IS VOIP right for your Business?
Businesses of any size can take advantage of the new voice, video and data convergence trend known generically as VOIP. By consolidating what have traditionally been separate costs for dial-tone, Internet access, Fax, LAN, and WAN services, businesses can add money directly to their bottom line. Savings are made by increasing productivity, eliminating redundant costs and integrating the management and service of ALL voice and data communications components.
What Does it take to make a move to VOIP?
First, and foremost, a business contemplating the move to unified communications or VOIP, must be engaged with a technology partner who truly understands ALL aspects of voice and data communications and its impact on the bottom line. The scope of options is dizzying and most business owners and officers don't have a full understanding of what the pitfalls might be and might therefore have a difficult time making an informed decision.
Fluid Networks is a partner to our customers for this very reason. We want to make sure that anything we sell stays sold and if we can't sell you something... Well, that's OK too. It is this basic principle that drives us through a highly consultative approach with any company embarking on this process. We've taken the time to evaluate many converged systems along with their supporting gear and services and have hand picked the products we believe offer the best overall options to our customers. Ultimately, we believe that once you are fully informed about all the options you have, the decision makes itself.
As you begin to look at what's out there, you'll find that a solid VOIP solution is based mostly on the proper mix and deployment of the following elements:
- A basic VOIP platform that has a reliable, scalable and manageable architecture which can be shown to provide substantial and unique features over traditional telephone systems, without giving up the features you love. There are traditionally three different categories of Full VOIP solutions, each with their own pluses and minuses, and Fluid Networks offers an option in each one. Please see the table below to get a better idea of what type of solution might best fit your company.
- A solid LAN infrastructure that provides quality of service (QOS) guarantees for your voice and video media and in-line power for your phones. Elements at work here are; whether you need gigabit to the desktop? Further, do you want to do any type of automated call recording? Do you have a centralized wiring plan, or do you have "dumb" LAN switches deployed in many corners of the office? ...etc.
- Wide Area Network connections that take into consideration your need to prioritize voice and video streams that exit your Local Area Network. Not any existing "Internet connection" will do in many cases. A proper balance between cost and functionality must be met for your expectations to be properly met.
- Dial tone that is strategically located in your VOIP solution to take advantage of and provide call path redundancy, lower long distance rates, Direct Inward Dialing (DID's - personalized phone numbers) and other advanced call routing options.
- Availability of and experience with third-party integrations with software, hardware and services. Popular in this area are Microsoft Exchange 2007, Microsoft Office Communications Server, Salesforce.com, Microsoft CRM, Server-based Fax solutions, etc.
- Proactive support services to monitor the quality and availability of your communications infrastructure and provide resources to ensure you have a good experience with your unified communications platform over time. Included here would also be a good hardware and software maintenance plan that does not require you to continually pay for your system with no added benefits or value to your company.
If you are considering purchasing a VOIP system but are not sure what type is right for you, use this table to get an idea of what features will be important to your business. Once you know what type of system you want to look into, click here to go to our VOIP product mix page to learn more about what Products Fluid Networks can offer you . You can also check out our vertical sites for Small Business, Medium Business or Enterprise Business.
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