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Anyone who has ever worked at an office knows that it pays to keep the IT guys happy. After all, they run the networks and computer systems that run everything else, so whether you're a secretary or the big boss in the corner office, sooner or later you rely on the IT guys to keep things humming along for you.

Luckily, there's one really easy way to help keep your IT guys happy, while also saving your business a bundle of money and a ton of hassles: switch your phone system over to hosted VoIP. There are a lot of good reasons to make the switch to hosted VoIP. It's simple, reliable, and affordable, and provides the kind of customization and call quality that you've come to rely on. But one of the best things about hosted VoIP phone service is that your IT guys will love it!

One of the reasons that IT guys love hosted VoIP phone service is because there's no internal administration required. If there's a problem with your hosted VoIP phone service from sipVine, then it's handled immediately by our team of experts. That frees your IT department up to use its resources for true IT needs and not internal phone support. And anyone who's ever worked in IT will tell you that time is the most valuable resource that an IT department has. Keeping all those systems running smoothly takes a lot of man-hours, and every moment that you can free up for actual IT needs means better functionality for your systems, top to bottom.

Hosted VoIP also helps keep your business on the cutting edge of technology. There are few things more frustrating for an IT department than having to try to work with outdated technology and systems. With hosted VoIP, you can follow the trend of outsourcing infrastructure, while also getting technology and feature upgrades for your business direct from your hosted VoIP provider. At sipVine, for example, our VoIP phones feature all the functionality that you've come to expect—from call waiting and forwarding to call logs and ad-hoc conferencing—while also offering programmable features like unified messaging, corporate directory, time-of-day routing, call center queues, and many others.

For smaller companies that use outside IT support vendors; ask them about hosted VoIP! You'll find that they love hosted VoIP, and are happy to promote the technology. At the end of the day, hosted VoIP does more than save your business money and keep its communication system running at the top of its game, it provides a vast assortment of options and functionality in a system that is deceptively simple, and it will keep your IT guys happy while also pleasing your pocketbook and letting you stay in contact with your customers. That sounds like a situation where everybody wins!

About the author: Mark Greim is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at sipVine, a provider of hosted VoIP phone systems and services. Mark has extensive experience working for start-up or entrepreneurial organizations and has a passion for affordable, reliable, and purposeful technology solutions in those environments.

Whatever your business is, chances are you know it pretty well. But any savvy entrepreneur knows that a lot more goes into running a business than just knowing the ins and outs of what you do. Businesses need staffing, computer services, shipping, and many other systems, and the best business owners know that they'll get the most bang for their buck by hiring experts in those systems to help their business run as efficiently as it can. You wouldn't hire a computer technician to run your HR department, and you wouldn't hire an HR manager to handle shipping. Unfortunately, many businesses do hire phone companies that aren't acting as subject matter experts on things like call flow and system features. While traditional phone companies may know a lot about phone lines and services, they may be completely unfamiliar with the phone systems that their clients are using.

That's part of why many businesses are moving to cloud-based telephone services. VoIP phone services hosted in the cloud create a unique opportunity for providers to act as subject matter experts not just in phone service, but also in phone systems. Because hosted VoIP phone service providers like sipVine provide both the phone service and the phone system at the same time, they can contribute expert advice on everything from call flow to auto attendants.

Modern VoIP phone services are budget friendly, and don't require a lot of upfront capital to set up. There's no need to buy an expensive private branch exchange (PBX) for your phone system, or to maintain any such bulky technology in the long haul. With hosted VoIP, your cloud phone service provider can take over the administration of your entire phone system. What's more, VoIP phone technology can bring a lot of benefits to the table, including features like direct dial, voicemail, unified messaging, on-phone corporate directories, and many others, while VoIP-enabled phones boast all the features that you've come to expect, including call waiting, caller ID, ad-hoc conferencing, intercom, and more.

But one of the best features of cloud-based VoIP telephone systems is that they allow your phone service provider to also be your phone system provider, meaning that they can support your business as subject matter experts in both fields, and can help ensure that your phone service and phone system are working in tandem to meet your company's ever-changing communication needs. Hosted VoIP phone service means constant IT and telecom support, from experts who don't just understand your service plan, but also every aspect of your phone system, from the inside out. Whether you need help setting up an out-of-office message, or whether your entire phone system needs an overhaul, the VoIP experts at sipVine are there to help.

When was the last time your phone company supported you as a subject matter expert on your call flow, auto attendant, or other system features? If the answer is anything but "right now," then maybe you should look into VoIP phone service from sipVine, and see the difference it can make in your business.

About the author: Mark Greim is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at sipVine, a provider of hosted VoIP phone systems and services. Mark has extensive experience working for start-up or entrepreneurial organizations and has a passion for affordable, reliable, and purposeful technology solutions in those environments.

