VOIP

4 Concerns about Hosted VoIP Solutions

Cloud technology is booming, and for all the right reasons. This technology is efficient, scalable, and provides cost-effective storage and communication solutions to businesses. Despite more and more small businesses jumping the gun to adopt VoIP, some business owners just refuse to see its advantages.Their reluctance usually stems from a lack of awareness, coupled with misinformation that they may have gathered from various sources. In this guide, we are going to make an effort to demystify VoIP and present a clear picture of how hosted VoIP solutions can mean profits for the business.

Here are answers to some of the popular questions that small business owners ask about hosted VoIP:
Concerns About Hosted VoIP Solutions
Q. Is cloud communication completely secure?
 

A. When executives think about switching to a cloud-based communication platform, the first thing that comes to their mind is the possibility of things going wrong. Whether it is outsiders stealing a phone and hacking into their network or eavesdropping and unauthorized international calls, these are some of the risks that can cost a business dearly.

The good news is that sophisticated VoIP phones consist of unique digital signatures built into their firmware. The signatures are restricted and cannot be rewritten, which puts a limit on the capacity of someone hacking the system to eavesdrop or disrupt calls. Moreover, these systems encrypt signaling information that prevents hackers from getting vital details.
Q. Do I have full control over my phone systems?
A. Yes, just because you are opting for hosted …

Why VoIP and Credit Unions Work So Well Together

The credit union industry is rapidly expanding, which brings them to the need of being increasingly dependent on technology. VoIP can now offer remarkable features, and thus credit unions and the financial industry are starting to see how they stand to benefit by its utility.

No, it’s not just about better prices, scalability, and improved resiliency; it’s about many other features that VoIP brings to the plate that can truly make a business take off. So, what are the benefits of introducing a VoIP solution to credit unions?

Why VoIP solutions and credit unions work so well together

VoIP is maturing, and most of its initial problems have been rectified, making this technology ideal to implement for various industries. Businesses, like credit unions, require a high level of security and additional features apart from just regular phone calls at cheap rates.

Here are some of the excellent features that VoIP telephony offers

1. Voice to text: There can literally be dozens of instances where you may benefit from transcribing voicemails into text. Just think about it; a loud office environment, lack of time, and need for greater efficiency can all be reasons why one should prefer voice to text service. Luckily with VoIP solution, Voice to Text comes as a built-in feature.

Thanks to this technology, all your voicemails can be transcribed into text automatically and sent directly to your mail inbox. It can even help you save time by reading you the voicemails left on …

DOES YOUR PHONE WORK WITH YOUR CRM?

As mobile technology increasingly blurs the traditional lines between personal computing and telecommunication, businesses are reaping the benefits of a cloud-based VoIP technological revolution to become more self-sustained and customer oriented. If you’re a business owner, CRM and phone integration can give your enterprise multiple advantages over using separate platforms.

No, this isn’t just about saving money; when VoIP telephone services work with CRM, your business stands a chance to take advantage of advanced CRM applications that provide all-around better customer service and also help in administration, decision-making, and raising greater revenue.
Why it’s necessary for phone and CRM to work together?
1. Automated tracking: When it comes to CRM, effectively recording information plays a key role for reference purposes. By knowing the customers, you have the ability to cater to their needs and requirements accurately. VoIP & CRM integration can automatically track data such as date and time of the call, the information of the person who called, and its purpose.

This benefit not only reduces the chance of losing data that often happens in manual data entry but also saves you a lot of labor cost.

2. Better all-around management: From tracking calls to pop-up notepads, cloud-based VoIP phone integration manages your employee interaction with customers and sales in the easiest way possible. There is no need to collect handwritten notes or open the CRM system during every phone call.  This is because the integrated system knows when to open notepad for your employees …

How VoIP Helps Keep Patient Appointments

Missed appointments are one of the principal causes of lost revenue for many healthcare clinics and are sometimes also problematic for the patients. As the healthcare industry is rapidly evolving with new technological advances, not being able to keep up with the changing trends can put you in the back seat. When it comes to healthcare innovations, not many technologies are as useful as VoIP-based phone systems.

