What Is a VoIP Business Phone System?

A VoIP business phone system is a cloud-based telephone system that uses the internet to transmit voice calls as digital signals. This means your business will have no need for a traditional phone line; you’ll only need a reliable broadband connection.

VoIP is also referred to as IP telephony, cloud-based telephony, broadband telephony, and broadband phone service. If you have come across any of these terms, they are all referring to telephone systems stored in the cloud, rather than on-premises.

Is VoIP Any Good for A Business?

Choosing a business VoIP system makes good sense for businesses of all sizes, but particularly SMEs.

To establish a VoIP telephone system, no on-site hardware is needed. You don’t need to have massive telephone system hardware in your office, and you also don’t have the substantial upfront costs associated with setting up a traditional telephone system.

With VoIP telephone systems, you only pay for what you need. Handsets and ‘licences’ are paid for on a monthly basis, meaning no upfront costs and no hardware that you don’t need to be paying for. You need a licence per VoIP phone, so one licence per employee that has a phone. VoIP licences are much cheaper than phone lines. You only need one line into your business to use many VoIP phones, so choosing a cloud-based telephone system is inexpensive.

VoIP telephone systems are completely future proof, come with a multitude of advanced features, and grow with the businesses using them. There is no better telephone system for businesses of any size.

Advantages of VoIP Telephone Systems

We’ve explained that VoIP is future proof and scalable, but there are many other advantages over traditional telephone systems too. Here are some of the advantages of VoIP telephone systems that you need to know.

VoIP Is Cheaper

Installing a VoIP telephone system doesn’t require any of the hardware you would need for a traditional telephone system. Hardware can be expensive, particularly when you have to pay for it immediately without any kind of instalment package. Since no hardware is needed, VoIP is much cheaper.

Your VoIP telephone system is stored in the cloud and calls are made over the internet, further reducing the costs of creating your telephone system. Your voice call travels over the internet instead of over the traditional copper infrastructure, so calls are much cheaper.

If you want VoIP handsets for your business, suppliers often let you pay for them on a monthly basis. You choose how many handsets you want and how long you want them for, and your supplier will charge you for them over time. This means no upfront investment and a fixed monthly bill that you can budget for.

VoIP Is Accessible from Anywhere

Your VoIP telephone system isn’t tied to any location. While you will use your telephone system in your office, you can also access it when you are at home or anywhere else in the world. A traditional telephone system can only be used in the place that it is set up, because it is made up of physical hardware. Because VoIP telephone systems are hosted in the cloud, you can use your system through web-based services and apps in locations other than your office.

If you are always travelling and need to be able to answer calls regardless of where you are, a VoIP telephone system makes more sense for your business than a traditional one. You can take your telephone system with you, no matter where you are, so that you never miss an important call again.

VoIP Comes with A Range of Advanced Features

VoIP telephone systems offer a great deal more than the ability to make and answer calls. All cloud-based telephone systems come with a range of useful functionality at no extra cost.

A VoIP telephone system has many useful features, such as the ability to create hunt groups, set up different voicemails for different time of day, and queue callers waiting to connect to one of your team. These examples are just some of the many advanced features that are available to businesses using VoIP telephone systems. To find out more about the advanced call management features that are available with a VoIP telephone system, please visit our dedicated VoIP page where we have a comprehensive list of features available.

VoIP Is Completely Future-Proof

As we mentioned earlier in this article, BT are in the process of turning off the ISDN and PSTN infrastructure. The reasoning behind this is to devote all their resources on its modern digital fibre solutions.

VoIP is stored in the cloud and is software-based, rather than using any hardware. As a result, VoIP will continue advancing through software updates. Your telephone system will get better and better over time, with new features and improved quality as the years go on. Unlike traditional telephony, which looks set to be left behind, VoIP will continue to improve forever.