Over the last year, companies have had to completely rethink how they operate internally as well as how they serve customers. The pandemic changed life dramatically and impacted just about every part of business operations.
Companies that were already prepared with a full cloud infrastructure had far less disruption than those that were still using legacy systems that were not easily accessed from another location.
One of the biggest “anchors” when it comes to the need for employees to work from home or on the road is the company phone system.
Landline phone systems have been the norm for a while, it’s just “been the way it’s always been done.” But during the COVID lockdowns, having company phone numbers attached to an office-locked location became a liability.
While you can forward a number to another line, what about outgoing calls? Forwarding also doesn’t give someone the same professional experience when calling your office. Employees cannot transfer calls to another person, for example.
Those are just a few of the reasons that companies scrambled to find alternatives, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) was the answer.
VoIP phone systems offered companies a way to keep their business operating and their team connected to each other and their customers, even with everyone working away from the main location.
If you haven’t yet made a permanent switch to VoIP, here’s why it’s past time to do so.
Remote Working Is Here to Stay
Sending employees home to work became a necessity during the last year. Many businesses had little choice. But something happened during that time that has made this a transition that’s not going anywhere for a lot of companies.
Business owners realized that enabling employees to work from home provided:
- Significant cost savings for everyone
- Increased productivity
- Improved business continuity (should another similar event come along)
- Enhanced employee satisfaction
- Higher employee retention
- Reduced needs for office space, furniture, etc.
67% of surveyed businesses say that they are going to keep work-from-home employee policies post-pandemic.
The cloud-based nature of VoIP phone systems allows companies to easily enable the same types of phone interactions with a remote team as they enjoy when using office-based phones.
VoIP Offers Significant Cost Savings Over Traditional Phone Systems
Saving money is great anytime, but it’s particularly helpful now with many companies coming back after the pandemic shutdowns.
The types of cost savings that can be realized after switching to VoIP mean a significant benefit to a company’s bottom line. For example, small businesses can reduce monthly costs for local calling by as much as 40%, and save up to 90% on international calls.
Several cumulative impacts mean major reductions in phone costs when switching to a cloud-based system. Savings areas include:
- No expensive hardware costs
- No installation costs
- No ongoing hardware maintenance
- Lower costs on monthly calling plans
You Don’t Lose Important Features (Instead, You Gain Several)
Companies that drag their feet about moving to a cloud VoIP business phone system often worry that they’ll have to give up some of the features they enjoy on a landline. But VoIP has come a long way in the last 15 years. It not only can match the traditional features of a legacy analog system, but it also offers cloud-based features that landlines can’t.
Typical VoIP features that you may recognize from your landline phone include:
- Call transfer (including supervised transfer option)
- Call park
- Company directory
- Auto-attendant
- Group ring
- Hold music
- Call recording
- Voicemail
- Ability to call landlines, other VoIP lines, and mobile numbers
- Calling queue
- Conference calling
Cloud-based features that you enjoy with VoIP that you don’t typically get with a landline are:
- Automatic voicemail transcription
- Voicemail to email
- Presence indicators for your staff
- Ability to switch to video from a voice call
Easily Scale Up or Down
Adding a new line for a legacy phone system involves having the phone company install another line and having your phone system provider add hardware that enables that line to be answered. Even adding another staff extension can be pricey and requires a hardware purchase upfront.
This is an involved process and it’s not a cost you can recoup if you no longer need that additional line later.
With VoIP, you can easily and affordably add another business number or extension at the click of a button. You only ever have to pay for what you’re using and can drop a line or user from your plan at any time.
A cloud-based phone system gives you the type of scalability that you don’t have with an analog phone system.
Get Help With a Cost-Efficient Switch to a VoIP Phone System
AhelioTech can help your Columbus area business with a full-featured VoIP phone system that will save you on your monthly phone costs and give you multiple features that will benefit you today and into the future.
Contact us today for a free quote. Call 614-333-0000 or reach out online.