This technology helps you to do more than just answer calls. Within minutes, you can connect with staff and the patients, respond faster to requests, and make use of patient data at your fingertips without budging from the office chair.

How can healthcare VoIP keep patient appointments?

VoIP technology is not only cost efficient but also improves the quality and convenience of communication drastically. It comes with business critical features that can be used day-to-day to accomplish the following tasks effortlessly:

1. Use automatic reminders: VoIP systems give you the flexibility needed for their seamless third-party integration solutions that facilitate automatic reminders. With the automated telephonic system, you can process appointment reminders at a frequency that can save both your time and the patients.

2. SMS reminders: In the modern world where every organization is fighting to gain the attention of their prospective clients, SMS reminders have now become more of a necessity than a luxury. Using SMS Reminders For Healthcare, you can ensure that your patients do not miss an appointment date ever again.

3. Call recording: The benefits of recording calls in improving customer care …

The Benefits of Healthcare Communication Enabled By VoIP

Communication is important in every business scenario, but especially in the business of healthcare. When a patient’s health is at risk, all medical professionals should be able to communicate without any interruptions. VoIP solutions in healthcare are vital for internal and external communication. It has the potential to save lives with advanced telecommunication services. Learn more about VoIP and its protocols.  

Cost is always one of the considerations when discussing healthcare VoIP.  And this technology is also incredibly cost-effective, and better than traditional communication methods.
The Benefits of Healthcare Communication Enabled By VoIP
Cost-effectiveness of healthcare VoIP is only the start of the list of advantages. Consider these additional benefits:

Well-managed conferences. VoIP services allow you to call anyone with a phone regardless of their device or the residing country. This simplifies the process of holding a video or audio-only conference.  So, when an immediate surgery or complicated procedure is needed, a discussion between skilled doctors can be the difference between life and death. Physicians thousands miles away from each other can discuss invaluable procedural expertise and arrive at a decision that’s best for the patient’s safety.  Utilizing this technology improves healthcare operations and will be done at a fraction of the cost of any other method.

Auto attendant.  Each staff member in a hospital must exceed in their role. And the customer care department is overwhelmed with responsibilities while they receive hundreds of calls each day. Utilizing healthcare VoIP makes lives easier with an auto …

Business VoIP Solutions: How Does VoIP Work Internationally?

VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) can be particularly useful for making international calls because this technology utilizes the Internet instead of the regular Public Switched Telephone Network. The mechanism behind an international VoIP line requires the same dialing format as you’d find on a landline phone. You’ll need the international dialing prefix, country code, area code, and the local number.
What’s the use of Switching to VoIP Calling Services?
As far as making international calls are concerned, the biggest benefit an individual or an enterprise may get is cost savings. While many factors contribute to cheaper pricing, VoIP is cheaper most commonly due to the technology itself or the increasingly competitive nature of the market.

International calls made using this technology can go as cheap as two cents per minute in particular countries. But, another great benefit of VoIP is the fact that an individual or an organization can choose to purchase a phone number in a country different than their origin.

The calling plans are either pay-as-you-go or subscription-based with attractive rates according to countries. You should choose the plan that would best fit your organization depending on the estimated frequency rate of the calls and a plan that would give you the best value for your money.
Why Should Businesses Adopt VoIP for International Calls?
Consumer VoIP is meant for the masses and often comes with limited features that are just not enough for a full-fledged company. By going for hosted VoIP, an organization can …

VoIP Solutions for Small Business: The Hybrid Cloud

Driving innovation with greater control and security, the hybrid cloud is slowly changing the face of VoIP solutions for small businesses. A small business today can reap immense benefits with this more robust communication solution that not only gives you the scalability and speed of public cloud, but also arms you with the ultrafast performance of dedicated servers.
What is the Hybrid Cloud?
A hybrid cloud is not a place, but a model that prioritizes speed and efficiency across the public, private, and dedicated cloud environments, offering the greatest flexibility possible. While the on premises and cloud-based deployments are the standard stand-alone options, hybrid deployments are meant for businesses of all sizes as it combines best of both worlds to suit a growing organization.

