Voice over IP (VoIP) technology epitomizes every small-business owner’s IT goals. It’s affordable, flexible, and full of features that make it a valuable long-term investment. There are countless worthwhile VoIP options. You just need to know your priorities and what to look for.

Total cost of ownership

The most pressing concern when adopting new technology is the price tag, but calculating the total cost of ownership for a VoIP solution involves a number of variables that will change from year to year. Before signing on the dotted line, ask for an estimate of each cost over a three-to-five-year period based on your growth plan. Important items include:

• Basic subscription costs (How many numbers will you need in year one vs. year three?)
• Feature upgrades (Do you plan to add new components as you expand?)
• Office moves (How much will a VoIP relocation cost? Will there be significant downtime?)
• Hardware costs (Will you need to purchase new handsets?)

By partnering with a managed IT services provider (MSP) like us, you can drastically reduce routine VoIP security and maintenance costs by rolling them into your monthly service plan.

Customer service

Another reason to sign up for an internet-based telecom through an MSP is personalization, which is especially important for a solution that is often used outside the office. IT providers guarantee their availability and response times with service level agreements so you know exactly what kind of support you’ll receive every time you make a request.

Imagine the difference in service between a VoIP vendor and your local MSP if a remote employee were struggling to connect to a sales call. One is going to connect you to a call center hundreds of miles away for help, while the other already knows your business before picking up -- which provider do you think is going to offer better long-term support?

Features

Aside from the cost savings, advanced call features are the leading advantage of VoIP over traditional landlines. Most providers offer similar features, but there may be small differences. Take a look at all the options and rank them by priority before choosing a provider. Consider things like:

• Call recording
• Voicemail transcription
• Text messaging
• Video conferencing

Phone numbers that can be used on multiple devices is foundational to internet-based phones, and although nine out of ten vendors will hit all the mobility benchmarks, make sure to double-check you won’t be missing out on any basic features.

Our team has partnered with the best VoIP providers in the industry to produce a hassle-free solution for small businesses. To learn about the customer service, costs, and features included in our VoIP solutions, give us a call today.

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Transmitting voice conversations over an internet connection can be risky, with no way of knowing whether or not anyone is tapping your calls. In response to this concern, Skype has just released a new feature that can encrypt all conversations, ensuring more privacy when calling or texting.

Benefits of using Private Conversations

Named ‘Private Conversations’ by Microsoft, this new feature allows all audio calls, text messages, and multimedia messages to be encrypted. This means that when the feature is enabled, only the sender and receiver will be able to view or hear the transmissions. Even if they were to be intercepted, their contents would be totally garbled.

Although Skype has already been providing basic encryption to its service, elevating this feature to something called "end-to-end encryption" prevents unintended parties -- such as cybercriminals or even the government -- from tapping into private conversations, ensuring peace of mind to more than 300 million users.

Beta stage of testing

Currently still in its testing stage, end-to-end encryption is available only in the beta version of Skype Insider. To activate it, select “new private conversation” from another user’s profile or Skype’s “compose” menu.

Currently, Private Conversations do not support video chat. And although conversation contents are encrypted, conversation details -- such as the call duration and when it occurred -- can still be accessed by Skype.

Other end-to-end encrypted VoIP services

From free consumer communication apps like WhatsApp to business solutions like RingCentral, and many other VoIP services, end-to-end encryption is becoming more prevalent every day.

Skype for Business sells it as a simple, DIY telecom solution. But with cyber attacks getting more sophisticated every day and the increasing number of data security regulations, a lot can go wrong. If you're interested in switching to a VoIP service, or want us to assess the security of your current solution, give us a call.

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Incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) in internet phone systems seems like the logical next step to improving business telecom. However, it’s only now that businesses are truly embracing such hi-tech advances in VoIP. AI developers are paving the way for automated processes that have the potential to significantly enhance VoIP performance.

Contact Center Operations

Thanks to highly automated VoIP technology, businesses can manage their call centers easily. It also reduces the need for human interaction without sacrificing service quality. So how else can AI help?

AI-integrated VoIP systems can add back that human element to call routing by determining a caller’s personality, mood, and other characteristics so calls are routed to the agent best equipped to handle them. This makes call-center operations more seamless and cost-efficient because it reduces the need to deploy agents with specialized skills.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems

An IVR system is an extremely useful tool for businesses that get a high volume of calls. Not only does it save them from having to deploy staff to address queries, it also saves customers time.

