subject: Can Hosted Voip Save My Business Money? [print this page] In these testing economic times, every business needs to tighten their belts and ensure they make sensible financial decisions. Many businesses have failed in the wake of the global recession and even more are struggling to stay afloat. Those that remain need to ensure that they maintain steady cash-flows and cut costly outgoings and overheads where they can. This includes expensive telephone bills. Many companies, all around the world are making the switch to hosted VOIP systems as a way of cutting call costs.
The Importance of Telephone Communication for Businesses
There's no getting away from it, most businesses would collapse without a reliable phone line. It is the path to communicating with colleagues, schmoozing clients and even drumming up new business. Email is all well and good, but voice communication creates a personal touch and is able to quickly and accurately define the specifics of a conversation. The importance of a voice communication device in an office environment is unavoidable and it is certainly worth considering hosted VOIP as your chosen office phone system.
What is Hosted VOIP?
VOIP refers to Voice over Internet Protocol and put simply, hosted VOIP is a system whereby users can transmit voice and carry out telephone conversations over the space of the Internet. Hosted VOIP has created a real buzz and excitement in the industry and also with consumers, and this is for one main reason. This is that it allows users to make calls at just a fraction of the cost of a traditional landline or mobile. This is because the calls made from a hosted VOIP system bypass the public switched telephone network (PSTN) which handles calls from traditional landlines and mobile phones. VOIP providers will simply charge users a once-monthly fee, regardless of whether International or local calls have been made, and for how long. Those users that make long distance, International calls on a regular basis will see the biggest difference in money saved from VOIP, as International calls made using a traditional, copper-wire landline can be incredibly expensive. Sometimes for businesses, International calls cannot be avoided, despite their ability to rack up the cost of phone bills. You may need to converse with colleagues or clients abroad and voice communication is the most efficient way of doing this.
Which Hosted VOIP Provider?
The hosted VOIP provider that you choose will depend mainly on which features you want from your new system. Generally speaking, the more features a system has, the more pricey it will be, so it is wise to be sure that you are actually going to make use of those features - otherwise you could end up wasting a lot of money. Features include telemarketer call barring, unknown call barring, three way calling, voicemail, caller ID and many systems even allow you to keep your original number. This is important for already established businesses that need to keep their contact in order to converse with clients and customers. The key is in deciding which features are vital and which you can do without.
