Salient IT Services › Cheap VoIP Service West Sacramento
Choosing the right cheap VoIP service in West Sacramento
Moving to VoIP carries an upfront cost, but that cost can often quickly be recouped through lower outgoings. After that, you can make the most of your savings. This theory will, however, only work in practice if you choose the right VoIP service. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to choosing the right cheap VoIP service in West Sacramento.
Decide what functionality you really need right now
The switch to VoIP should not deprive your staff of any functionality they need. This means that your baseline for a VoIP implementation is to copy what you already have. The one exception is that you may find you are paying for functionality you hardly, if ever, use. If so, then you may be fine to look at alternatives or just get rid of it completely.
In addition to basic voice calling and call-management functions (such as call-logging), there are a few mainstream functions that companies might benefit from implementing. These are conference-calling, video-calling, and call-recording. All of these functions are fairly easy to implement from a technical perspective and call-recording is so straightforward and so useful that it hardly needs any justification.
Video-calling, however, may require a bit more consideration. The key point to remember is that it requires massive amounts of bandwidth. As a minimum, it needs about three times the bandwidth of audio-only calling. This can go right up to twelve times if you want HD-video. You, therefore, need to think carefully about whether or not this can be justified.
As a rule of thumb, if video-calling can reduce the need for business travel, then it is often worth the investment. For the most part, however, you will want to limit its use and try to keep video calls for when your network is at its quietest.
From a technical perspective, call-recording through a VoIP system is much more straightforward than call-recording through the traditional telephone system. There are, however, numerous legal issues that need to be addressed. It is therefore vital to work with a VoIP service vendor who understands the law and follows it. This is a strong argument in favor of sticking with local vendors who follow the same legal system as you.
Decide if you need to implement Fax over IP
The real question here is whether or not you still need to be able to send and receive faxes. If the answer is no, then it makes sense just to ditch the service. If the answer is yes, or even maybe (or you’re not willing to give up the option “just in case”), then you almost certainly want to implement Fax over IP (efax). This is more secure, saves on both calling costs and printing costs, and allows you to make use of the space currently taken up by fax machines.
Technically, Fax over IP is not a VoIP service, but it uses the telephone lines you presumably want to eliminate and is therefore often treated as a “twin” service. In other words, most VoIP service vendors will also support Fax over IP, and in the unlikely event that you want to work with one who doesn’t, some vendors specialize in Fax over IP.
Decide what equipment you need and how you want to pay for it
From an end-user perspective, you will need either softphones or VoIP handsets, possibly headsets, and whatever other equipment you need for any enhanced services you are using, e.g. webcams. Softphones are provided by VoIP service vendors, usually for free (or very low cost). VoIP handsets can be purchased independently or bundled with your VoIP service contract. The former may get you the better deal but the latter allows you to spread the cost.
Softphones are generally the most affordable option (even allowing for the purchase of a headset). They also save on desk space, but they take up screen space. In other words, you need to be able to see the softphone alongside whatever other apps you may need to use. If you have smaller screens, then just buying VoIP handsets is likely to work out more affordable than upgrading monitors (or mobile devices).
Decide how you will manage your bandwidth
If you are running your own data center, then you have the option to upgrade your own infrastructure to cope with the extra traffic. Alternatively, and for everyone else, you can use managed hosting plus a separate VoIP service contract or look for a VoIP service vendor who can also manage the hosting for you.
If you’d like to speak to one of the best cheap VoIP service partners in West Sacramento, please click here now to contact Salient IT.
Loading...
