VoIP Phone Service Provides Flexibility

Small to medium size businesses may be thinking about upgrading their aging phone systems, but uncertain about which way to go. Do they buy a modernized and expanded version of the Key Telephone or PBX system they are using and keep everything else the same, or make the jump to VoIP phone service? What many may not realize is the flexibility of options you gain with VoIP solutions.

What differentiates VoIP from traditional telephone equipment and service is that it is network based. True, even a single line analog desk phone or cell phone is part of a network - the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The public telephone network is a very specific network that does one thing really well. It connects one telephone to another or perhaps one phone to a group of other phones for a conference call. It has its own technology and wiring standards. VoIP, on the other hand, is designed to share standard packet based computer networks.

There-in lies the flexibility of VoIP. You plug an IP phone into a network jack, just like you’d plug in a PC or printer. No separate wiring scheme is needed. It doesn’t even matter where the phone is located. IP phones are known by their unique addresses, not which pair of wires they happen to be connected to.

With analog telephones, you have a choice on whether to connect each of your phones to the telephone company on their own line or to install an in-house phone system to connect the phones and share the outside lines. With VoIP, you can also install an in-house phone system called an IP PBX or extend your network with all the phones to a service provider. This approach is called Hosted VoIP or Hosted PBX. The connection is called a SIP Trunk.

SIP Trunking gives smaller businesses the option of getting both their phone service and broadband service from the same provider. The SIP trunk can be divided so that voice packets and data packets don’t interfere. Your phone calls are never interrupted by someone download data at the same time. Using one trunk for both voice and data often results in a cost savings over having separate telephone lines and broadband connections.

Hosted PBX services give you the flexibility of locating your phones wherever you want them. This goes beyond just moving telephones around the building. You can have one phone sitting on a desk in New York and other in Seattle, both connected by SIP trunks to a hosted PBX in Dallas. From the caller’s perspective, all of this equipment could be in one building. They have no perception of how geographically spread out this operation is. This capability is also known as a virtual office.

For larger companies, enterprise level VoIP systems handle hundreds or even thousands of phones located at headquarters, regional sales offices and branch offices nationwide. Private SIP Trunks securely transport voice and data among the locations, avoiding telephone company toll charges for in-house calls. The PBX switching system can be located at any particular location or can be a hosted solution. The beauty of hosted VoIP is that you pay as you go. There is no need for an expensive investment in telephone switching equipment nor the staff to maintain and upgrade it. That’s all handled for you.

Can your company benefit from a more flexible communications system, perhaps including mobile phones as well as desk sets? If so, get pricing and features quotes for competing VoIP service providers. Then compare with what you have now and see if you can gain flexibility and perhaps cost savings as well.

Virtual Office Hosted Telecommunications at Half Price

If you want to upgrade your business telephone system but wince at the cost of buying a PBX system and trying to make it work for your situation, hosted telecommunications could be your solution. Even better, Packet8 business services is now offering their Virtual Office solution at half price for a limited time.

Half off, a 50% discount, sure sounds good. But just what is hosted telecommunications and what does a Virtual Office do that regular telephone service doesn't?

Basically, there are two ways to run a business phone system that consists of more than a couple phones. You can buy the equipment that operates your phones and hire the people to set it up and make changes as they are needed. Or you can have a company that specializes in this "host" the equipment and services at their location. All you need then is to put telephone handsets wherever you want them.

Packet 8 Virtual Office is a hosted telecommunications solution. They have the PBX (Private Branch Exchange) equipment at their headquarters. In this case, it's an iPBX or Internet protocol PBX system because they are leveraging the connectivity of the Internet to make the connections. This is a VoIP telephone system, but without the need to buy and manage network voice equipment at your location.

The Virtual Office is more than just a brand name. It also hints at the difference between this arrangement and a typical business phone system. You can locate your handsets wherever you need them and they don't even have to be in the same building, town or even country. That's right, you can set up a virtual company where your colleagues are all over the world. Yet to outside callers it appears that you are all in one big office.

In fact, to people within your organization it will seem like you are all on the same phone system in one location. You can dial by extension number and not worry where those extensions are physically located. You'll park calls, forward and transfer them at will. There's even a conference bridge included so you can host your own conference calls beyond 3 way calling. Virtual Office integrates with Salesforce and Microsoft Outlook to support your sales and CRM activities.

There's a lot more to this system, so you'll want to learn more about Packet 8 Virtual Office. If you choose to order Virtual Office Unlimited VoIP service with a new IP phone (model 53i, 55i or 57i) and you're a new Packet8 customer, you'll need to enter promo code UEIP25 when going through the checkout process to get the limited time special offer of $24.95 per month instead of the standard subscription rate of $49.99 a month for a full 12 months on a one-year contract. Yes it's really half price, but only from now until December 31, 2008.

Hosted Telecommunications from Packet8

Your business has grown to where a multi-line phones or a simple Key Telephone System just isn't good enough anymore. Yet, the thought of shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for a business PBX system and having to support it is really more than you want to face. Is there anything in-between for the in-between size company?

You bet there is. It's called hosted telecommunications. The difference between hosted solutions and the traditional Private Branch Exchange is that the PBX or call center functionality is hosted somewhere else. Think of it like a hosting service for your Web site. You have all the functionality of an in-house system, but there is no rack of equipment in the telephone closet. Instead, you have the full featured business phones on your desks. They communicate via broadband network connections to the provider that maintains all that telephone equipment.

Packet8 is a leader in hosted telecom services for small to medium businesses. They helped pioneer the adaptation of VoIP technology with sophisticated calling features for companies that don't have and don't really want the burden of maintaining their own telephone systems. Their most popular business product is called "Packet8 Virtual Office." They also have an expanded product called "Complete Contact Center." This extension of the Virtual Office gives you call center capability without having to invest in building a stand alone call center.

Packet8 Virtual Office is a hosted iPBX solution that grows with your business. The term "virtual" is important. Your office can consist of separate sites anywhere in the world. For instance, you could have locations with one phone each in all 50 states. The Packet8 Virtual Office will tie them together like they were in one large office building with 50 phones. Smaller companies might consist of several collaborators located in different cities. With Virtual Office, everyone can dial everyone else with 3 digit extensions.

Other familiar PBX functions provided by Packet8 Virtual Office include voicemail, call forwarding, call transfer, conference bridging, call park / call pickup, ring groups, do not disturb, music on hold, Caller ID, distinctive ringtones, and automated attendant. You also get integration with Microsoft Outlook that coordinates your phone and PC so you get screen pops based on your Outlook Contacts.

With the screen pops, you are entering the realm of call center capability. As your needs advance beyond the Virtual Office capabilities, consider Packet8 Complete Contact Center. This sophisticated hosted telecommunications service adds call center features such as skill based routing, monitor and barge-in for supervisor, call recording, and CRM that creates a Web based tool to manage customer interactions. The Contact Center scales from 1 to 100 agents, so your call center can start small and grow with your needs.

Packet8's hosted telecommunications services are based on full-featured business telephones with network adapters so they communicate through your Local Area Network and to the Internet through a Wide Area Network connection. High quality business broadband connections are needed at each location to ensure high voice quality and functionality. That also means that you can have a virtual office location anywhere you can get a high quality broadband connection. Locate your business downtown or out in the boonies. Or some combination of both.

Is your SMB (Small to Medium sized Business) ready for the professional capabilities of a PBX system, but at a price appropriate for your budget? If so, take a few minutes to learn more about Virtual Office Hosted Telecommunications Services from Packet8.