If you have been holding off replacing your existing business phone system due to the cost, consider a Hosted VoIP solution. Many companies are keeping the band-aids handy as they continue to defer the costs of making a phone system investment and haven’t yet considered the many benefits of evolving to an affordable alternative with a hosted VoIP provider. Such decisions are also costly, as spending money on the repair and servicing on an old system can also add up.
Consider these benefits of a Hosted VoIP solution relative to system replacement:
- Low Initial Investment – With a Hosted VoIP system, you are effectively securing space on the phone system of your hosted service provider. Therefore, your up-front investment will only be for the number of VoIP phones you will need and some other minor network equipment.
- Elimination or Reduction in Administrative and Maintenance Charges – Good hosted VoIP service providers include the cost of administering your phone system in the monthly phone service fees.
- All-Inclusive Monthly Service Rates – Most providers deliver an unlimited local and long distance package to help bring down the cost of the monthly phone service. Keep in mind that when you go to a hosted model, you are paying by the number of phones you have in service and not by the number of “lines”. With VoIP, the line concept goes away and you will no longer have restrictions in calls based upon the number of lines deployed.
- Improvement in Communication – A hosted system typically is very robust, giving your business access to a feature set that would be substantially more expensive to purchase under a stand-alone on-site phone system. Companies taking full advantage of the feature set enhance their internal and external communication processes.
- Enabling Mobile or Remote Workforce – Many companies deploy workers from their homes or alternative locations. With a hosted service, you can provide these employees with phones and to callers internal or external to your business, it will be as if these employees are operating within the walls of your business.
I’ve written about a number of advantages to these types of systems over the years. By far, companies who are considering replacing their old phone systems find these benefits to be at the top of their list when deciding to go with a hosted phone service platform.
About the author: Mark Greim is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at sipVine, a provider of a variety of digital phone solutions and services. Mark has extensive experience working for start-up or entrepreneurial organizations and a passion for affordable, reliable, and purposeful technology solutions in those environments.
