Reasons to Buy Managed VoIP

By Robin Wilding
Updated: July 12, 2011

Managed VoIP services is the ability to have your cake and eat it too. If it were cost-effective, low-maintenance cake.

Managed VoIP, sort of a hosted-lite, means you get the benefits of an on-premise solution without having to do the work yourself. The reasons why businesses are choosing to go with a managed-model VoIP solution are numerous:

Cost

Managed solutions often have lower costs than both on-premise and fully hosted solutions. The savings of having to hire full-time technical staff compounds with the setup, maintenance, and servicing that advanced phone systems require.

Setup

Today's VoIP phone systems are complex, and self-deployment is often out of the question for most small and medium-sized businesses. Managed solutions offer the equipment, software, operations, and technical expertise necessary to help you with your integration, design, and deployment of your network.

Service

The bread and butter of Managed solutions is that they offer you customizable service agreements. Many Managed VoIP companies allow you to call the shots with customer-defined service-level agreements.

Advanced Technology

Managed solutions may or may not be as upgradable as a fully-hosted solution, however the technical assistance you receive will ensure that you understand new VoIP technologies as they come, and that you can be responsive to them. Having someone to upgrade your technology will get it done—doing it yourself will only lead to putting off technology development cycle upgrades.

Predictability

Managed services will ensure that you have 99%+ uptime—something that just will not happen on your own. Having 24-hour round-the-clock assistance makes sure your business stays functional consistently.
The predictability of your monthly expenditures will ensure that you stay on budget—which can help you not only ensure your telecommunications strategy but can also help you plan for upcoming upgrades.

Flexibility with Control

Managed solutions are significantly more flexible than on-premise solutions, since you have someone to make the changes you need—on demand. They are right on par with the flexibility of hosted solutions. But, more importantly you have control to grow or collapse your solution as needed, and you can increase or decrease your technology depending on your needs and budget.

Managed VoIP solutions provide you with the flexibility and control you want for the price you need. It allows you to leverage the technical know-how of experts, and rent a collapsible/expandable solution, on demand—how you want it. Possibly the least flashy of all the reasons is oft the most important—predictability. Predictability is at the core of Managed solutions as it ensures business continuity from a telecommunications, technical and budget perspective.