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Finding a cheap VoIP service vendor in Davis
VoIP offers SMBs the opportunity to implement what was once enterprise-grade functionality. For many companies, however, its core attraction is simply the ability to reduce the cost of making phone calls (and sending faxes). With this in mind, here is a quick guide to finding a cheap VoIP service vendor in Davis.
Define your minimum service standards
The idea behind VoIP is that you lower calling costs without sacrificing on quality. This means that you have to define a minimum service standard and commit to rejecting any VoIP service vendor who is unable to meet it, no matter how competitively-priced they are. It’s advisable to do this at the beginning to avoid the risk of being tempted into making excessive compromises further down the line.
Decide what services you actually need (or really want)
Implementing services through VoIP almost invariably costs less than implementing the equivalent service through the traditional telephone network. This is a large part of the attraction of VoIP. It is, however, also a source of potential temptation. Essentially, you may fall into the trap of implementing services just because they sound good and are affordable. It’s important to avoid this trap and think about what you actually need and what you really want.
Your baseline should generally be your existing telephone and fax service. Anything you can do now you should be able to do when you switch to VoIP. The only exception is if you decide you don’t need the service, in which case it makes more sense to get rid of it.
If you know you need to keep fax (or just aren’t comfortable getting rid of it) then you almost certainly want to switch to Fax over IP (efax). This is more secure, lowers calling costs, vastly reduces printing, and can free up a lot of space for other purposes.
For completeness, Fax over IP is, technically, different from VoIP. Most VoIP service vendors do, however, support it. This is probably because traditional faxes use the phone lines most companies want to remove when they implement VoIP. If you happen to want to use a VoIP service vendor who doesn’t support Fax over IP, then you could look for another vendor who specializes in Fax over IP.
The value-add services you might want to consider
In general, you probably want to be careful about implementing value-add services, at least in the early stages. This increases the scope and therefore the cost of the initial implementation. The best approach is usually to do the minimum to benefit from the lower calling (and faxing) costs, let this settle and then see what, if anything, you wish to do after that. There are, however, a few value-add services that might be worth considering at an early stage.
Conference-calling
Conference-calling is so obviously useful that really you should probably include it unless there is a very good reason not to do so.
Video-calling
Video-calling is easy enough to implement but it uses a lot of bandwidth. Even a basic webcam needs about three times as much bandwidth as an audio-only call and if you want full-HD video, then you’re looking at about twelve times as much. This means that if you want to implement video-calling you need to be prepared to add a lot of bandwidth (and deal with the associated costs) and/or be very careful about scheduling video-calls for when your network is likely to be quiet.
For completeness, you can, and usually should implement traffic prioritization to ensure that VoIP traffic is sent and received ahead of any other traffic. You do, however, have to be careful not to rely on this excessively. In other words, it’s fine to use it to smooth over short-term blockages, but you shouldn’t be using it to the point where other traffic continually grinds to a halt when someone makes a call or, at least, a video-call.
The reason why it may still be worth implementing video-calling, despite the costs and challenges (including additional security issues) is that video-calling can be an excellent replacement for business travel.
Call-recording
The issue with call recording is not technical, it’s legal. In addition to ensuring that you follow the correct formula for making a caller aware that they are being recorded, you also need to think about the legalities of storing the recordings. Most calls are going to include some personal data if only the names of the participants. This means they are likely to be covered by data-protection laws and regulations. You, therefore, need to make sure that you work with a VoIP service vendor who can comply with these.
If you’d like to speak to one of the best cheap VoIP service partners in Davis, please click here now to contact Salient IT.
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