Have you heard of hosted VoIP business phone systems? VoIP, or “Voice over Internet Protocol,” is essentially the ability to communicate over Internet phone lines as opposed to traditional phone lines. This means many advantages over traditional systems, especially when it comes to business; however, there are also some disadvantages.

advantage

effective cost

Hosted VoIP office systems are very cost effective. This is especially true if your business makes a lot of international calls; With hosted VoIP business phone systems, you typically pay nothing more than your Internet access fee, which is usually a flat fee every month. With traditional phone services, you pay per minute, and this cost increases depending on the distance of the call. Hosted VoIP systems are also much more flexible and easier to set up and add, which means they’re also cheaper to maintain, another cost-effective consideration.

Wide variety of features at little or no additional cost

With traditional business systems, you have to pay for installation and for each phone line installed; you also have to pay extra for any features you use, and you may have to pay extra for additional voicemail accounts, adding additional users, etc. This is typically not true with hosted VoIP business phone systems. Additional calling features like caller ID and call forwarding usually cost you more, but this is not usually true with plans through hosted VoIP office phone systems.

Call forwarding can be especially useful if, for example, you spend a lot of time away from your office and need to be able to reach your office “on the go”. VoIP typically gives you the ability to stay connected no matter where you are, anywhere in the world.

Flexibility and expandability, with little or no additional cost

With hosted VoIP systems, you can usually add users, additional voicemail boxes, etc., through an easy-to-use web administration interface; Depending on your plan, you may not pay extra for these additions, and you can usually easily manage them yourself.

Cons

There are also some disadvantages of hosted VoIP office phone systems that you will need to be aware of:

Must have high speed internet access

If you don’t have high-speed Internet connectivity, you won’t be able to have one of the many hosted VoIP business phone systems available until your area has access to it. This is becoming less of a problem as more and more areas around the world “go online”, but there may still be areas where you won’t be able to access high speed internet.

Sound quality can be lacking

Once again, as technology advances, poor sound quality is no longer an issue. However, in certain areas, hosted VoIP business phone systems can sometimes have very poor sound quality compared to traditional landline phone systems.

If the power or Internet goes out, you don’t have a phone

Traditional landline phone systems using phone lines generally work for calls on at least a basic level, even if power goes out in the area; Also, since they don’t depend on the Internet for connectivity, it doesn’t matter if the Internet is gone or not; you can still make calls. However, hosted VoIP office phone systems rely on electricity and Internet connectivity to function. If you lose them, you’re out of luck until the internet comes back online and power is restored.

Overall, the advantages that a hosted VoIP system offers far outweigh the disadvantages and help your business run efficiently.