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Comparing VoIP Phone Systems

Deciding on the VoIP telephone system and service that is right for your business is a critical part of ensuring the efficacy of your business communications. With the current selection of VoIP options that are available, finding one that suits your business’ individual needs shouldn’t be all that difficult. With a bit of careful comparison and research, your business will be able to upgrade to a communications platform that will significantly increase your communications abilities, and probably save you significant expense in the process.

What is it you Need?

This seems like a basic question, but it is one that is often overlooked. Defining the actual communications needs of your business in realistic terms will help you to define the requirements that you need to specifically look at with potential systems and service providers.

Typically, VoIP systems can help businesses function more effectively and solve communications issues in several ways.

• Cost effectiveness – VoIP phone systems can save enormous expense for many businesses. By providing low (or no) cost long distance calling, free toll-free extensions, unrestricted minutes for mobile calling, and remote local prefix telephone numbers to businesses, VoIP systems can provide top-flight packages at a fraction of the expense of the traditional alternatives.

• Increase functionality/productivity – With feature-rich option packages available on most systems and the added benefit of enabling remote office extensions, VoIP systems can greatly extend the functionality and productivity of your organization.

• Scalability – VoIP systems are typically geared toward ease of deployment and scalability for business use. These systems are generally set up to make it easy for businesses to add/remove lines, change service plans or features, and rapidly make changes to their networks.

What’s Out There?

Once you have determined what the most important aspects of your VoIP telephone system should be, it is time to start gathering information regarding the best alternatives that are available to you. There are many resources online and most of the major VoIP service providers and systems manufacturers have made it easy to find technical specifications for their offerings on their websites.

Here at Compare Business Products, we have compiled articles reviewing the pros and cons of different VoIP providers, technical whitepapers outlining the service and product details that your business should be looking for, and the latest releases and market changes in the VoIP world to keep you up to date with what is available to you. We’ve done our best to compile the information from many different sources so that you have a resource to inform your buying decisions.

How to Find the Best Fit

In selecting the best provider for your VoIP service or system, you should refer back to the needs that you identified earlier for your business. While there are services available that offer packages with components that appeal to each of the different target business consumers, most will have a focus on one or two areas over the others.

• If you have determined that ultimately your business depends on your phone system and cannot afford a service interruption under any circumstances, then your best bet would be to gravitate toward the systems with built in redundancy and/or providers whose main focus is on network uptime.

• If, on the other hand, your business is primarily focused on the cost effectiveness of VoIP systems, then you would be better served by one of the many providers that offer packages with extraordinarily competitive rates, but doesn’t necessarily provide the bells and whistles when it comes to features and options.

Each business has different communications needs, and there are presently options to fit almost any set of needs that you might have. Once you have identified the realistic needs and expectations that your business has of a new VoIP telephone system, you will be able to find a service provider or system manufacturer willing to tailor a product to fit those needs.