Just a few days ago, during a meeting my co-worker referred to voice over internet protocol (VoIP) as an open road for communication, collaboration, and increased productivity.
Let me elaborate. VoIP, in its purest form, is a digital communications solution that delivers voice services over your internet connection rather than over analog copper landlines. The best VoIP operates through a fiber connection, which is exponentially faster than an old-school landline and current basic internet service speeds. So, in essence, my co-worker was saying that it’s a “road” that allows other solutions to travel on it like “cars.”
So, what drives on the road? That’s really up to you. VoIP can integrate with your current network application and provide faster all-around communication. Hot applications right now address office tools such as video conferencing, instant messaging and presence. These are the cars on the road.
This theory of my co-worker’s got me thinking…I don’t think VoIP is a road at all. I think it’s so much more. With a landline you can talk to one person, sometimes three (remember party line calls from the 80s and 90s?), at a time and you can pay astronomical charges for long distance calls. Not with VoIP, so put that money back in your bank!
Fiber provides speeds so fast that no matter what you are doing with VoIP (talking, collaborating, video conferencing, co-editing content), you won’t be driving, you’ll be flying.
Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.
On Mobility
One of the greatest benefits of VoIP is the enhancement to your workplace mobility it can provide. You can work and communicate from anywhere on any device, so long as you have an internet connection and VoIP enabled applications. This ends up benefiting your business on many levels.
First, you have to consider the remote workers. Think of how many times you’ve left the office only to have a phone call you were waiting for come in 10 minutes after the end of day. Or, what about that time you needed to gather 6 employees from 3 offices into a single landline conferencing service? Not easy, not cheap.
Another aspect of this mobility is the flexibility of VoIP. Since you are accessing information from a common user interface, you don’t have to use a single, static platform. For example, if you are on your cell phone, Jack is on his laptop, and Maya is on her tablet, you can all speak to one another without a hiccup via common interface applications.
Both of these factors contribute to a huge boost in productivity. The average mobile worker saves 55 minutes per day.
With VoIP, your phone goes wherever you go, which means you, and your employees, are able to maintain real-time communication at all times with each other and your clients. This, too is on trend. As of 2017, 37% of the US claims to telecommute at least part time.
Get with the Times
Landlines are an inefficient way to transmit information, and are under review to stop being serviced come 2025 by the FCC. Part of keeping your business on the cutting edge is knowing when to transition to smarter technology.
You wouldn’t run your computers on Windows ‘95, or pick your favorite client up for lunch in the ‘72 Trans Am you drove in high school. Same deal with your phone systems. You want to be able to rely on them to provide a superior connection and to integrate with modern features like video conferencing.
Give us a call…
Here at Xpert, we’re the premium grade VoIP provider in Detroit and surrounding areas. We use implement a phone system called xPhone and we’d love to share more about that with you. Just give us a call or send us a message. No strings attached. Part of making Detroit grow is making sure you guys have the right tech.