Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology is the evolution of outdated PBX (Private Branch Exchange) calling, allowing phone calls to take place over an internet connection. The benefits of adopting a VoIP phone system are big, and it starts with your business’s bottom line.

Here, we’ll break down the difference between VoIP and more traditional solutions while exploring how the technology can improve business outcomes altogether through:

• Better employee and customer experiences
• Reduced cost and complexity
• Seamless cloud migration paths
• Support for a flexible, extensible solution

How is VoIP an improvement over legacy systems?

VoIP phone systems offer advanced features and modern flexibility that PBX simply can’t match.  And adopting VoIP can yield tangible results for your company, including:

1. Easy deployment, onboarding and maintenance

Cloud-hosted VoIP solutions eliminates the need for on-premises PBX hardware. So, adopting cloud-hosted VoIP mitigates all of the associated maintenance and management of that hardware. This ultimately leads to less of a need for internal IT to troubleshoot and amend issues. With that saved time and budget, businesses can focus less on upkeep and more on productivity.

2. Better call quality

Another benefit of moving to a cloud-hosted VoIP phone system are the advanced features a business can take advantage of. Advances in AI for collaboration have led to much better call quality for fully cloud-hosted VoIP phone systems. From background noise removal and audio intelligence to personalized voice optimization settings, call quality is taken to a whole new level, which means less distractions for remote and hybrid workers and less interruptions for any size call.

2. Advanced functionality and features that are always up to date

Landlines are limited to a single function: voice. With VoIP, users can communicate in real time with voice or video calls, and keep software stay up to date thanks to the cloud—among a myriad of other functionalities.

The best VoIP phone systems include a single dashboard to manage users and onboard new team members. Plus, you eliminate the headaches of PBX installation, since you can port over existing lines or create new lines without external help.

3. Built-in security that protects sensitive data

Thanks to additional layers of encryption like Transport Layer Security (TLS), VoIP offers built-in call and data protection that’s better at guarding sensitive information than landline phone systems.

4. Improved collaboration

With an increasing number of professionals working in a hybrid environment, employee availability and their ability to connect to each other is essential. Leading VoIP providers can deliver elite features to make team collaboration smoother in these cases. For example, the ability to elevate a VoIP call into a full video conference with ease. Or the ability to use a personal mobile phone with the native phone dialer when on-the-go and transition to any other device without leaving the call. And of course, teams need full-featured communication capabilities—instant messaging, group chats, file and screen sharing, and breakout calls.

How a cloud VoIP phone system can improve your business’s bottom line

The improvements that VoIP makes over legacy PBX systems will help your business’s bottom line. Here’s how:

1. Reduced capital costs

Without the need for additional hardware or service packages, VoIP is far more affordable than landline calling. It’s not unusual for traditional private branch exchange (PBX) systems to cost upwards of $1,000 per user. On average, VoIP systems come in at a much lower cost per user, usually somewhere around $20 per user, per month.

2. Scalability for evolving workplaces

Without the need for additional hardware, and the only requirement being an internet connection, VoIP is much easier to scale as IT personnel are able to add additional lines and numbers with ease, all in one dashboard. This gives VoIP a clear business advantage over traditional PBX.

3. Supporting flexible work environments

VoIP empowers businesses to lean fully into hybrid work. With the right tools, employees can work more easily from home and with less trouble than outdated communication tools. With that, VoIP can have a material impact on efficiency of your business by providing streamlined communication to all employees, no matter where they’re working from.

4. Easier management and administration, and reduced IT costs

Another key benefit of VoIP technology is how much easier it is to manage for your IT department. Typical VoIP solutions feature a centralized platform for administration. This empowers IT admins to monitor call performance for the entire phone system and every user from a single dashboard. From optimizing call quality and bandwidth utilization to easily adding users, this feature makes life easier for your entire IT team.

Key Takeaways

VoIP enables better experiences for employees and customers across the board while being more affordable, reliable and flexible than legacy PBX technology. Its benefits far outweigh those offered by traditional landlines. And, it’s incredibly easy to move away from a PBX system to cloud-based VoIP. Whether taking a phased approach or moving completely to the cloud, businesses can significantly cut costs, simplify management for IT, and make work easier for every department.

Reilly Nolan, Content Marketing Manager, Webex by Cisco.

The post The Bottom-Line Benefits of VoIP Technology appeared first on My TechDecisions.

