, etc.
Voicemail Transcription
This one is one of my favorites, and certainly not possible with a PSTN system. With this feature enabled, advanced voice recognition technology will transcribe your voicemail messages and send them to your preferred email address so that you don’t have to worry about hurriedly scribbling things down before the message ends, or repeating things over and over. If something doesn’t seem right, you can listen to the voicemail directly to check for any transcription errors.
Automatic Attendant
This is almost like getting a free receptionist with your chosen VoIP system. The feature enables a caller to dial a certain number in order to choose a particular department or extension in your company, making your business immediately seem more impressive.
Author Bio – Michelle Patterson has been working with telecom companies for over 15 years, and is excited with the new IP/VoIP/Cloud Telephony and other systems flooding the market. She is learning as much as she can about IP Telephony, Cloud Telephony, VoIP, Unified Communications, etc.
