I’ve written many articles in the past few years regarding VoIP phone systems. Tips for what to buy, reasons to switch to VoIP, and things as simple as “what is hosted VoIP?” but I really haven’t dove into specific benefits for small business. My aim this week is to show you some real world examples that illustrate why making the move to a hosted VoIP phone system will benefit your business.
First lets consider a 4 branch bank that has 6 or 7 phones in each branch. Typically that business will have an older system (10 years or less) that they are trying to milk the most out of since they likely made a large up front investment originally. You want to get every dime out of that investment you can.
A traditional PBX may have SIP capability and allow for VoIP phones but I.T. quickly learns upon investigating an upgrade that the traditional model is all about licensing fees, maintenance fees and cards. It seems like every time you want to change technology there is some new expensive card you have to buy and software updates. Most of the time businesses decide to lump along with what they have. Well let me show you how to can get the functionality your looking for without an expensive upgrade…
VoIP saves Capital
Ditch that old system and move to cloud based Hosted VoIP. It comes fully loaded out of the box meaning all the current software updates, feature functionality is all there without additional investment. Hosted VoIP follows an opex model rather than a capex. What that means to business is you don’t have to dump your cash into a depreciating asset that is expensive to upgrade. Instead you rent the system, which is managed by pros, securely located in a data center and always up to date without additional cost. Benefit #1 – Cash savings.
Modern Functionality
The next benefit you’ll find is feature functionality. It may be that much of the functionality of today’s systems were not used 10 years ago. You might be thinking all we need is a phone, we don’t need all that other stuff. But whats changed in the past 10 years? How about the iPhone? Today we are all used to tons of information at the click of button, constant connectivity to our family and teams, video calls to loved ones. The iPhone changed everything. Managers might think…we don’t need all that functionality but in reality if its not there employees use their personal phone instead. People want the functionality and they will use it one way or another. You might think…well hey it doesn’t cost me anything if they use their cell phone, but the reality is that’s how data networks get breached. Employees using apps on their phone to do things that business doesn’t provide and their phones are not secure. Benefit #2 – Feature functionality
Team Connectivity
Going back to our bank example lets say a loan officer needs a couple quick answers while discussing a loan with a client. On a hosted VoIP system that loan officer will have team messaging and easily shoot an instant message to his superior without leaving the client. He is quickly able to satisfy the client concern and get the deal closed. Or maybe a receptionist greets an important customer that has come to see the CFO but the CFO has his door closed. A quick message can be sent without interrupting whatever business may be going on. And this can be done between any branch, between any employee and oh by the way if the CFO is late getting back from lunch he’ll get that IM on his cell phone app. Benefit#3 – Team connectivity 
Another example could be weekly manager meetings. Maybe our banker CFO is traveling but he still wants to engage his managers and get the week started off right. With a hosted VoIP system he could sit at his laptop in the hotel room, or pull up his iPad at the airport and hold a video conference using his iPad and headphones. You cannot do that on traditional systems and even if you are not doing it now you would be surprised how much you would use it if it was readily available and easy to use. Even the I.T. department could use web conferencing to remote control a users desktop to fix a problem or to train staff on new technology. Benefit #4 – Video and Web conferencing.
The list could go on and on but I’ll end with this. Lets say our banker decides to track customer interactions going in his call center for customer service. The bank spends thousands of dollars on Salesforce or some other ERP/CRM solution. With Hosted VoIP the phones can be integrated with other software to create screen pops, track call volumes, tag notes to client records to improve customer service when clients are transferred around. This is one simple example but software integration is becoming more and more valuable, even allowing employees to text clients to ask for a google review. Benefit #5 Software Integration 
A VoIP phone systems for small business with AI isn’t the future, it’s now and its lease expensive way to improve connectivity with clients and employees to increase productivity and customer satisfaction.