However, legacy business phone systems (PBX) are a standalone system, meaning the management, maintenance and upgrading of that system is separate from every other piece of workplace technology today, and that’s in a world where cloud computing and unified communications is taking over organizations’ communication.

A voice-over-IP (VoIP) system packs a load of returns on its investment: it centralizes communications, is scalable, allows organizations to better centralize their communications and provides a phone system for end users regardless of where they are.

A unified telephony ecosystem

According to Alex Puorro, vice president of IP endpoint development at commercial audio solutions manufacturer AtlasIED, VoIP allows organizations to create a communication ecosystem rather than separate standalone communication systems.

“With VoIP, you’re connecting a lot of different systems, software and hardware all together on one network and it all plays nicely together,” Puorro says.

For example, schools can tie several systems into one VoIP system using switches, routers and handsets. Emergency notifications, bells, tones and phones would all live on the same network.

“All of that works in one big ecosystem instead of just buying and maintaining 10 different standalone systems,” Puorro says.

That means the maintenance, support and upgrading is done on just one network and one system, making the job much easier for IT staff.

Scalability and flexibility

VoIP is also extremely flexible, so all endpoints – regardless if it’s a physical phone or a soft phone – live on the same network, so users who feel comfortable with a physical phone can get what they want, says Luca Jacobellis, president and chief operating officer of AV and IT provider OnePath.

“Organizations can flex to different business needs all in one system, and without big expensive upgrades and lifts,” Jacobellis says.

But for organizations with large call centers, the cost to outfit customer service agents with physical phones might be too prohibitive. In that case, soft phones and headsets would be the right call to help your organization save money and work more efficiently.

VoIP also allows organizations to deploy mixed, multi-location environments that include an old legacy PBX system in one location and a cloud-based system in another that are both routed through one unified call routing system for all of the normal capabilities of a VoIP system, like recording.

If the power or internet is down in a building, VoIP and soft phones allow employees to either go home or find another place to work – as long as it has a stable and secure Wi-Fi connection, Jacobellis says.

Read Next: The Business Case for VoIP

A remote work tool

In 2020 and beyond, there will be a greater emphasis on being able to connect with employees, customers and clients regardless of if they’re in the office or working from home.

If the employee actually wants a physical phone, they can connect to their company’s VoIP system within seconds, Puorro says.

“You can plug into a switch and have full dial capability,” Puorro says.

However, since VoIP is literally an internet-based phone system, all you need is an internet connection for some VoIP systems. Soft phones, a rising feature of unified communications platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, don’t even require any additional hardware.

This takes the hardware cost out of the equation, Jacobellis says.

“With soft phones and apps on cell phones … the biggest cost component could go away if the culture of the business allows it,” Jacobellis says.

Fewer headaches and easier maintenance

Upgrading legacy PBX systems can be prohibitively expensive since there’s a large hardware component in those systems.

According to Puorro, it’s like trying to keep an antique car up and running. Finding hardware and components can be as challenging as finding a service provider to do those expensive upgrades.

“The latest and greatest technology is always very, very easy to fix,” Puorro says. “Keeping things up to date and changing new things out is so much cheaper than trying to keep an old limping PBX system up and running.”

The post The Potential Returns on a VoIP System appeared first on My TechDecisions.

If your primary means of communication is still a legacy business telephone system, you were probably scrambling to adapt at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Not to mention you were paying to maintain the costly infrastructure and hardware.

If you’re still looking for an alternative to that clunky phone system, you should consider Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) technology.

According to Luca Jacobellis, president of IT and AV technology provider Onepath, VoIP is a common sense evolution of legacy phone systems.

Flexibility and availability

VoIP, like other unified communications tools, allows your employees to work from anywhere. That means they don’t have to be at their desks in the office to answer calls.

This can allow your company to be more flexible about working from home and other forms of remote work. If employees are sick at home, traveling for business or out of the office for other reasons, they can still take and make phone calls.

With the help of mobile and desktop applications, employees can use those tools to take calls rather than a physical phone connected to a phone line in the office.

However, a VoIP phone system doesn’t mean that you have to get rid of physical phones, Jacobellis says.

“You have the ability to use some with and some without,” he said.

Read Next: When Should You Install a VoIP System for Your Business?

“There’s some really, really cool cloud-based contact center, call center-type solutions that can layer on top of both cloud systems and on-premise systems,” Jacobellis said.

Some VoIP deployments even allow for old phone systems for some of the company and  a cloud-based system for others.

