HOSTED VOIP FOR BUSINESS - YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO BUSINESS VOIP TELEPHONY
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Your complete guide to Business VoIP Telephony Hosted VoIP for Business 1 Doc V1.0 – Jan 2014
Table of Contents Hosted Desk- 3 VoIP today 3 What is Hosted VoIP? 4 How does Hosted VoIP work? 4 Is Hosted VoIP Reliable? 5 How can Hosted VoIP help my business? 7 Some Key features of Hosted VoIP 8 Summary 2 Doc V1.0 – Jan 2014
VoIP Today
Most people know now that VoIP stands for “Voice
over Internet Protocol” and in simpler terms - phone Many small and midsized businesses
calls over the internet rather than a standard phone use the flexibility that VoIP and IP
line. While the internet is packed with information phone systems offer to thrive in this
about consumer VoIP, for example Skype, it is far more
challenging economy”
complicated to find good information about business
VoIP PBX solutions which differs significantly in terms
of features, benefits and capacity. CornerStone, 2010
Researched conducted in 2012 by Ofcom proves that
awareness of VoIP in the UK has increased drastically VoIP can be used on multiple devices to make and
over the last four years and although there is significantly receive calls, from a traditional desktop handset to a full
more data surrounding consumer VoIP, without any range of softphones and applications that support all
doubt, the adoption of business VoIP has been increasing sorts of operating systems including Windows, Apple
substantially, mainly due to its cost efficiency and the and Android. What does that mean for your business?
flexibility it delivers.
That you can turn almost any device into your office
This guide has been created for businesses as organisations phone and pay just one phone bill. It also allows you
that are looking to adopt innovative and smart IT solutions to make and route incoming calls to users and groups
to improve flexibility, increase productivity and enhance flexibly anywhere and at any time. With VoIP, the
communication without draining budgets. This guide chances of missing that important call while you are
gives some answers about VoIP, particularly for those who not in the office are greatly reduced!
rely on traditional telephony and use the phone as a way
of driving business. Hosted VoIP provides a huge range of features that will
benefit your business. In this guide, we would like to
What is Hosted VoIP? take a look at some of the most important ones.
A Hosted VoIP PBX is a cloud based business phone
solution that costs less to adopt and can help reduce
phone bills by up to 40%. A hosted PBX can also make any
business and organisation’s workforce more flexible and
mobile by offering intuitive features that support todays
increasing business mobility requirements.
3 Doc V1.0 – Jan 2014How does Hosted VoIP Is Hosted VoIP
work? Reliable?
A Hosted VoIP PBX is a complete business phone The short answer here is ‘yes’. Although it will vary from
system available for a low monthly fee, continuously provider to provider, VoIP has made huge strides forward
developed without you having to keep upgrading in reliability and security over the last few years and
your phone system. There are all sorts of Hosted VoIP in comparison to traditional fixed line telephony, it is
packages for multiple VoIP users (Multi User VoIP) now as reliable with good planning around your actual
which can be tailored around your particular business connectivity.
requirements.
These days you should expect a quality VoIP service to
Like most business, you are probably too busy to calculate be at least 99% as reliable as fixed line services. While
how much VoIP can save you but let us tell you that some choosing the right provider, be very careful and make
businesses have experienced up to 60% in monthly sure that at minimum, it is hosted in the UK datacenters
savings by switching from a traditional phone facility, which are ISO-27001 certified. Reading client reviews or
as it reduces your phone bills, cuts line rental costs, even asking to speak to an existing customer will help you
typically has a far lower cost of entry than a traditional to understand the product itself more and provide you
on premise business phone system as well as the costs of with the relevant feedback about the VoIP provider.
maintenance and support.
The Hosted PBX service is delivered ‘from the Cloud’
bringing your team together, connecting multiple offices
and home workers with free internal calls – all that
allowing you to project the professional business image
your customers expect.
4How can Hosted VoIP
help my business?
Due to its flexible nature, as any other cloud based allows the users who are out of the office to place calls
solution, VoIP can support a number of your business which originate from the same number it would from
challenges with communications. Here are a couple their desktop handset.
of typical scenarios and how a hosted PBX can be a
remedy. This is especially useful feature for modern businesses
that may even operate from home or a temporary office.
Creating flexible Communications
Ultimately, you could potentially make any device part
The challenge of the network with all calls made within the business
Many modern businesses have been rapidly adopting technically free* depending on the provider.
mobile technology, for example tablets and smartphones,
to enable their employees remote working, boosting at *Calls made using SIP applications over 3G/4G mobile
the same time the popularity of BYOD (Bring Your Own networks may incur call or data package costs from the
Device). network, please check with your service provider.
In any business, there are always some employees who Hosted VoIP makes the perfect partner for Hosted
travel often and having the ability to stay connected to the Exchange email to help complete the mobile
business easily and cost effectively is critical. There might communications cycle while on the move all synced on
also be employees who work from home and just need to multiple devices.
be able to receive and make business calls seamlessly as
part of the company network. For many businesses and
organisations out there, it is remote working that actually “Most VoIP providers and IP-PBX
brings in the revenue. The truth is that any business,
software packages deliver a much
some more than others, relies on telephony as primary
more robust feature set than traditional
form of communication and they need a solid system in
phone providers do”
place that meets their requirements.
