Businesses of all sizes understand that a significant portion of the budget must go toward telecommunications. How much depends on the business of course, but the cost ramps up dramatically with size. Trying to control or reduce these costs while working with traditional telephone service providers is frustratingly difficult, if it is possible at all.

Over the past few years, Chicago businesses have been migrating away from the old public switched telephone network by upgrading to Hosted Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions. VoIP allows business to drop their traditional service provider and move all their voice communications onto their existing high-speed Internet connection.

Hosted VoIP solutions have been getting a lot of attention lately. Here are a few reasons why:

• Cost: VoIP costs less, this is a fact, and the costs are straightforward and predictable. Traditional phone companies have cornered businesses into long-term contracts that are only flexible on their end. They charge for each feature in such a way as to hide the actual cost, and in some cases, they still charge for long distance. With a Hosted VoIP solution, all the features you could imagine are part of the managed service that also handles all the software, upgrades, and hardware maintenance.
• Unified Communications: By definition, VoIP implementation converts all voice traffic into IP data. This data can then be shared across your network to email systems, messenger clients, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. For example, when a call comes in it triggers your CRM software to bring up customer history on your screen. This saves valuable time but also impresses your customer. If a voice mail message is left, the system translates it into text and emails or messages the right person, plus every message is cataloged for easy reference at a later date.
• New Technology: There were some hiccups in the early days of VoIP and this prevented some businesses from adopting this technology—times have changed. Broadband connections are far faster and more reliable than just a few years ago, and network hardware manufacturers have widely implemented “Quality of Service” (QoS) technology. Now things like voice communications and streaming video can easily operate without interruption.
• Easy Upgrade: All that is needed now is the right phones—that is it. The Hosted VoIP service provider does all the rest. All you have to do is say goodbye to your old phone company. You probably won’t miss the huge cost of a PBX system, the strange extras that appear on the bill, or even the legendary customer service.

Everything we do is being done over the Internet, and much of it is moving into the cloud, but traditional telephone systems have been hanging on for dear life. Time is up, contact 101 Digital, and ask about Hosted VoIP solutions and other managed services that can save you money, and bring you peace of mind. Follow us @bccarthur for breaking news and updates, and come join us on Facebook. We look forward to hearing from you!