Business VoIP is growing in popularity, according to a recent report, as more companies turn to the service to cut telecom costs and improve efficiency and mobility.
The overall VoIP services market was on pace to grow by 17% in 2011, according to a report from Infonetics Research.
And analysts expect that growth to pick up speed over the next few years, especially for business VoIP. Infonetics predicts the number of seats for hosted business VoIP and unified communications services to more than double between now and 2015.
Why are so many companies turning to business VoIP? One big factor is cost, as VoIP services are often less expensive than other types of telephone service.
By using the Internet to make calls, businesses can often avoid paying hefty long distance fees and per-minute charges for their phone use. Business VoIP services often charge a simple flat rate per extension.
But beyond cost, business VoIP has other significant benefits — including greater flexibility for IT, as well as enhanced mobility and productivity for users.
One common complaint about traditional phone systems is the cost and difficulty involved with adding lines, moving employees’ desks to a different part of the office and other system configurations – also known as the Move, Add, Change (MAC) process. With those traditional systems, businesses have to call the supplier, wait for a technician and pay a fee to have the change made through physical rewiring.
But with VoIP, the phone system is configurable by in-house staff through a software application. Adding a line is simple, and users can move their handsets to different locations, and their extensions will follow them.
Business VoIP also has benefits for users, including greater access to their work phone lines when they’re away from the office. Advanced VoIP calling features can easily route calls to cell or home phones, and people can even use software on their computers to make calls using their work number from wherever they are, as long as they have Internet access.
Read more information about selecting and implementing business VoIP systems.