subject: Five Lesser Known Advantages Of Voip [print this page] Let's say that after much deliberation, your company has finally decided to migrate to VoIP and make use of the new technology to save money on call and maintenance costs. This sensible decision will undoubtedly give the company leverage to keep up with changing business environments and roll with the punches, so to speak.
But did you know that there are some other advantages in VoIP that are less known to many users? The following are five advantages that make it more worthwhile having VoIP around:
Recording phone calls
In some instances, it may be necessary to record conversations over the phone - perhaps to monitor employees' compliance with rules or to ensure a discussion with a really problematic customer is properly documented. Simply pressing the record button during a call on some VoIP phones saves the conversation into a digital file. Note, however, that a message may automatically play on the other end when the record button is pressed informing the other party that the call is being recorded - a built-in safety feature to ensure privacy.
Portability
Once an employee is assigned a number or extension, he can literally take that number with him anywhere. He only needs to plug it in his desk phone to the nearest Internet jack and he can be reached at his work number. This is especially useful when employees are frequently out of their desks or if they are being transferred to a new office or location.
Find-me-follow-me VoIP service
The SIP signalling protocol in VoIP allows calls to be routed to different end-points which may be configured to ring simultaneously or in sequence. This is also a handy feature for those who are frequently out of the office: VoIP can be set to ring the local extension, cellphone, home phone all at once or one after the other, with the first device answered getting the connection.
Teleconferencing/video calling
This one may be familiar to some as video calling is slowly becoming widespread. In business environments, however, only a handful of tech-savvy companies regularly use video telecommunications. But with the enormous amount of cash and time savings one can generate with the avoidance of frequent travelling, it may be just a few years before we see more companies adopting video as a permanent option for meetings off-site personnel.
Call detail records
For budget conscious companies, having a way to verify calls and the amount of usage per month would certainly help in keeping costs down. The ability of VoIP systems to generate detailed call records independent from the monthly bill given by the service provider makes it possible to verify actual calls made, how long each call took, what times the phones are used the most and the least, and other metrics that can be used by the company to increase productivity and cut costs.
VoIP is truly heaven-sent for companies that need innovative telecommunications.
