VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is essentially a telephony solution hosted in the cloud allowing your business to make and receive calls over the internet.
With traditional analogue phone lines being "switched off" by 2025, migrating to a VoIP solution is a straight forward way to future proof your business.
It is no longer possible to purchase traditional analogue phone lines, new provisions will need to enable a VoIP offering.
However, the enablement of VoIP provides a great opportunity as hosted solutions offer a wealth of modern features allowing your team to make and receive external calls from any location, any device; traditional handsets, laptops / pc (via a soft phone) and/ or smart phone apps.
What is the difference between VoIP and Unified Communications?
Whilst VoIP is there to provide telephony services, Unified Communications offers VoIP as a core service but with the ability to bring together additional communication channels such as chat, video conferencing and file sharing.
Unified Communications can also be referred to as UCaaS, Unified Communications as a Service.
Can we keep our existing numbers if migrate to a VoIP or UCaaS solution?
Yes, this is referred to as "number porting" and is a standard part of a telephony migration. Permission is given in order to allow the networks to change providers of a particular number or range of numbers. Our team will manage the process as part of the installation process.
We use Teams internally can we use the teams client to make and receive external numbers?
What are the benefits of VoIP, Unified Communications / UCaaS ?
One number, any location, any device
Users can take calls over the internet allowing them to work from any location, a great way to support remote, hybrid and mobile workers.
Outbound calls will present their corporate direct dial number or a specific main or departmental number.
Calls are made or received via a handset, on their laptop or PC via a client or on their tablet / smart phone using an app depending on their individual needs.
Calls can be transferred to any user on the system, regardless of their location.
Seamlessly move calls from one device to another, For example you could answer a call on your desktop client and swap to your mobile for privacy.
Choice of area codes
VoIP allows your business to select telephone numbers with specific area codes regardless of your physical business location. This feature is great for central offices that manage regional services or retail sites that wish to show a local presence.
Reduce costs
VoIP telephony benefits from free site to site calls therefore, no matter where your staff are based there are no call charges to speak with each other.
Call bundles are available to include a fixed number of minutes which is ideal for those who make large numbers of outbound calls.
There are no separate maintenance charges with cloud / hosted solutions. Service updates are provided as part of ongoing cost per user.
Feature rich
External callers can ring to individuals or groups of users.
Voicemail is provided as standard, with voice messages sent as email attachments for easy management.
Automated attendant features available with ability to record messaging.
Call recording.
Call queueing and basic contact centre features.
In addition to the above UCaaS or Unified Comms solution would provide the following benefits
Chat with colleagues via instant messaging rather than email or other communication methods. This could be on the desktop application or on a smart phone device / tablet.
Escalate calls from voice to a video call often with desktop share and presentation facilities.
Provide meeting links to external contacts to allow the hosting of online meetings.
Share files with other participants.
There are many VoIP and UCaaS solutions available, however, our team are here to support your business in this journey. Cloud9 Business services take the time to understand your business needs, including calling patterns, budget and features required in order to recommend the most suitable solution.
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