“So they’ve got an old phone system over there and a new cloud-based system in another location, but they can layer one unified call routing and handing system on top of it and get all the recording capability,” Jacobellis said.

Ease of migration and upgrades

Another attractive aspect of VoIP systems is the ability to adapt the system to different business needs without expensive upgrades. These systems can be scaled to meet the demands of the largest call centers down to the small local business.

But, every organization will eventually need to upgrade their systems. As the system ages, simple software upgrades will keep the system up to date and ensure that your organization’s communication abilities are ahead of the curve.

Those upgrades don’t come with that expensive price tag of legacy phone system upgrades, Jacobellis said.

“You can keep the back end and the feature sets up to date without expensive support contracts and upgrades,” Jacobellis said. “All of that kind of happens for you behind the scenes.”

Tommy Mullins, vice president of sales at Onepath, switching to a VoIP deployment has never been easier.

“You can actually do a soft cutover because you’ve got the infrastructure in place and you’re already using those legacy systems,” Mullins said. “You’re you’re cutting over and migrating to the bandwidth.”

Previously, providers would have to shut down the legacy systems and start from scratch.

“That was a very difficult thing to do,” Mullins said. “Now, migration plans are easy and we can modify those and very simply move you over.”

The post The Business Case for VoIP appeared first on My TechDecisions.

This helps customers improve key measures of engagement and productivity with new calling, collaboration and meeting capabilities in addition to a range of flexible connected phones and devices, AtlasIED said in a press release.

The application is now compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with Avaya IX Workplace Calling components Avaya Aura® Communication Manager 8.1 and Avaya Aura Session Manager 8.1., according to AtlasIED.

According to the company, the IPX Series VoIP speaker helps customers in corporate enterprise, transportation, education and healthcare communicate efficiently and effectively for daily messaging and emergency alerts. The device uses a facility’s communication system o help maintain a safe work environment.

Read Next: Avaya IX Contact Center Solutions Now Integrate with Google Cloud Contact Center AI

In the press release, AtlasIED said it is a Technology Partner in the Avaya DevConnect program—an initiative to develop, market and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a company’s investment in its network.

As a Technology Partner, AtlasIED can submit products to Avaya for compliance testing, where a team of DevConnect engineers develops a comprehensive test plan for each application to verify its Avaya compatibility. This enables customers to confidently add best-in-class capabilities to their network without having to replace their existing infrastructure—helping speed deployment of new applications and reduce both network complexity and implementation costs.

This helps customers get more out of their communications infrastructure, said Eric Rossman, vice president, partners, developers and alliance at Avaya.

“We are pleased that innovative solutions like the IPX Series speakers help strengthen our position as a provider of business collaboration and communications solutions,” Rossman said.

In a statement, Alex Puorro, vice president of IP endpoints at AtlasIED, said customers can now trust that their products easily integrate and interoperate with existing communication infrastructure.

“Proven and tested to support open standards-based platforms, our IPX Series VoIP speaker offers healthcare, educational, transportation, and corporate customers a way to affordably and easily expand and enhance their communications systems with new innovative technologies,” Puorro said.

The post AtlasIED’s IPX Series VoIP Now Compliant With Avaya Solutions appeared first on My TechDecisions.

This is an important question to answer. In the following paragraphs, we’ll look at why VoIP is becoming increasingly popular with business owners, and how and when you should install a VoIP phone system for your business.

When Your Landline Bills Become an Issue

The single biggest reason for installing a VoIP network is the cost of landline calls relative to a VoIP call. In almost every instance, a VoIP service plan will almost always be cheaper than traditional phone line bills.

There are 3 reasons why VoIP is cheaper than traditional telephony:

• VoIP utilizes your existing internet connection to channel your phone calls. This removes the need for a dedicated landline.
• You can make VoIP calls, which are cheaper. There can be significant cost savings for international and long-distance calls.
• Your service provider can offer a package that includes landline calls, and internet at one price point. This reduces the hassle of dealing with different service providers while lowering the cost.

Of course, you need to use your phone lines to see the cost-saving benefits. However, if you are reading this article, then you almost certainly fall into this category.

Telecommunications providers see VoIP as the future of telephony. Telecommunications providers are upgrading their old infrastructure to 5G. In this sense, the transition to VoIP is inevitable. For example, in the UK, BT plans to move 16 million phone lines to VoIP by 2025.