Times change, and technology changes with them. We live in an extraordinary information age of mobile devices, smartphones, social media, and unprecedented access to technology and data. In the United States alone, there are more subscriptions to mobile data services than there are people. Unfortunately, even as technology races ahead, infrastructure is often slow to change. That's why traditional phone services are lagging behind the pack, not just in technology, but in customer satisfaction.

In a report on customer satisfaction with business telephone services, JD Power found that overall customer satisfaction averaged 661 on a 1000 point scale. By comparison, overall customer satisfaction with small business insurance providers averaged 777, while customer satisfaction with small business banking averaged between 742 and 764, depending on region. The report also shows that businesses who bundle together voice and data services or pursue other nontraditional modes of telephone service are not only more satisfied with, but also more loyal to their providers, with 21% saying that they "definitely will not" switch providers in the next year.

There are plenty of reasons for the increasing dissatisfaction with traditional phone services, and a reason why businesses who take a different route are happier than those who don't. Old-fashioned phone systems—with their expensive private branch exchanges (PBX)—are rapidly becoming obsolete in the dynamic information technology landscape. But more than that, modern hosted VoIP phone services provide an array of benefits not only to technology, efficiency, and performance, but also to customer service, that traditional phone services simply can't match.

While traditional phone service is based on century-old technology and an outmoded customer service philosophy, VoIP is at the leading edge of information technology, helping your business to keep up with the changing needs of an increasingly evolving industry. VoIP phone technology includes all the features that you need and expect, from direct dial and voicemail to unified messaging, on-phone corporate directories, and ad-hoc conferencing, to name a few, and it's also customizable to fit the budget, scope, and goals of your unique business.

What's more, by hosting your phone system in the cloud, your service is secure, and you benefit from constant IT and telecom support from skilled VoIP technicians, who understand not only your service plan, but also every phone and piece of equipment that's connected to it.

With a hosted VoIP phone service from sipVine, you're not necessarily bundling together all of your businesses telecom services, you are instead bundling the essential elements of your voice communication needs. Rather than bundling in cable TV with your phone service, for example, VoIP from sipVine provides you with a single provider who handles your phone equipment, service, and administration of your system all in one. This allows us to provide a more comprehensive customer service package than any traditional phone service, while also helping your business to stay on the cutting edge of telecommunications technology.

About the author: Mark Greim is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at sipVine, a provider of hosted VoIP phone systems and services. Mark has extensive experience working for start-up or entrepreneurial organizations and has a passion for affordable, reliable, and purposeful technology solutions in those environments.

Many businesses ask themselves why they should switch from their current phone system to a VoIP phone service.  With the “old phones” working fine, does it make sense to switch?  Although conditions differ business to business, it’s time to dust off the top five reasons to switch to hosted VoIP phone service!

1. Increased Productivity Through Technology Improvements.  There once was a time when businesses asked why they should upgrade to Word Processing equipment from typewriters!  We may argue that the simpler times were better, however there’s no doubting just how much more productive our companies are made with new technology.  VoIP is one such example. There are countless features that are an improvement above old analog systems, and these features will help your company be more productive.
2. Improved Communication Internally and Externally – Hosted VoIP service can be programmed to increase the ability to access or communicate with your employees.  Whether it is to improve communication and accessibility internally, or improve the communication flow with your customer base, hosted phone service can enable both.  Incoming calls can be handled by an auto attendant or backed up by an attendant after attempts are made to an initial ring group.  Ring groups, queues, directories, and direct dial numbers are all components of a mix of programming that can improve communications.  Find me/follow me features can also be deployed, so your associates can be reached whenever they are needed by your customers!
3. Low Investment – You are receiving enterprise level features and productivity improvements for just the upfront cost of the VoIP phones and a few other pieces of minor equipment!  The PBX is hosted by your provider and you no longer have to worry about its purchase, maintenance, upgrades, or state of repair.  Those facts alone drive many out of the analog business and to the cloud for VoIP.  For many of the same reasons companies are moving to cloud based applications, cloud telephony can drive significant benefits.   Many companies find that their current phones need upgrade, and the parts are not available.  If that is the case, it is definitely time to switch!
4. Cost Savings – Productivity improvements many times will dwarf the hard savings in your actual telecom costs, but it always helps to save money on your phone bill!  As competition has increased in the business telecommunications marketplace, traditional providers have also been addressing their rates.  However, with hosted VoIP companies, they may still be able to generate cost savings through their unlimited local and long distance calling plans and other elements that will lower your monthly telecommunication costs.
5. No Administration Costs or Headaches – Imagine being out of the phone equipment business!  No longer will you need to pay for service calls to move phones around, worry about the longevity of your current technology, or maintain your phones in any way.  Good hosted providers take care of all of that for you. 

Perhaps the best argument for switching is to make sure your company takes advantages of all of the improvements before your competition does!  Businesses are switching every day, and it is accelerating, so jump on board and make the switch!

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.