subject: Lowering Your Total Cost Of Ownership With Remote Solutions From Business Voip [print this page] As businesses move beyond the boundaries of brick and mortar establishments, many have started to embrace the concepts of virtual alternatives and remote branch locations - establishing their presence on a national or even international scale. It is rather common for expanding businesses to set up branch offices to accommodate increases in manpower or to build new offices and staff to establish their presence in a new location.
The need for inter-office communications remains a basic requirement in these businesses. The more branches being set-up, the more work is required from their branch-office communication facilities, all of which can be translated into additional cost.
Using traditional communication systems would be extremely expensive. This is where hosted business VoIP would come in. Hosted business phone services offer remote-office VoIP solutions that provide viable lower-cost alternatives for small and medium-sized businesses venturing into expanding their market presence. Such solutions can increase their productivity and significantly lower their overall operational costs.
Cost Issues with Standard Systems
Standard telecommunication systems used in traditional brick and mortar establishments have increased overhead costs due to the premium payments required by local and long distance communications between branches and remote locations. Businesses may even limit communication frequency thereby affecting the quality of information sent to and from inter-office locations. This reduced quality and efficiency can affect the overall performance of the business, resulting to fewer profits that can affect the bottom line.
How Can Remote-Office VoIP Solutions Lower Total Cost of Ownership?
Remote-office VoIP solutions used as an alternative to traditional telecommunication system can offer lower total cost of ownership while maintaining the same features that typical phone services and PBX systems provide. Depending on what type of VoIP service plans a business would adapt, such systems can offer unlimited extension numbers in any location nationwide or around the world.
Setting up a remote office with hosted VoIP is absolutely free. All you need is your IP phone and an Internet connection. You can plug in from anywhere and access your company wide telephony system quickly and easily by setting everything up yourself through a user-friendly web interface. If your hosted VoIP provider is SIP based (and chances are that they are), then SIP-to-SIP calls are entirely free. That means you can call anyone within your network no cost at all. You can even dial other SIP phones located elsewhere on the Internet for free.
Features of Remote-Office VoIP Solutions
Aside from the cost-effective communication packages that remote-office VoIP services can provide, there are several other features and capabilities these systems can offer businesses, some of which outdated on premise PBX telephony systems do not offer. These include but are not limited to:
* Unlimited calling depending on the service plans from hosted VoIP providers
* A web portal where administrative controls for the remote-office VoIP network can be managed and controlled
* Settings for each extension can be accessed and controlled through an Extension Manager. These settings include ring-no-answer, ring duration, forwarding destinations, one number access, caller ID blocking, call waiting and other features
* Virtual remote-office VoIP networks can make use of personal computers and a special software application that can function as switchboard for operators or PBX assistants.
* Some services offer Virtual Attendant features, offering call routing solutions and answering services regardless of your location.
