VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol, is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or through any other Ethernet/IP network.  NextRing phone system dealers remove the mystery and concerns about VoIP and deploy this powerful technology to your benefit. There are many possible uses of VoIP including enhanced integration with existing software applications, remote teleworkers, etc.    Proper planning and deployment are critical to the success of a VoIP solution. Of course, your NextRing dealer will explain how this proven technology can be used to your competitive benefit.

There are many reasons to deploy VoIP for your business, including:

• Ease of Use - learn how to manage your phone system quickly and easily
• Better customer communication - easier for them to reach you
• Cost control
• Faster and safer deployment

It’s time to start thinking of your phone as so much more than a way to talk to people. It’s time to start thinking of your phone as a window into the world of information you want. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the way to merge your phone and your applications into a smoothly functioning unit.

Up until ten years ago most phones used technology based on POTS (Plain old telephone service), a term for the voice grade telephone service that has been the basic form of business and residential service. Phones were then connected to the PSTN (public switched telephone network) in most parts of the world.

POTS/PSTN manages calls by managing circuits, the line connections, to create a path for a call. A phone number is a hardwired identifier to a circuit and therefore a physical location. This process has remained largely unchanged since introduced in the late 1800’s

VoIP changes this process. VoIP manages calls by managing the content of the call and not the circuit. This is done by using a data network to transmit information and NIC (Network Interface Card) to identify the receiving device to that network. Every NIC contains a unique MAC (media access control) and Internet Protocol (IP) address. Each call is broken into packets with their IP address attached, sent over a network, and received by the remote device where the data packets are reconstructed into a coherent message.

Unlike the single path of the POTS/PSTN circuit, an Internet Protocol (IP) data network provides many paths to the receiving device and the receiving device can now be anywhere on the internal/corporate network or anywhere in the world-wide Internet. You can move your physical location without having to reprogram the network and with more advanced functionality, you can let the server know where you are and have all your calls redirected to your new location.

Best of all, VoIP uses industry standard protocols, such as those used on the world wide web.  Thus, telephone systems and applications can be easily implemented on network and computer technology that is widely available and low cost, such as data network switches and routers, Intel-based servers, and standard network interface cards.  This eliminates the significant cost of proprietary hardware that was used for traditional telephony platforms (e.g., PBX systems).

VoIP is the current and future direction in telecommunication, virtual and small business industries, but the conversion to VoIP requires planning. Here are a few of the basic questions.

Can VoIP replace existing telephone services and save money? Yes, all the existing features are available in a VoIP system, plus many new applications enabled by more flexible and lower cost technology. By combining voice and data, or converging networks on the same infrastructure the cost of the phone network is significantly reduced, or even eliminated when existing data facilities can be used. This simplifies system management, increases functionality, and significantly reduces costs by replacing proprietary PBX hardware and specially trained personal with industry standard hardware and your existing network management team.

Can VoIP also apply to PBX and an Ethernet/IP network? Yes. VOIP replaces traditional PBX phone systems and wiring by using VoIP over the internal LAN network. With VoIP switches (IP-PBX), you can connect all your phones over the Ethernet cables that are shared with data cables and run much of your phone technology on standard server platforms. This brings costs down dramatically.

VoIP technology provides phone freedom. IP-PBX benefits such as the ability for employees to log into their extension anywhere in the local or wide area network and forward calls to one or more extensions helps to increase efficiency. Adding and moving extensions, as well as linking remote offices into the main phone system, is easier and cheaper. Converged system functions allow the added convenience of displaying client name and file when they call and then to save customer information from each call in their records. Increased efficiency, happier clients, more referrals are all good reasons to upgrade to VOIP based phone systems. There has also been an explosion of new applications and features developed because VOIP platforms are closer to traditional computing platforms than a traditional PBX, so much can be done with software that runs on low cost industry standard servers.

Traditional PBX hardware investments can be protected by migrating to a VoIP/IP-PBX system. Some or all of your existing investment may be transportable and upgrades to existing PBX systems may allow them to interface with your current LAN.

Some other benefits of an IP-PBX system are:

• Better customer communication - Quicker connection time raises productivity.
• Faster and safer deployment – Easy addition of groups and departments
• Lower cost
• Data collaboration
• Ease of Use - learn how to manage your phone system quickly and easily
• Improve operations by unifying management of voice, data, and functionality
• Versatile and rapidly adaptable functionality. IP-PBX systems are highly programmable and can perform functions such as:
  • Automatic call conferencing
  • Immediate voice and video conferencing
  • Click to call
  • Click logging and tracking
  • Voice menu systems
  • Unified communication, for example, a unified company wide clock
  • Automatic recording
  • Intercom system

The potential of what VoIP and IP-PBX can do for your company is as unique as your company.

NextRing phone system dealers remove the mystery and concerns about VoIP and deploy this powerful technology to your benefit. Proper planning and deployment are critical to the success of a VoIP solution.  Contact NextRing today for a free phone system assessment.

NextRing dealers help you do more with less.