Is a VoIP phone service a smart option for a single-location office?

Rick,

I would not recommending purchasing a traditional system for many reasons. First, you are purchasing old technology. Second, you will be left without many of the features/savings that VoIP provides and traditional systems usually cost more to service.

If cost is any issue stay away from proprietary PBX's and look towards open source like Asterisks for premise based and if you want to save capital look at a Hosted solution.

I agree with the previous answer. Sounds like your business is too small to warrant a PBX in the first place. With your basic set of needs, I think you should get a basic hosted VoIP service. The cost will be manageable, you won't have any headaches, and you'll actually get even more options than your current system. Plus it's so much easier to support working from home or when your contractors are working away from the office.

I would recomend it. VOIP is Cheap. You have to get the correct provider behind you. It has to be installed with QOS and you wont have any problems.

There are a number of VOIP telephone providers out there in the industory that are not deploying ths correctly.

Rick,

I agree with all the previous comments, but I can possibly add something valuable to you.

Indeed, you need to figure out first what your tactical needs and strategic goals are, then you need to see what features you already have, what extra features you really need to purchase, and then choose a solution that can be the most suitable and cost effective for you.

Let’s assume that your goal is to organize an efficient collaborative environment that would allow your team to improve their effectiveness regardless whether they are located at work in the same office block or at the customer site, at home, in a hotel or in a car, etc.

This is possible today with some extraordinary features offered by what is now commonly referred to as the “Cloud computing”…

For example, if you have access to the Internet in your office (if you read this, I’m sure you do…), you are already using (or planning to use) the Internet connected Smartphones (such as iPhone, etc.) or any other portable computing device, and you are often on the move, then you need to think about obtaining some “Cloud –based” capabilities that allow you and your team to virtually be (i.e. feel as if you were) at your desks (literally, with a computer and a phone on them…), any time you need to be at work regardless your real physical location.

To achieve this, apart from the normal PBX features in your office, such as the free internal calls, call transfers, voicemail etc., what you and your team really need is a hosted virtual collaborative environment that can be easily accessed via the Internet when you are either in or away from your physical office.

This is possible with one of our products called Office Connections Manager – OCM. It provides you with the necessary hosted IP PBX features accessible from anywhere you are, plus it gives you the access to the internal web-based e-mail, presence tracking, task tracking, contact database system, implements the caller identification, calls statistics and more. The system is accessible via a web browser, and does not require any maintenance, configuration, any special IT skills to use.

This way you and your team mates are always reachable when they are available at work (being at work really means being on-line), but if they are not (e.g. you don’t want to be disturbed), you just sign-off, and check your messages next time. Your presence/absence and your working hours are recorded… The system does not require any setup or maintenance. Of course, when you are in your real office, it’s always there too!

You can choose any VoIP to fixed telephony gateway provider, so you can keep your existing fixed line number, and you get connected in a blink of an eye. We would normally charge a fee per user per month (similar to the ordinary hosted IP BPX charges of other companies), which depends on the number of users (the more users you have the less it costs), and it’s a fully deductable expense as opposed to an in house asset which may be subject to long-term Capital Gains Taxation.

We can offer you a free trial without any obligation, and you always have the full freedom of choice at any point in time (unlike when you buy something and keep it in your cellar for centuries… ).

This also gives you a potential for the unlimited growth of your office infrastructure as your business grows. You can instantaneously setup your virtual desks or entire offices in any part of the country or of the globe when you need to at a reduced cost.

There is a lot more to it, and if you are interested, you can have a look at our website, and read the brochures. Please get in touch with me if you are interested and want to try it, or to discuss this in detail.