So you will inevitably move to VoIP phone. When you do so, you will almost certainly benefit from cost savings. But that’s not the only benefit, which leads us nicely to our next point.

Related: RFP Template for VoIP

When You Need Additional Functionality

When you change to a VoIP network, you’ll have a streamlined, all-in-one network. Everything will be running on the same system, and communication between platforms is incredibly simple.

But it is also incredibly flexible. Third-party software and suitable extensions can be integrated with just a few clicks. Below is a quick overview of some of the benefits you can get from transitioning to VoIP:

• Call forwarding
• Auto-attendants
• Call analytics
• Call recording
• Voicemail to text
• Voicemail to email messaging

In addition to this, VoIP can integrate with third-party tools like sales software and CRM integrations. This is just as useful for call centers that handle high volumes of calls, but need to analyze their data, as it is for small businesses.

When You Need a Reliable Connection

One of the major benefits of moving to VoIP is an improvement in reliability. There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, telecommunications companies are investing heavily in digital infrastructure. This has resulted in considerable improvements in reliability and call quality.

Meanwhile, traditional landlines, the technology is over 100 years old at this point, are becoming obsolete. Consider this statement from AT&T:

“Our current infrastructure has served us well for almost a century but it no longer meets the needs of America’s consumers. The transition to broadband and IP services that has already begun is driven by consumers who are moving to the Internet and choosing to connect in ways not imagined just a decade ago.”

As a result of all this investment, VoIP systems offer 99.9% uptime. On top of this, a VoIP phone system requires very little maintenance. So you’re not going to experience issues with your phone system going down.

When You’re Looking to Expand

We’ve already mentioned the savings on monthly bills and maintenance. So how does the installation of a VoIP system compare to a landline platform?

Again, it compares pretty well. If your business is expanding and you’re frustrated by the constant cost of adding new telephone lines, then installing VoIP could present a great opportunity.

We say that because the installation costs of VoIP networks are remarkably low. After all, you only need a broadband connection, handset, and a computer. There are very few hardware requirements.

Besides, new lines can be added and removed with no hassle whatsoever. Whether staff are joining or leaving your team, configuration won’t be a headache.

When Calls Need to be Made Out-of-Office

It’s amazing how far your work can take you from your office. What’s not surprising is the complications that generally arise when you try to work remotely.

With traditional landline arrangements, each line has a unique phone number. That number is assigned and permanently fixed to the line within the office.

With VoIP, that’s not the case. You can assign contact numbers and contact lists to a user profile. These can even be transferred from your old landline system. Just as importantly, you can assign these same numbers on a mobile application.

That app can be used on your smartphone from just about anywhere that has an internet connection.

Your staff will be able to make VoIP calls with their smartphones when they’re working remotely and out of office. And it won’t cost a thing.

Making Sure VoIP Phones are Right for Your Team

There are a significant number of VoIP capabilities that your business could benefit from. Before you sign up for the first contract you find, make sure that you have a broadband connection that can handle the increased workload.

Check that your business will benefit from VoIP, and that the savings are clear.

If you’re satisfied on that front, then VoIP should present a great way to reduce business costs. You’ll have more advanced technology, a streamlined operation, and a telephone platform you can count on.

The post When Should You Install a VoIP System for Your Business? appeared first on My TechDecisions.

“When an emergency strikes, it’s critical that Americans are able to use 911 to reach those who can help,” Pai said in a statement. “The CenturyLink service outage is therefore completely unacceptable, and its breadth and duration are particularly troubling.”

CenturyLink, a telecommunications company based out of Louisiana, identified a “network element” that they deemed responsible for the shutdown.

“We discovered some additional technical problems as our service restoration efforts were underway,” the company announced on Twitter. “We continue to make good progress with our recovery efforts and we are working tirelessly until restoration is complete. We apologize for the disruption.”

People all across the country were affected, with citizens in Washington state, Missouri, Massachusetts, Idaho, and Arizona unable to make 911 calls and people in Boston experiencing disruptions in their cell service. Denver, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago were also affected. The interruptions began on Thursday, December 27th, but customers in various locations were left without services for several days following the initial outage.

Salt Lake City also experienced issues with CenturyLink services. “#SLC government is currently experiencing issues with our phone and internet services related to a nationwide problem. We apologize for any inconvenience this is causing residents trying to reach departments,” tweeted Mayor Jackie Biskupski in response.

