| Every small business has a struggle to keep up with | | | | of the country, you'll be paying local call charges |
| it's larger competitors. One of the areas that can be | | | | across the board. |
| hard to compete with is investing in the lastest | | | | You also have the opportunity to offer toll free |
| technology. | | | | numbers on your VOIP system. Previously, achieving |
| VOIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol technology is | | | | this through a regular phone operator was costly but |
| one of the areas where small business can find a cost | | | | now small businesses can offer their customer a free |
| effective solution to enable them to compete more | | | | of charge contact number with very little cost to the |
| effectively in the market place. | | | | actual business itself. |
| What Is VOIP. | | | | Flexible Technology |
| Is a nutshell, VOIP is a way of using the Internet to | | | | It's not just phones that can utilize VOIP technology. |
| route all of your existing telephone communications. As | | | | The range of modern gadgets that can access data |
| well as voice data, you can also send video streams | | | | and voice services includes cell phones, laptops, PDA's |
| and data. This has massive cost saving implications as | | | | and other handheld devices. This means that small |
| your business only has to deal with one type of | | | | businesses can have flexibility in the way they |
| telecommunications network. | | | | communicate in the office or when away at meetings |
| If you already have a broadband network in your | | | | or business trips. |
| office, then this will probably be the way you access | | | | Conference calls are also made much easier through |
| your VOIP network. Your phone lines will become | | | | VOIP. Special software can enable several users to |
| more or less redundant and you will immediately see | | | | get on the same call, pretty much at the click of a |
| the benefits of getting rid of this unnecessary expense. | | | | button. What's more, video conferencing is much |
| If you wish to upgrade in the future, you might want to | | | | easier to facilitate and can be accomplished with |
| look into the possibility of a fiber optic connection, as | | | | inexpensive software and web cams as opposed to |
| this will give you higher data speeds and better | | | | expensive dedicated hardware. |
| communications in terms of video networking. | | | | You'll also save money on many services that |
| Saving Money | | | | traditional phone companies like to bill you for as |
| One of the biggest benefits of small business VOIP | | | | extras. Feature like call forwarding, Call waiting, and |
| solutions is a reduction on phone bills. Because all of | | | | three way calling are easily to set up with a VOIP |
| your calls are routed through the Internet, geographical | | | | solution and don't require costly additional hardware or |
| location becomes irrelevant. So if you have a large | | | | a subscription. |
| number of customers abroad or living on the other side | | | | |