Best Regards,

Denis

denis.tokarevski@aistnetworks.com

Derek is right on the money! There is such a misconception about IP phone systems vs. IP applications. First of all, if you look at the top 4 providers of phone systems in general; Avaya, NEC, Cisco, and Mitel, they only offer VoIP Phone Systems. The question is do I have a VoIP application on the network side (SIP trunks are usually cheaper than Analog or PRI) or within my enterprise. Within the enterprise - Do you have multiple offices to connect to where WAN VoIP can save money? Doesn't sound like it. Do you have employees within your building that move frequently (eliminate having to mess with the cabling)? Do I have employees that work remotely? Does my office have 2 cables to each work area? Again, each system is a VoIP system; answering these questions determines whether or not you need a VoIP phone. Remember, a VoIP phone needs a data infrastructure to work. So realize there will be costs.
The so-called "VoIP features" do not require a VoIP phone. The "find-me follow-me", twinning with cell phones, unified messaging, "click-and-dial", "anywhere office" , "presence",- are available to you because you have an IP Telephony system. You don't need a VoIP phone.
Now hosted vs. premise. This is a financial decision not necessarily a technological decision. Although, when you host (it's on your premise) your destiny is not in someone elses hands as with hosted solutions. With financing and managed services you will find the same type of financial benefits (no Capital Expenditure) with a premise based solution as you would with Hosted. On top of that there are tax benefits with premise based. Please visit our website www.mercurycom.com and request additional information.

Rick,

Even for a single office, there can be many benefits with deploying a VoIP solution. In order to make a good decision, you will need to articulate your business requirements (some of which you posted in terms of desired features).

The size of your organization, the skill set of your existing staff, your budget, and whether you go with hosted or on-premise will all contribute to your ultimate choice.

Focus has some really good research on selecting phone systems, and these should prove helpful to you.

-ASB: http://xeesm.com/AndrewBaker

Has you given IP Telephony any consideration? It will be a secure way of making sure that employees do not make unnecessary phone calls.

Generally not. They are best used if your company has multiple locations (remote branches, telecommuters, external sales offices) that are already connected on a Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN).

One of the primary reasons businesses consider upgrading to VoIP, is because it shares all the full features of your phone system across all your locations.

Have you considered other business phone systems?

There are three major types of commercial phone systems on the market today: key systems, Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems, and KSU-less phones.

You can read more and compare business phone systems here: www.buyerzone.com/telecom-equipment/business-phone-systems/bg-business-phone-...

Michael T is not a mathematician nor knowledgeable in telecom. Based on what he wrote, he is not qualified to answer here. MT leaves us wondering whet he defines as a "traditional system" is.
Jon Arnold thinks he means a pbx he recommends hosted even though hosted will always cost more than putting the system on your own premise, and shopping access providers of any type and staying competitive, lowest cost and ease of use and newest features you are eliminating hosted providers who don't upgrade their huge dogs other than once a very three years. get your own system and upgrade it 3-4 times per year for the newest features and it's free also. Jon also said you will get more options than your current system, nut you have not told us what your current system is, so his comparison is therefore invalid.
If you want to compare new premise equipment versus every hosted provider, you will find that hosted is always more expensive, less feature rich older technology, and less manageable. If you would like to see a comparison I will be happy to compare 2 year and five year and ten year cost of ownership versus Ring Central, Broadview, or any other hosted provider you can find.
Derek you are all over the map here on your first paragraph, your second paragraph is dead on the money, and the smartest statement on this page.
Denis, very wordy, if you can explain what you mean by your proprietary term "hosted virtual collaborative environment" we may have a better idea of your infrastructure. You certainly don't want to put voice packets on the public Internet right? You are drawing an analogy to cloud computing. the difference is that cloud computing applications are not requiring of real time. Voise and video as you know are real time applications that must have low latency, under 200 ms. This can only be managed by a private connection with QOS. so your post needs more meat.
Ron, aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! you are a gem in a see of barnacles and sticker bushes. the only thing I can add to that masterpiece of a post is that there is a technical difference between on premise system and hosted. with hosted there is only one connection off of one or two skinny pairs of wires back to the system host. if that single connection goes down there is no second route possible (unless you put equipment onsite, psstt....then it's equipment on premise right? why do you need the hosted provider there for? even with a dedicated point to point (customer to hosted provider) T-1 for voice only, or even an MPLS connection there is only one connection possible, and it is an IP connection. CPE gives you the option of cheap pots, pri, or sip trunk as a backup.