Phone services at the Department of Correction and the Department of Education in Idaho were disrupted while doctors and nurses at a hospital in Greeley, Colorado, were unable to access digital patient records.

CenturyLink has not provided Gizmodo or CNN with a comment.

The post CenturyLink Outage Hinders 911 Services appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Used through the Uber app, the VoIP feature enables customers and Uber drivers to use an internet connection to make calls, rather than relying on cell phone services.

Uber currently offers SMS text messages, in-app chats and public switched telephone networks to help customers and drivers connect. However, these methods can sometimes fail, which can lead to a dropped connection between customers and drivers. When this happens, business is lost: “Uber found that cancellation rates spiked when riders couldn’t reach their drivers, or vice versa,” The Verge reports.

Uber engineers have been working with GPS tools to prevent dropped connections, especially in urban settings and crowded areas, The Verge Says. VoIP comes in handy here, as it can be used in areas where “cellular connectivity is spotty at best.”

Aside from being able to cut through static and poor cell service, VoIP is helping customers keep some green in their pockets, too. As VoIP expanded across the globe, users, including Uber, found that data calling was cheaper than cellular calls: “For people traveling abroad, the ability to communicate with a driver using an internet connection is significantly less expensive than a roaming call.”

Plus, Uber drivers are able to stay within the Uber app when coordinating pickups with customers, The Verge says, another benefit to business: “This is important for Uber as it’s combating a rise in cheaper alternatives in the ride-hail market and needs to offer new features and benefits that keep drivers using its app,” The Verge says.

The post Uber is Making Customers Happy with VoIP – Here’s How appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Systems and Services

So there is VoIP service and there is the VoIP system. The system will include telephones, central controllers, etc. running on IP within the building, but still connect to traditional PRI or copper lines. A true end-to-end VoIP implementation will include the local long-distance service as well. The voice is travelling through the building and leaving the building through the IP network.

Every phone system vendor has an IP-based offering. The time will likely come where no new implementation will run over separate cabling infrastructures. IP delivers more functionality, more reliability, and less infrastructure requirements. You can run to the same data closet, you can avoid power bricks by running Power over Ethernet (PoE) switching – it consolidates infrastructure which leads to definitive cost savings.

Once you get into the actual service, the cost of IP services have come down dramatically. In most cases, VoIP will cost the same or less than a traditional P1-type service while getting a lot more functionality. You can add in video. You can add in collaboration and presence. You can do extension-to-extension dialing between clients all over the world.

Getting Buy-In from Key Stakeholders

There are really two ways to go about justifying the purchase of a VoIP system.

For those that are using traditional services, depending on the type of VoIP system you wish to purchase and the services involved, the VoIP system may be cheaper than what you’re currently using. That’s a pretty simple sell.

There are also some VoIP systems that are a higher cost than what you’re using now, but include added functionality. That can be a huge selling point. VoIP systems can be bundled to include much more than traditional phone calls. If the cost of a phone/video/collaboration service is more than your traditional phone cost, the ROI comes from the added functionality.

Related: My TechDecisions Podcast – Episode 19, MJ Shoer of Onepath

It depends on the nature of the organization, but at its core, if you’re looking at replacing a critical communication systems, any good CFO is going to be looking for cost savings and increased reliability.

Oftentimes by bundling services you end up with a cheaper price anyway. If your company is paying separate monthly contracts for communication services, then bundling them into the same, single monthly rate of a VoIP service can save many. Many VoIP systems will bundle presence, instant messaging, video and conferencing together. This gives you a flat fee for all communication, easing burden and in many cases saving cost.

This also gives you a better end user experience because everything is in one platform. Employees have a physical handset on their desk and a mobile app on their cellphone. Instead of using wireless telephone features they can open the app and make calls through the app, using the data network and allowing your office number to reach them anywhere. They can make and receive calls, and transfer to different extensions as if they are in the office. It’s great for travelling employees, those that work from home, or those that work in multiple offices around the country.

VoIP brings a more robust failover capability. You can run a VoIP system and tie it to multiple IP connections or technologies. You can use copper backup. You can even leverage 4G and 5G networks for wireless backup. You can absolutely sell the better redundancy when communication is absolutely critical to the business.

Writing an RFP for VoIP Technology

The starting point for writing an RFP for VoIP is the lowest common denominator – cabling.

