The end of the road for ISDN? – The transition to VoIP
The world is constantly changing and evolving – some would say almost too quickly for businesses to keep up. We are living in a technological age that opens up possibilities that most of us couldn’t have dreamt of even 10 years ago – our lives now rely entirely on how capable the technology we have at our disposal is. With the number of options available in regard to communication, collaboration, and productivity on the market today it can be a very difficult time to find the one that will be most effective for the way you want to do things.
Technological advancements combined with the recent pandemic has led many businesses to adopt an at least partial remote working environment. Businesses have been trying their best to manage this rapid change as best they can, but, due to the uncertainty of recent years, these efforts have not always been sufficient for long term success. Many have realised that the long-term solution that they choose needs to be capable, flexible, and manageable now and in the future.
Why VoIP?
In the previous article we outlined that ISDN is nearing the end of its life. With traditional phone systems being very expensive, and VoIP rapidly becoming cheaper it is without doubt the better option for the modern business.
- The office setting from anywhere
There are times when working away from the office is enormously beneficial the only problem is when your clients know that you are on the first tee, at the beach, or on your boat soaking up some sun they may misunderstand the “out of the office” message. VoIP allows you and your team to appear in the office no matter where you are as long as you have a stable internet connection. This allows your clients to continue operating as normal, transactions are the same, communication appears the same, and crucially the number they call is the same regular number they have become accustomed to calling, and the greeting they receive upon making the call is still the same as it always is. It is these consistencies that provide great comfort to your client base that you may not even have considered until now.
- VoIP allows you to take that professionalism with you anywhere. That first touchpoint a client experiences can be key to establishing a relationship. A consistent professional, knowledgeable, and friendly first contact goes a long way to providing the foundation upon which relationships are built.
VoIP fills the hole left by Voicemail. Of course, some organisations still use it, but for most modern businesses it is simply too slow and doesn’t really serve enough of a purpose to make it worthwhile.
VoIP allows you to choose where your calls ring which allows you to get rid of Voicemail forever. You could theoretically make the first rings take place at the office where you spend the majority of your time, the second could take place at your home, and the last through to your mobile, the choice of combination is up to you. VoIP allows you to offer something relatively unique to your clients, you can make a guarantee that you will not – under any circumstances – miss their call.
- Feature versatility
VoIP has many features that make it stand out from the rest, but the obvious one to discover is Voicemail-to-text. Voicemail-to-text takes a transcript of your voicemail message for you and sends them directly to your inbox. Again, it offers something unique, you can now deliberately miss those calls that you simply don’t have time for. We all have a client that likes a chat and sometimes there simply isn’t time for that, this allows you to avoid that without being rude. Alternatively, if you accidently miss a call you can carry on your day as normal without the worry that you have missed something really important. You can simply go back to it later and read what it was about and act accordingly.
- Reliability
Like every system there are flaws of course. If you lose internet connection, you also lose telephony connection. We understand that there is no way of running a successful business whilst constantly panicking that you are going to lose the ability to communicate with not just your client base but also each other and your suppliers – this would be a disaster and could result in serious ramifications for the entire organisation. But, with VoIP set up correctly this problem becomes irrelevant, call forwarding allows everyone to work from anywhere as we said. Problems at the office, don’t worry, just pick up your laptop and go and work from elsewhere.
- Increased mobility of service
The speedy transition to remote working was a tricky one with traditional phone lines running to a specific number. It forced employees to remember loads of different codes and keys that they had to dial in the correct order for their telephone at home to appear as the office number.
VoIP makes service mobility possible. One day your entire workforce can be in the office, and the following day they can all be at home. VoIP allows your team to continue working no matter how extenuating the circumstances are – for example members of your team may not be able to make it due to train trouble, if this is the case they can simply go back home and continue working from there.
If used and managed correctly VoIP has the power to transform your business into a more flexible, secure, and manageable version of itself.
Your VoIP specialist
We launched Premier 35 years ago, and in that time have supported businesses both locally and nationally; we’ve always had a passion for enabling people to stay connected and we’ve grown to provide a whole range of bespoke unified communications investing in, managing and offering new technologies as they evolve
We work closely with small; medium and enterprise level businesses and our core values remain strong; we will work smoothly and efficiently as a part of your team to deliver our high standards in cutting edge, creative communication solutions. Thanks to our years of experience, we understand the importance of staying ahead of the curve and pride ourselves on understanding and embracing the latest innovations to offer you complete peace of mind and the best of what’s available.
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