5 Reasons to Switch to VoIP

By Pha Lo
Updated: July 16, 2012

Voice over Internet Protocol first emerged on the telecommunications scene years ago as a radical new way to make voice calls. Since then, residences and businesses alike have adopted VoIP technology, and in many cases, now use it as their sole form of voice communications.

Today, VoIP is in a growth phase, with new innovations made on an already established technology, providing more reasons to switch from a traditional phone system.

Even with the growth of VoIP as a scalable and reliable solution, the uncertainty of switching over to an entirely new way of communicating can seem daunting. Here we highlight five reasons to make the big move.

Savings:
An original - and generally the most persuasive - argument for adopting VoIP is to obtain long-term costs savings. By bundling incoming, long distance and local phone calls into one place and sending voice over a broadband internet connection, users forgo the complex bills associated with separate uses. Imagine connecting with remote offices, paying one flat rate for a call to any country and paying just one bill at the end of each month: that’s the number one argument for VoIP.

Integrated Communications:
VoIP functionalities have grown from its fledgling days into a fully integrated telecommunications platform. Today’s business needs are varied, so scale and features requirements will range from one operation to the next. To that end, VoIP offers connections between the desktop, voicemail, email and mobile devices to keep pace with business communications.

An Improved Technology:
VoIP technology has been improved tremendously since its inception--those days when lag times in voice communications and unpredictable connections threatened to sever calls are all but gone. Though improvements in call quality will always be a priority for VoIP providers, the risks have been significantly minimized and call clarity has been vastly improved.

Focused Innovation:
As business processes become more complex, traditional phone systems fall short in delivering full capabilities. Vendors invested in VoIP technology have worked hard to keep pace with user demands. Recent VoIP innovations that have made major headlines include remote-wake capabilities for calls to wake PCs, which can help with media management. Traditional features like voicemail and call-routing are also periodically updated to keep pace with demand.

Compliance:
VoIP has made call-recording much more effective. With laws governing compliance as well as quality assurance requirements abound, VoIP could provide the critical bridge for compliance.

A 2009 Forbes.com article listed VoIP as one of “Three Technologies You Need.” Since those days, VoIP technology has proved to be a scalable and reliable asset in the business.