Before you choose a voice solution, you need to determine whether or not it is the right telephony system for you. When considering the best telephony system for your requirements now and into the future, you must consider the following factors:
Company Mobility
Are your employees separated by office walls or country borders? How important is workforce mobility to your business operations? The location and movement of your employees determine how much you should prioritise mobility in your telephony system. Mobility means that every employee can function at full capacity, no matter where they are or even if they’re constantly travelling. In case your employees need to work in Korea or India, they’d still require the same tools at their disposal as your people who are working locally.
Future Plans
You also need to consider any plans you have for your business. Whether it’s expanding the workforce or opening a foreign branch, these choices can heavily affect what kind of telephony system you will need in the long run. Without taking your future strategies into account, you run the risk of your telephony system quickly becoming inadequate or even obsolete. Choosing the right telephony system lets you accommodate more people, coordinate more easily with people working outside of your local office, and grow and adopt different technologies as the business changes over time.
Technical Involvement
How much do you want to involve yourself in terms of actually operating your system? More importantly, does your business have the capability to handle such a system? Even if you have in house IT support will they be able to handle the load if there is a major system issue?
Connectivity
Having a stable internet connection, data network or substantial broadband can dictate how well your business could cope with an IP solution. While most enterprises have access to the internet and offer Wi-Fi to all employees, the strength of the connection can still be an issue. You may even need to upgrade your current connection, as the load of adding voice or video to your network may cause latency issues to your operations.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
Also known as IP telephony, these systems use the internet, broadband or data to bridge the connection between calls. As such, this system heavily depends on your network to work properly. If you have a solid network connection, then your audio quality will not suffer. In addition to this you can expand your system to support mobility, video, call centre integration, asset tracking, instant messaging and the list goes on. This type of solution also supports your office and all of your branches/locations where ever they may be based.
Furthermore there are different kinds of VoIP offerings, such as, on-site, cloud-based systems and a Hybrid Customer-Premises Equipment (CPE) and Cloud strategy. These differ in terms of technical involvement as outlined below.
On-Site – As the name implies, the hardware required by VoIP (wiring, etc.) are installed within the premises of your company.
Cloud-based – These systems let you have the benefits of VoIP without the need for installation on site and in most cases a third party will operate and maintain the IP telephony system within their own premises, while giving you access. This means that a significant chunk of the IT burden is lifted off of your shoulders.
Hybrid Customer Premises Equipment & Cloud strategy – This setup takes the best features of both options. This approach allows you to stay in control via your on premise equipment, while utilising multiple private or public clouds for scalability and speed.
The above offers a guide on the types of questions and things you need to think about when choosing an IP Telephony solution for your business.