You need to be sure your existing structured cabling is tested and certified to support VoIP. It may work fine for your data network, but you could still experience signal loss or jitters that can affect call quality. You need to make sure your baseline infrastructure – cabling, switching, routing, VLAN, QOS rules – is up to the task. A truly thorough RFP will ask respondents to look at the network at all of these levels and validate that the system, when installed, will work as advertised.

You don’t want to put out an RFP that results in static on the line and dropped calls and find out that the IT provider is blaming you or another of your other service providers for not having them check the network. If you’re going to have multiple vendors involved, you want to draw clear lines of responsibility so that you and your partners understand who’s responsible for cabling and switching versus phone service versus desktop devices and so on.

It’s not just the physical elements of VoIP that need to be outlined. What are your services going to be? Are they going to be usage based or are you looking for flat fee? Will they be pushed across a standard internet connection or a controlled network like MPLS? Will you use copper back up? You need to think through all the aspects of what a VoIP system could be for you.

Then you should think about the functionality that you want. You will get responses that will throw in features that you have no interest in, and will make it difficult to understand what you’re really paying for. You want to know what the full capability of the solution is.

Voice, video, collaboration, presence, instant messaging, electronic faxing, online meetings – VoIP solutions can offer all kinds of features, but make sure you’re clear about what you want.

You may not need a certain piece today, but as your business grows maybe you will. You don’t want to invest in a system that can’t do something that you need it to do down the line. Then you’re stuck purchasing a new system and starting from scratch. Include both present and potential future features you may need.

Let them know what hardware you’re using. Will it integrate with the new service or will you need an entirely new suite of hardware? Let the IT provider know that you want to know the manufacturer of the hardware. Is it reputable, reliable hardware with a good track record? What’s the warrantee service like? What’s the quality commitment behind the services as well as the hardware? If a handset fails will it be replaced right away or will you need spares on the shelf? Will you need to wait days to receive a new one? Make sure you’re clear about your expectations for services as well as hardware.

Next give them an idea of what you’re using the VoIP service for. What kind of call volume do you experience? What type of calling is done in your office? Many IT providers will ask to review your current billing so that they can better understand what your needs are in terms of service. Let them have it – the more they know the better for you.

Let them know how many users you have that will be using the service. Let them know not only how many people, but where you need different hardware and services? How many huddle rooms do you need to outfit? How many conference rooms? How often do you use these spaces? The more information you give the better the IT provider will be able to accurately make a bid and implement your technology.

Let them know if you’re currently on a contract for one of the services that your VoIP solution will take over. If you’re on a monthly contract you have more flexibility but if you’re on a yearly contract you’ll need to decide whether it makes sense to buy out that contract and implement VoIP now or wait until the contract is expired to start with VoIP.

Finally, let them know what you need in terms of ongoing support. If it’s a simple system, then you’ll have pretty standard SLA response metrics – fixing hardware issues or fixing problems. You want a company that will respond promptly and not leave you waiting. If you have a call-center application, complex routing, auto-attendance, etc. then your service level will extend into programming, development, consulting, and perhaps third-party integration. Let them know up front so you end up with a partner that has those areas of expertise.

Implementation Process

With regard to the implementation process, preparation is key.

In terms of looking at this from the standpoint of a phone system implementation, call flow is the most important thing. You need the preparation so that handsets are programmed properly for the right extensions and the right features. At times you’ll see different types of handsets deployed based on job function and they’ll be programmed differently.

You want to have a solid inventory, especially if you’re coming from a non-VoIP system, of what features are being used. Not all features are replicated one for one in a VoIP system. You need to take into account how calls are processed. Who answers the phone? How do they transfer calls? Do they use paging, intercom, auto-attendance, dial-by-name directory, etc.?

Have a comprehensive inventory of how the current system is functioning and map that to how the new system delivers call flow. If there are major differences, make sure you are training end users leading up to the implementation so they’re ready for the new system.

Likely you’ll need parallel runs where you’re doing test calls and test transfers with the new system. You’ll have two phones at each desk, one for the old and one for the new. This allows employees to get used to the new solution before you fully kill the legacy system. The smaller the implementation, the easier this is to do. For larger implementations you may need to go phase-by-phase over a transitionary period.

Information provided by MJ Shoer of OnePath. Click here to listen to MJ Shoer’s interview on My TechDecisions Podcast and learn more about VoIP.

The post How to Switch Your Organization to Voice Over IP (VoIP) appeared first on My TechDecisions.

It is designed for single zone and multicast paging, as well as interfacing with analog amplifiers and speakers.

