- Reduced Operating Costs
The most immediate benefit of VoIP for most businesses is savings on long distance charges. Companies equipped for VoIP can place long-distance calls over the Internet rather than the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) and avoid paying long distance charges. Since most companies already pay for broadband Internet connections, the only additional requirement is the equipment that connects telephones to the IP network
With VoIP you can make free internal calls to all parts of your company that share a computer network. With a Virtual Private Network (VPN) in place you can speak to connected colleagues at different branches or on the road free of charge. This is particularly useful for the growing number of small and medium enterprises who have multiple sites.
Phone calls made to non-office numbers are routed via the Internet to a gateway nearest the number called, where they transparently "hop-off" to the local phone exchange. The gateway-to-gateway portion of the call is free.
There are also some cost savings due to using a single network to carry voice and data. This is especially true when users have existing under-utilized network capacity that they can use for VOIP without any additional costs.
- Improved workforce flexibility
VOIP makes easy some things that are difficult to impossible with traditional phone networks.
Incoming phone calls are automatically routed to your VOIP phone where ever you plug it into the network. Take your VOIP phone with you on a trip, and anywhere you connect it to the Internet, you can receive your incoming calls.
Staff using VOIP phones can easily work from anywhere with a good Internet connection. One's home could be converted to a home office and gain access to the company's voice, data and fax services using the company's Intranet. For organizations with highly mobile employees, VoIP makes it easy to access advanced communication services from any location or any device – it’s basic plug and play.
- Improved network efficiency
The integration of voice and data effectively fills up the data communication channels efficiently, thus providing bandwidth consolidation.
The integration of voice and data traffic will be demanded by multi application software. The inevitable evolution will be web servers capable of interacting with voice, data and images. Currently, most customers have separate data and voice infrastructures. By using IP technology for voice, businesses can leverage a single network that incorporates voice, data and video. This leads to cost savings because of the streamlined structure and management of their network infrastructure. An integrated infrastructure that supports all forms of communication allows more standardization and lesser equipment management.
- Improved scalability
Traditional PBX (Private Branch Exchange) phone systems have a set number of ports for telephones to plug in to. VoIP systems provide greater flexibility as you can run a number of ‘virtual users’ through each network socket.
With VoIP on your computer network you can add telephones and increase call capacity without running additional cabling.
- Increased efficiency through self-serve capabilities
If you merge your phone and data networks, VoIP can help you work more efficiently and make your company’s phone network easier to look after. Since a VoIP-enabled system is based on software rather than hardware, it is easier to manage and maintain.
One of the benefits of VoIP is the ability to have greater user self-serve capabilities to manage features and increased ease of performing moves, adds, and changes to your voice communications system. You can save time and money by managing the system yourself.
- Add new services
Bringing voice and data together on one network opens the door to new services. Advanced conferencing, unified e-mail and voicemail messaging and dialing calls by selecting from a computer contact list are just a few of the new service possibilities.
Ordinary telephones can be enhanced to act as an Internet access device. Directory services could be implemented by submitting a name and receiving a reply.
- Enhanced productivity
New applications such as collaboration and unified messaging enable employees, wherever they happen to be, to team more effectively and be more productive.
In addition, VoIP solutions offer desktop multimedia communication and collaboration tools that improve the flow of information between a business’ employees, suppliers, and customers.
VoIP treats voice as if it were any other kind of data, so users can attach documents to voice messages or participate in virtual meetings using shared data and videoconferencing.
- Reach more customers
With the advent of the Internet, companies have experienced large increase in their web site inquiries. These may not result in immediate financial transactions, but at least people get to know about the companies’ products. This is the beginning of E-commerce. With VOIP there can be interaction with the customers.
- Enhanced customer service
By adding a ‘Click to talk’ button to a website, a VoIP-enabled enterprise can put web users in touch with customer service staff. You could also look at implementing customer relationship management software. Incoming calls could automatically trigger screen pops with customer account information and contact history.
- Fax over IP
Real time facsimile transmission is an immediate application of VoIP. Facsimile services which use dial-up services are affected by high cost for long distance, analog signal quality and machine compatibility. Instead a fax interface unit can convert the data to packet form, handle the conversion of signaling and controlling protocols and ensure complete delivery of the data in correct order.
- Wireless compatibility
With a wireless LAN in place, mobile devices like PDAs and smartphones can use your VoIP system. If you install a wireless LAN, you need to make sure you have appropriate security measures in place, such as a firewall or encryption.
