IP Telephony
FlatWorldSystems can help make the right choices and execute the strategies.
IP Telephony has a place in every business from the smallest to the largest. The technology should not be confused with its application on the Internet with free services and horror stories about security or reliability. The technology has matured and continues to evolve at a fast pace. Software and even complete packaging of it are very low cost or even free. Free and low cost software does not mean that there will not be other costs and resources required. IP Telephony is here to stay for the foreseeable future as well. It is prudent to investigate its benefits for any business anywhere.
IP (Internet Protocol) Telephony is all about how to use TCP IP as a transport mechanism for digital audio across an IP network whether in an office over its LAN (local area network), anywhere in the world using the Internet, between offices and individuals using a private WAN/VPN (wide area network or virtual private network) or a combination.
The starting point for investigation should be in the office. Offices traditionally had wired switchboards or PBX strategies with each phone in an office connected by a wired access back to a central device. Most were proprietary systems forcing purchase of equipment from one manufacturer or at least one type which only worked with a single strategy. Older systems were set so that the wire access determined the ID or extension thus a move of a phone needed reprogramming of the central unit. More recent systems had the ID embedded in the phones themselves so you could move the phone from outlet to outlet without reprogramming. IP Telephony uses a network access to connect a hard/physical phone or a soft phone (a software program on your computer or other device) to a centralized server or multiple servers. The network access can be any IP access – wired, wireless, LAN, WAN, Internet, Internet café, airport lounge, etc.
In the past, a server for IP Telephony was expensive, complex, unreliable, high maintenance and also proprietary. Now the software system can be had free, simply downloaded as a complete package, installed in under an hour, configuration in hours by the skilled and in days by the neophyte, reliable, low maintenance and open architecture.
The key to simplicity and reliability is in the planning. Sit down with a piece of paper. Think through how you'd like your telephony system to operate. How many phones will you have? Will they be software-based phones or traditional style phones you can put on a desktop? Will they be POTS phones (plain old telephone system phones), cordless POTS phones, SIP phones (SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol - a signal method), IAX phones (Inter-Asterisk eXchange), or cordless SIP phones? How will you make and receive calls? Are you going to use existing public phone company lines or VoIP lines from one or more VoIP providers?
How do you want to handle incoming calls? Do you want the caller to get an AutoAttendant message or do you just want all phones to start ringing? What should happen when no one answers or the line is busy? Do you want the calls transferred to a cell phone, another POTS phone, or just sent to voicemail? Which voicemail account? Should all busy phones send callers to the same voicemail account, or do you want one for each phone? What should happen once voicemail arrives? Do you want the phone to ring once a minute? Do you want the message waiting indicator to illuminate? Do you want the voicemail message to be emailed to you? Do you also want it saved so that you can retrieve it from a touchtone phone? Do you want to be paged with the number of the person that called you?
Your business is working and so are your phones. Yes, you want to be more efficient, take advantage of all kinds of features, save money. You also don’t want to break your running systems and cost you money or opportunity or aggravate clients and vendors. Planning is key. Planning a smooth transition and one or more backup strategies is a must.
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