What is an IP Phone System and why should I consider switching?

Today, we want to explore the world of IP Phone systems to demystify the technical terms and provide you with the information to make a considered and informed decision on what is best for your business.

Let’s start with the term Voice Over Internet Protocol or VoIP for short. This allows you to make phone calls using the internet. Internet Protocol is where the ‘IP’ in IP Phones comes from. IP phones are connected either through a wireless connection or using an ethernet cable. We usually recommend ethernet cable for a more reliable connection. IP phones can take the form of your everyday desk phone, cordless and conference phones in the same way as a landline phone, it is merely the way in which it places the call is different. There are no noticeable differences for the users between an IP phone and an analogue phone. The main difference is in the transmission.

This difference in the transmission of calls is where the cost savings lie in switching to an IP phone system. As an IP phone converts your voice to digital signals this means it can be transmitted across the internet and requires your standard internet connection that you will most likely already have! Therefore, this eliminates the need for charges based on the physical infrastructure requirements of a landline that are charged by landline phone companies. As a result of using the existing internet network within your building you do not need to install copper wiring throughout to setup a telephone system, simply plug the IP phone into the internet where ever you need it to be and it’s good to go. We have seen some of our clients achieving cost savings in excess of 50% between conventional and IP phone systems!

The other major advantage to IP phone systems is that you can make unlimited simultaneous calls. Your only limited becomes the number of physical phones and people you have to make and answer calls!

An advantage that has become increasingly more popular and useful to business with the current COVID-19 pandemic is that IP phone can be used in any geographical location, so long as they have a connection to the internet. This means your remote team can be in different area codes and still be phoning out from your business number.

As the IP phone system is operated using the internet, this also means that changes to the setup and who receives which calls on what options the callers use can be changed without site visits required from your telephony provider. This means you can get quicker support and changes carried out as soon as they have an engineer available, rather than have to schedule site visits to make changes.

The main and clear disadvantage you may have been thinking about while ready this blog is if the internet goes down, then my phones go down? Which this would be the case unfortunately, but it is key to remember that if you have a fault on your broadband line which causes an outage, this may have also affected your landline in certain circumstances. If having phone lines open during business hours is mission critical, it is worth while exploring options of a backup 4G router kit and data only SIM which could be setup and connected to your network to provide temporary internet usage while your broadband line issues were resolved. We have installed many 4G setups for our clients for permanent and backup options for internet supply so we are happy to provide advice and costing on this option as well.

It’s now time to take a moment and evaluate how many times in the last year has your internet completely dropped out? And then consider for how long each time? Would this down time with no phones be enough to outweigh the monthly cost savings and flexibility that could be gained from having an IP phone system? The team here at MJD can help you with this evaluation and with our IP telephony partners provide you with costs and comparisons to your current landline bills to help you make an informed decision on whether IP phones would benefit your business.

If you’d like to discuss further an IP Phone system and your individual requirements, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team here at MJD. Let’s make IT work for YOU.