What you need to know to choose a VoIP service in Auburn
VoIP services have been around for years but for most of that time, they were better suited to the consumer world than to the business one. Consumers could live with bouts of poor quality in exchange for massive cost savings. This was not necessarily possible for businesses. Now, however, VoIP has improved to the point where it is now not just a feasible option for businesses, but a desirable one. If you’re thinking of making the switch to VoIP, here is what you need to know to choose a VoIP service in Auburn.
Your call quality is (largely) down to you
When you use a regular phone network or a cellphone, your provider takes care of almost all the infrastructure. The most you have to do is buy your phone and in some cases, you don’t even need to do that (at least not as a separate purchase). With VoIP, the quality of your call depends mostly on the quality of your network, in other words, the available bandwidth. These days, especially in the business world, users are largely in control of this.
Although it’s reasonable to point out that internet outages do still happen occasionally, they are now very much the exception rather than the rule and it’s relatively easy to have a Plan B for those occasions. When the traditional phone network and/or the cellular networks have outages, which does happen albeit not very often, there’s usually nothing you can do other than to report it, sit tight and cross your fingers that your provider deals with it promptly.
Your security is also (largely) down to you
Neither the traditional phone network or the cellular network is immune to attacks from malicious actors. They are, however, very specialist networks, which means that they need special techniques to attack them. VoIP uses the public internet (and private networks), which leaves it vulnerable to the usual cyberthreats. That said, it also means that communications can be protected using the standard defenses, most notably encryption.
You will need to make upfront investments before you see a return
As an absolute minimum, you are going to need to shoulder the costs of planning and implementing the changeover from a traditional phone network to the VoIP system. This will probably involve upgrading your existing network infrastructure (especially if you want to use video-calling) and will certainly involve going through the vendor-selection process.
It’s advisable to pick your vendor first and your calling plan second
You only want to work with VoIP service vendors which have a solid track record on quality of service, including, and arguably especially security and compliance. This last is particularly important if you want to implement call-recording as you are likely to have to meet legal requirements concerning data privacy and even if you don’t now then there is a very good chance that you will soon.
Likewise, you want your vendor to have a good reputation for customer service and technical support because you’re probably going to need to call on both, especially in the early days. This doesn’t just mean answering the phone when you need them (although it definitely helps), it also means having an effective self-service process so you can access information you’re likely to need (such as usage statistics) quickly and easily whenever it suits you.
It’s often best to start from where you are and work your way forward
The golden rule of change management is to make one change at a time. Working on this principle, it’s generally best to start by using your new VoIP system as a straightforward, like-for-like replacement of your old telephone system. Give staff time to get used to it and really listen to feedback about what’s working for them and what’s not.
Allow yourself time and budget to make at least minor changes. For example, you may have loved the idea of softphones because they save so much space and your staff might have been totally on-board at the time. It may only be once they start using them in the real world that they bump up against the fact that softphones take up visual space on a monitor and that it might not be all that easy to toggle between windows, especially at speed. Your options would then be either to add monitors or to buy VoIP handsets and the latter are usually much more affordable.
Once you have achieved a baseline level of performance with which you are comfortable, you can then proceed to expand your VoIP horizons and start making use of more advanced functionality.
If you’d like to speak to a reputable and experienced VoIP service partner in Auburn, please click here now to contact Salient IT.
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