What is Voice over IP?

What is VoIP?

Voice over IP (VoIP) is an alternative communications service that allows businesses to make calls over their internet at a rate that is significantly cheaper than outdated PSTN or ISDN lines. Click To Tweet

In a recent report, it was revealed that the VoIP market is set to grow at a CAGR of 9.87% during the period 2017–2021 and many businesses are now switching over from traditional lines in order to capitalise on the countless benefits it offers.

Cost effective

One of the main attractions for businesses thinking of investing in VoIP is the reported 60% savings on calling costs that comes from making calls over the internet rather than traditional fixed-line connections.

VoIP works by sending/receiving digital audio ‘packets’ of data from one location to the other over a business’s IP connection to any location in the world. In comparison to a traditional fixed-line service, there are no up-front costs, savings against international calling, and with a well-established provider, you also get numerous feature benefits, which makes VoIP hugely advantageous for businesses looking to save money.

Fast deployment

VoIP deployment is fast and cheap, meaning businesses can quickly begin reaping the benefits without having to waste capital on costly hardware or line installations. More often than not, VoIP phones are plug-and-play solutions that cause minimal disruption to productivity by connecting directly into a user’s computer and are ready to go straight from the box.

Greater flexibility

Unlike traditional ISDN or PSTN lines, VoIP solutions offer a great deal more flexibility to businesses by allowing them to quickly increase or decrease the number of channels or users active on their network within seconds.

This way, businesses are given the freedom to control their networks more efficiently, paying only for the services they intend to use with a service that supports them through periods of growth or decline.

Feature rich

By working in collaboration with the applications available on a user’s computer, alongside calls, VoIP phones offer a number of productivity-enhancing features such as voicemail delivery via email, click-to-call service on a website, voice call button on an email, presence information, and much more.

With these phones, agents become much more efficient and can deliver much better service to their customers to ensure client retention rates continue to grow.

Increased mobility

Another advantage VoIP offers to businesses is the level of support it offers to remote workers. As VoIP runs over the internet and not fixed lines, calls can be made/received using the same number on any compatible device (smartphone, softphone, laptop, and tablet) and from any location with working internet access.

By doing this, VoIP provides a fitting solution for the 70% of workers who claim working off-site improves their productivity and also provides support for agents whose role requires they spend a great portion of their day away from the office, e.g., field sales agents.