In addition to the rich feature sets that IP PBX systems offer, the table below lists the key benefits of deploying VoIP.
| Reduced Call Costs |
Cheaper external calls - long-distance and international calls can be made for the price of a local call.
For example, compared to BT’s standard business rate: - Local / National: cheaper by 67-87% There’s no need for prefix numbers and there is no use of ‘grey routes’ (routing calls through several carriers, often leading to lost calls or a service that simply ceases). |
*** |
| Free internal calls - calls are free to all parts of the business that share the same network. | * | |
| Free site to site - and IP to IP - calls. With a Virtual Private Network (VPN), employees can communicate with different sites or on the road for free. | *** | |
| Reduced Expenditure | Reduced costs: PBX system / service. The capital outlay for an IP PBXs is generally less than a like-for-like traditional PBX system. | ** |
| Reduced costs: telephone lines / ISDN services. IP telephony can mean a considerable reduction in the number of existing telephone lines and/or ISDN channels required. | ** | |
| ‘Greener’ | Less travel for home workers. | ** |
| Integration of the telephone and computer networks means less physical wiring required: no need for ‘phones-only’ cabling. | * | |
| Conference calling. All but the most basic IP phones offer call conferencing for multiple caller instances. Conference calls may be made from a physical IP handset or from a computer soft phone. Specialised IP-enabled conference room phones are also readily available. Back to top ^ |
** | |
| Perceptions | SMB sized businesses appear enterprise sized. IP PBX systems deliver a wide range of features, common on traditional high end enterprise PBX products. | *** |
| Employees appear to be on one site, but can be multi-sited, home-working or roaming. | ** | |
| Flexibility & Productivity |
IP telephony is ‘user based’, meaning a user is not tied to a traditional extension or phone socket in the wall. Any user can log onto any phone and use it as their extension. | ** |
| For the reasons detailed in the above point, hot-desking becomes a cheap, simple and cost-effective possibility. The cost savings associated with hot-desking range from promotion of flexible working practices through to reduced office overheads such as business rent and rates. | ** | |
| Keeping roaming employees in contact. | *** | |
| Ease of fully-functional home working. Gone are the days when working from home meant back-office paperwork: IP telephony means your homeworkers can function as front line staff as if there were at their office desk. | *** | |
| Home-working and other flexible working practices ensures greater staff retention. | ** | |
| Reduced Skills Requirement |
Multi-site companies no longer require switch-board staff per site; one operator or team of operators (located centrally or disparately),can support all sites. | ** |
| With one integrated network, there is a reduced requirement for both telephony and IT skill sets and/or support contracts. | ** | |
| Standardisation | Standardisation of equipment / training. Standardisation of phones and user applications ensures simplified training management, some of which can be achieved through on-line tutorials and screencasts. | ** |
| Scalability | IP telephony systems are simple and quick to update and enhance. For example, additions or changes actioned within minutes by unskilled employees. | *** |
| Interconnectivity | IP PBX’s can inter-connect with traditional PBX systems. This is particularly important for companies tied into long term equipment or service contracts. The benefits of VoIP are available now even to long term contract legacy PBX users. Back to top ^ |
*** |
| Simplicity | Telephony disaster / recovery. Should a disaster occur IP telephone systems offer superior recovery. Business continuity is swift and in some cases automated. | *** |
| Stability & resilience. IP telephony is capable of excellent failover and resilience, ensuring continuation of your telephony service. | *** | |
| Computer-telephony Integration (CTI) | Computer-telephony integration with applications such as Outlook: voicemails can be sent as attachments to emails. Synchronisation takes place such that after listening to and then deleting a voice message via your phone, the voicemail sent as and Outlook attachment will automatically delete (and vice versa). | ** |
| ‘Click-to-dial’ from applications such as Outlook: right click on a contact, select ‘Dial’ and the call will be automatically be instantiated on your phone. | ** | |
| Presence, which is an indication of the current state of a user, such as available or busy, is a feature once used is often described as essential. Call handling rules can be quickly and easy set up within minutes and unique to each user, e.g.: ‘Divert all calls to mobile when my presence is set to At Lunch’, or ‘Between 5pm and 6pm on Monday to Friday, divert all calls to my mobile but from 6pm divert them to voicemail’ (this examples for use when an employee travels home on the train where he/she is happy to take calls, but when they are at home they no longer wish to receive calls). | ** | |
| Instant Messaging: another benefit often described as invaluable once used owing to the speed of response: emails are often ignored and can take time and storage space, but instant messages are rarely ignored. Instant messaging is of particular use when wanting to message a colleague whilst on the phone, or when arranging meetings. | ** | |
| Ease of faxing: send and receive faxes via computer, e.g.: send a fax directly from Microsoft Word or Excel, receive faxes to your - or your hunt group’s - desktop. | ** | |
| Incoming call pop-ups: notification of an incoming call is made via subtle screen pop-ups. Back to top ^ |
** | |
| Integration with CRM systems for client detail screen pop-ups. | *** | |
| Use of desktop computer ’soft phones’ can negate the need and cost of physical handsets. | ** | |
| Call recording (and archiving). Call recording can be ‘on demand’, automated for all incoming or all outgoing or both – without the need for additional expensive hardware. Call recording provides a detailed audit for legal compliance and employee protection. Calls can be archived, either locally or remotely. | ** | |
| System Management | Call Detail Reporting. Detailed reports can be easily analysed, allow team performances and trends to be identified ensuring better management of both human and physical resources, e.g.: are calls being lost?, how long are callers held in queues?, how long on average are calls ringing before answer?, how many concurrent calls are being made?, who takes the most calls? | *** |
| Automatic system messages and notifications. IP telephony systems have automated alarming and notification functionality such that system messages or metrics can be analysed against certain criteria and performance thresholds, to determine if an alarm should be triggered. Such messages and notifications can be emailed to support staff to recognise issues and take appropriate, often preventative, action. | *** | |
| Cost Models | Both operational expenditure and capital expenditure models to suit. Back to top ^ |
** |
Key:
* = Good benefit
** = Dramatic benefit
*** = Essential benefit
