Advantages of VoIP

VoIP the latest buzz in the market is taking great heights and everyone seems to love the offerings introduced by this technology. There are many web-based applications which hold their good reputation in the VoIP business. Before we could move any further and blindly invest into VoIP, it is always better to understand how far this technology is beneficial and what are its advantages and disadvantages.

The Advantages

• It’s a well know fact, since the introduction of VoIP, the large scale enterprises or SME (small and medium enterprises) have seen an enormous amount of reduction in their corporate phone bills. Some VoIP systems can make calls to other VoIP systems only whereas there are many which provide one common platform to make internal as well as external calls over the VoIP channel anywhere around the world. Therefore, understand a VoIP system properly that you are going to buy.
• Another good point the free PC to PC VOIP calls running at absolutely nothing except your VoIP interface software and your broadband internet connection. There are those who could give you unlimited calling features to PC or phone at a cheap monthly/yearly subscription fees. The point to remember is that PC to phone calls is cheaper than your conventional phone – phone call.
• You get good amount of feature with a VoIP service being offered by an Inter Service Provider, like the call waiting, call forwarding, three-way calling. Different Internet Service Provider provides different feature sets.
• You can make use of microphone and headsets to talk to anyone over the web based VoIP interface through your computer. Apart from that you can also enable a videoconferencing mode to get both audio and video running on VoIP protocols. Make sure you have a high speed internet connection.
• Not every VoIP call is dependent on computers though as they can be made through SIP enabled VoIP phones directly configured and hooked into your broadband internet connection. Physical VoIP phone carries more advantages over a computer based softphone running on VoIP as its simple and anyone would get used to new keys on a phone quickly.
• In case your VoIP phone is a wireless enabled device, you may carry it anywhere as it will have an IP/MAC address already registered. All you need is an Internet Service Provider connection (either at office or at a public/priced HotSpot) to get on the internet and make calls. This may be seriously considered for those employees who travel and talk a lot (a sales person)

With so many advantages covered by VoIP, there are many phone models and other VoIP products in the market which can be shortlisted by an enterprise and test them to find a suitable one matching their requirements. As a matter of fact by only looking at the advantages one cannot make a sure decision to go for an enterprise wide purchase. We certainly will have to look forward to the disadvantages to feel the other side of the coin as well.