AI enhances this feature by working in the background, gathering all relevant customer data such as personal information and recent transactions to resolve a query. The AI ‘worker’ then sends this information to the business representative, who will be much better able to serve the customer. It's easy to see how this feature would lead to an increase in customer satisfaction.

Conferencing Capabilities

Internet telephony makes multi-location communication possible, which is indispensable to most organizations. Web conferencing has improved over the years, with internet speeds and telecom technology constantly improving. AI advances it even further with real-time language translation and speech recognition technology, which greatly benefits businesses with multiple geographic locations and whose stakeholders come from diverse backgrounds.

Chatbot Functions

Chatbots are intuitive entities that receive instructions via textual or auditory means to perform automated tasks. They’re not to be confused with applications aimed to make processes easier. Apps differ greatly from chatbots in that they aren’t designed to simulate human interactions and they don’t have an ‘identity.’

Like IVR systems, bots are used by businesses to automate customer interactions. AI-powered chatbots go beyond regular bot duties by performing more complex tasks like setting up meetings, inviting attendees, managing schedules, and much more.

With AI-powered systems promising improvements in contact center operations, customers' IVR experiences, web conferencing, and scheduling, businesses are understandably eager to adopt them. There’s so much more that VoIP systems can do for your business, and we’ve got the expertise to handle all your VoIP-related concerns. Call us today.

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Most business owners and individual users know that making calls via VoIP is cheaper and more feature-rich when compared with the old landline telephony system. Still, you might be unaware of the VoIP service options out there, not to mention how to determine the right one for your needs. So, read on to learn more.

VoIP comes in a variety of forms. Do you rarely leave your house and office, or are you usually on the move? If you’re a business owner, what’s the size of your company and what factors matter most to you? Let's take a look at some of the VoIP services available on the market to help you make a better decision when it comes to choosing your means of voice communication.

Residential VoIP Services

For this type of VoIP, you use an adapter to connect your landline phone set to a Wi-Fi modem to make and receive calls over the internet. Depending on the plan you choose, you’ll be billed each month for either unlimited services or for minutes you actually use.
Examples: VoIP.com, Lingo

Device-based VoIP Services

This involves purchasing a VoIP device from a service provider and plugging it into your existing phone set so that you can make free calls within the U.S. This means not having to pay a monthly bill, and you need no other devices besides your old landline telephone set.
Examples: MagicJack, Ooma

Software-based VoIP Services

This is the most common type of VoIP, and many of us use it on a daily basis. You either access a web-based application online, or install it as software on your computer. Then you use your computer's audio input and output device to talk and listen.
Examples: Skype

Mobile VoIP Services

Like the software-based VoIP services, mobile VoIP is also an application. However, it is installed on mobile phones instead of computers, thus enabling you to make and receive calls no matter where you are as long as you have a good internet connection.
Examples: Skype, WhatsApp, Google Hangout

Business VoIP Services

VoIP for business comes in two options: on-premises and cloud-based. Both provide much more cost-effective communication solutions than traditional landlines and have a variety of useful features for businesses. These include video and audio conferencing, screen-sharing, interactive voice response, automated attendants, call queues, and call reports, just to name a few. These features are scalable and you'll also get complete technical support.

For on-premise VoIP systems, businesses need to purchase all the equipment and house it in their office. This requires huge capital costs. Businesses also have to pay a monthly fee for SIP trunking or PRI circuit, as well as dedicate IT staff to maintain, repair, and upgrade the systems on a regular basis. The up side is you’ll have total control of your hardware.

With cloud-based VoIP systems, you outsource the phone system to your VoIP provider. This means there’s no need to purchase hardware or invest your resources into maintaining the systems since your provider will take care of everything for a fixed monthly fee. You can also add or remove users easily. The con is that you’re not in total control of the hardware and need to rely on your provider’s expertise to ensure system reliability and security.

Want more detailed information about VoIP and how to choose the most suitable VoIP provider? Talk to our professionals today. They have extensive knowledge about this efficient, low-cost communication technology and can explain everything to you in plain English!

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