The solution PC World
With Hosted VoIP, your team can be connected to the
company phone system wherever they are, from multiple
devices, making and receiving calls as they would on
their desktop phone. This can be achieved with the aid of
a softphone or downloadable application being installed
onto a smartphone, tablet, PC or laptop, essentially
turning it into another extension on your network. This
5Ensuring Cost Efficient Scalability
Key features of VoIP with Cloud4
The challenge
Computers:
A number of businesses might face the same challenge
when planning strategy for future growth - replacing Keep your number
the current phone system and having it up to date to
constantly improve communication flow and its quality. Get your voicemail in your inbox
The real challenge is making sure it fits its purpose,
Create voice menus
particularly in being flexible to business change, for
example moving premises or increasing the number Set up call queues
of users. That is not only a tough ask for an on premise
system but it is often a costly one too. What happens if Manage your voicemail
you open a new office, have home or mobile workers?
Pick up other extension
The solution
On premise phone systems tend to be purchased based
on the current requirement with a little planning for future
growth. However, few are as rapidly and cost effectively
scalable as hosted system, under which it is easy to simply
spin up a new extension, and configure a handset for a
new user, and put it on a desk. If the user is remote, simply
ship it to them ready to plug in where they are are and
work. The handset instantly becomes part of the network
with calls between multiple offices and home locations
all free. With a hosted phone system, you can easily scale
the system to the ever changing needs of the business,
and manage everything centrally via the online control
portal.
6Some Key features of
Hosted Voip
If you have ever wondered how some of your Set up call queues
competitors can afford such sophisticated phone
Invaluable for sales departments, support or customer
systems, the answer may well be that they discovered
services teams, call queues hold your customers in call
a Hosted PBX. Each provider will offer different features
order, with calls passed to your agents as they become
and benefits of Hosted VoIP but at Cloud4, we want to
free. Callers hear music as they are holding and you also
make sure that VoIP gives both your business and your
have the ability to set up advanced options such as
customers all the extras you might expect from a large
breaking out of the queue and informing callers of their
dedicated company switchboard.
position.
Keep your number Manage your voicemail
Using a Hosted PBX does not mean losing the old
Making sure that messages do not get lost is a critical
telephone number. It is a simple as transferring the
issue for any business. The hosted PBX allows callers to
existing number in as little as 10 working days, with a
leave messages at individual extensions. You can then
simple process and a cost of just £25 (excluding VAT)
manage and listen to it online, on your desktop phone or
per number. Our team sets everything up, checks that
even via your inbox by email.
everything is in order and seamlessly moves you to a
Hosted PBX service. Pick up other extensions
Get your voicemail in your Inbox If someone in the office spotted another ringing extension
that needs answering, it is easy to pick up the call from
Never miss those important messages even on the move
another phone.
with Voicemail – Email. Set your system to automatically
forward all your voicemails directly to your email inbox Re-route calls by time of day
so you can listen to them instantly on your PC, Laptop,
There might be different priorities at different times of
smartphone or tablet devices wherever you are.
day in your business– or some staff members may only
Create voice menus be available at certain times. Re-routing calls is easy to
achieve using the Hosted PBX web control panel and by
Efficient call routing is simple using the Hosted PBX
adjusting settings in real time, whenever the requirements
voice menu options. A facility for directing customers
change.
efficiently to the team or person they need, for example
asking callers to press ‘1 for sales’, gives the experience
These are just main characteristics and benefits of
of professionalism and simply means that callers do not
Business VoIP. There are a lot more value added features
have to be transferred 2-3 or more times to reach the right
you gain with a hosted VoIP solution to help you present
department. Management is all via the Hosted PBX web
that professional image and improve communication
interface so setup is extremely straightforward.
flexibility; features that would cost extra with many
traditional phone systems but are included by a good
Hosted VoIP provider.
7Summary
By using the right provider who can tailor a service Hosted VoIP is simple to adopt and some providers will
that suits your business, hosted VoIP will deliver even fully pre-configure your system and handsets
a quality, reliable, scalable and cost effective for you, ready to plug in and start using quickly.
business phone solution to your business, school
or charity. Used in conjunction with other online services such
as Hosted Exchange email for example, VoIP solution
When you weigh up traditional telephony vs VoIP, will give you a complete hosted communications
currently the advantages of moving to a VoIP solution that will save you money and improve your
system by far outweigh those for staying on an business.
ISDN / PSTN service.
They also give all the flexibility to make your
business more mobile and responsive to the
changes it needs to adapt to sooner rather than
later.
Cloud4 Computers is a leading provider of Cloud Computing, Business Mobility and IT Solutions in the UK
and abroad since 2009. With over 15 years of technical and commercial experience, our main focus is to deliver
reliable and effective Cloud Solutions to any business, charity or public sector organisation. Realising that no
business or organisation is the same, Cloud4 Computers offers unique solutions fitting your specific needs and
requirements along with high level support.
Contact a team member today to get more Helpline: 0845 862 0263
information about Cloud Solutions and determine enquiries@cloud4computers.co.uk
which Cloud Service would best fit your needs
and requirements
Connect with us on:
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