“The PA-IP is easy to install and easy to operate. Following the tradition of our popular PA-2A paging amplifier, we have once again brought a cost effective solution to the paging market,” says Bill Heideman, president, Viking Electronics.

The PA-IP connects to a PoE switch with a single RJ45 Ethernet connection and can be programmed as an end point device, as well as part of a multicast paging group for zone paging.

Background music, emergency notifications and school bell/break tones can play through the PA-IP while giving priority to voice paging.

The loud ringing/night bell trigger input can alert employees in noisy areas of a phone call and can also be used for signaling after-hours calls.

The adapter has an amplified output capable of powering five additional 8-Ohm analog ceiling speakers and a line-level output for connecting to an existing amplifier or self-amplified speakers.

Network downloadable firmware and auto-provisioning software is available from the Viking Electronics website and will keep the PA-IP up to date and operating effectively, according to the company.

A security code that protect against unauthorized paging can be activated using the auto-provisioning software. The programmable on-board relay can be used to trigger lights, cameras, door strikes, gate motors and more.

The post Viking Electronics Unveils VoIP SIP Paging Adapter appeared first on My TechDecisions.

As the mobile workforce connects to cloud services, remote servers and virtual private network (VPN) backbones, bandwidth is in increasingly short supply for VOIP and external data connections. To keep their enterprises operating reliably in the face of exponential activity growth, system managers are constantly challenged to expand network capacity.

Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) especially feel the pressure on the data pipeline. Branch locations rely on their wide area network (WAN) connections to run Salesforce, data applications such as site-to-site calling, file-sharing services such as Dropbox, Skype and videoconferencing apps, YouTube tutorials and webinars. All are applications that make collaboration succeed across the enterprise. Yet all these tools soak up bandwidth at a pace well beyond that of desktop apps from only a few years ago.

Back in the home office, even routine internet traffic hogs bandwidth, as staffers take breaks to check Facebook and work to background music from Pandora or internet radio. A company that blocks these everyday services can send workers looking for workarounds, notes PC World — or maybe for other employers.

In some cases, network administrators must provision more bandwidth to provide reliable business phone service and high-performance internet, saysNetworkWorld.com. Otherwise quality of service suffers. What’s at stake is workers’ ability to collaborate, consult with vendors and present a professional image to customers.

What’s behind this technology-driven work slowdown?

How Wide Area Networks Break Down

WANs break down each type of traffic into different priorities for transport and encrypt the traffic over VPNs. Routers send each packet in short hops across the internet toward their destinations. Voice traffic, real-time video and other high priority traffic is expedited over web browsing and non-real-time traffic to minimize network delays.

Without the prioritization, if small businesses were to use the internet only, such network delays force the app to reassemble the message with missing pieces or to buffer the data stream as packets fall into place, notes online programmer community StackExchange. This process slows the stream, and everyone who relies on it. The packets for voice traffic, on the other hand, cannot be re-transmited and re-assembled due to intolerable delays and poor voice quality.

Chances are, tech support teams are using outdated provisioning rules of thumb. Teams can stay on top of their networks’ data use by running tests to measure the traffic that essential apps generate. However, bandwidth estimates have grown more complicated. A single WAN must now carry dedicated voice services, data, site-to-site VPN traffic and internet access.

Adding servers, trunks and switches to expand the network comes at a high cost—especially in the Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) tunnels that link branch offices to data centers, explains Network Computing. These circuit upgrades can be 30 times to 100 times more expensive than broadband internet connections, points out a CDW IT expert on the company’s Solutions Blog. What’s more, such expenditures, should they get approval, will likely build peak-period capacity that will remain unused most of the time.

How To Make Bandwidth Dollars More Cost-Effective

As IT departments are forced to do better with less, they need to explore more cost-effective options. Business-phone-service providers who understand the broader enterprise architecture framework can suggest ways to make bandwidth available on demand at lower cost, often even less than current spending.

Managing network service at a high performance level starts with the realization that not all communications traffic is created equal. Business phone service and video conferencing need high availability, while a “best effort” approach is good enough for everyday web surfing. Traffic shaping policies can manage time-sensitive traffic and throttle less-critical uses at congestion points.

Meanwhile, “smart” wide area network systems, or SmartWAN, employ load balancing to make multiple connections work together, dynamically choosing the best path to serve each application. These software-defined networks can provide the same service level as expensive dedicated lines.

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