VoIP hype

Millions of consumers world wide have taken note, and are using their broadband connections to make long distance calls. Businesses whose long distance bills form a large portion of their monthly costs, are also particularly interested in cashing in on the VoIP revolution. Despite all this interest & activity around VoIP, the reality is that audio quality and reliability are not yet up to traditional land-line telephony standards. Without doing their homework, businesses that rely heavily on telephone communications run the risk of undermining productivity, lowering customer satisfaction and losing sales.

Hence it is key to approach VoIP objectively – to understand the technology involved, the investment required, and to plot an affordable migration path to VoIP that will deliver value to your business, both short- and long-term, without compromising the quality of your communications.

The First Step to VoIP for businesses : Hybrid IP-PBX

If you are considering to migrate to VoIP, we recommend a Hybrid IP-PBX as the first step. Hybrids operate in three modes – PSTN, VoIP, and what’s called PSTN-fallback – a mode which ensures that you’ll always have phone service, even during Internet outages.  With a Hybrid IP-PBX, you can also connect and use analogue phones (including cordless sets), IP phones, or a combination. So you can convert select employees to IP telephony according to their needs and the capacity of your Internet connections. A Hybrid IP-PBX enables you to start saving money right away, even if you choose to use the PSTN connections to the outside world.  With a Hybrid IP-PBX at your business, you get free VoIP calls between offices and with all your remote employees, but you can selectively choose to pay more for calls across the PSTN where the quality matters most.  You get the best of both worlds, your employees get free VoIP calling between themselves, but your customers are guaranteed perfect PSTN (traditional phone line) quality when they call you, or you call them.

Hybrid IP-PBX systems aren’t just about VoIP and cheap calls, they also enable SMEs to improve their communications capabilities – presenting callers with a professional (and time-saving) auto-attendant, allowing employees to work from home or the road, 4-digit dialing from anywhere in the world, blending Outlook into your phone system and much more.

With the advanced functions and features offered by a Hybrid IP-PBX system, your SME can gain the efficiencies of IP telephony and cost savings of VoIP today without having to  sacrifice the quality we have all come to expect from the PSTN!