Simply put, the hybrid cloud offers the perfect solution for every problem without the user having to abandon the established organization systems.
What are the Benefits of Hybrid Cloud?

Your company can experience cost-savings because the system is a more affordable alternative.
Better service, even if you have a large-scale centralized corporate office in multiple, geographically dispersed locations.
Make the best use of cell phone redirecting, digital call forwarding, extension monitoring, intercom service, and call recording.
Better manage and secure data applications regardless of their platform and cloud location.
Get continuous availability, infinite capacity, and have lower expenditure on storage without needing to buy more infrastructure.

Additional Benefits
The in-house component of the hybrid cloud also has the advantage of being under your IT …

How VoIP is Bringing Faxing Back

Most of us can know that annoying and loud sound a fax machine makes to send an important document to another client or business. However, it’s a sound that has diminished significantly from our office environments over the last ten years due to its inconvenience, communication errors, and of course, all the waiting for something to send out.

However, things are now shifting to a new and improved faxing process, all thanks to VoIP technology.

How VoIP is Changing the Game

Even with technological advancements, many businesses find that they still need faxing to send certain types of information, thus making it an unpopular, but necessary item. However, improved technologies have paved the path for a more convenient alternative that works as a fax, but without the bulky equipment, noise, and waiting times.

VoIP technologies partnered with a phone system allows businesses to use fax technology over the Internet. A VoIP solution provides a variety of ways you can send and receive faxes through your phone, tablet, computer, or email. This new functionality means you don’t have to be tied to a physical location where the fax machine sits, which fosters a more productive workforce.

How Does it Work?

With VoIP faxing you still have a fax number and a phone line, but the data is transferred digitally over the Internet. A traditional phone line works using an analog system and tiny electric pulses. A digital fax works by moving the data to a binary format which controls …

A New VoIP System May Cause a Shift From CAPEX to OPEX

Finding ways to produce savings for a company heavily reliant on communication systems and networking can often seem challenging. However, the ability to run a phone system over the Internet, or Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), clearly shows how traditional systems fare in comparison to the efficiency and savings of better tools. However, what also occurs when one introduces new technology platforms often includes ripple effects, and that’s where we get into the discussion about how to define the financials of an internet-based communication system.

Understanding CAPEX, OPEX, and VoIP

Historically, significant network changes and communications systems fell into the same bucket as infrastructure, which made them capital expenditures, or “CAPEX” for short. These costs frequently gained support through long-term financing, bond financing, or investment. They were rarely classified as operational expenses, or “OPEX” for short. Part of the reason tended to be due to accounting needs. Spreading the cost of an entire VoIP system change as a direct cost per unit produced or service provided was extremely hard, if not impossible mathematically, and then one had to explain that inflation to a client in pricing. Instead, most companies treated a VoIP charge as an overhead cost and built in the expense with an indirect rate added to a unit produced price via markup.

Why the Change?

With newer VoIP, you take away the old PBX hardware, then things become quite scalable financially. Because the service comes from a service provider, and the actual …

Answering Your Questions About Small Business VoIP Solutions

Gone are the days when small businesses had no choice but to be tethered to the apron strings of the phone company. Today’s proliferation of small business VoIP solutions providers means owners like you have several options.

VoIP. What’s in it for you?

Understanding VoIP means digesting a few basics, starting with the term VoIP. The Vo stands for voice and the IP for internet protocol. This acronym often translates to saving money since you’ll be using the same broadband internet connection you already have in place so that you won’t be using the phone company’s lines, nor their phones. Not only will you save money on installation costs and hardware, but you’ll also be billed only for services you use. Depending on the provider you choose you’ll have access to telephony services previously affordable only by large corporations, including video conferencing, call forwarding, find me follow me, and voicemail transcription to email.

What will I pay upfront?

You may be attracted initially by the cost featured on a VoIP provider’s web page, but be sure to inquire about additional costs such as equipment or setup fees. Get the specifics regarding the length of contract and cancellation fees. Find out if the system is scalable so you can add phones as your business grows, and also if you change your plan, will you have to start your contract period all over again? Be aware that many VoIP providers tie their low startup price …