Tag Archives: mobile voip

There is absolutely no doubt that portable forms of communication like cell phones have completely changed the way that businesses operate. A cell phone allows you to keep in contact with customers and coworkers from the road or from a hotel so you never miss an opportunity to improve your relationship, answer a question or secure a sale. By upgrading your traditional business phone system to a VOIP phone system you can take your business portability to an entirely different level though.

When you upgrade your land line based phone service to a VOIP service you can literally take your office phone with you wherever you go. If there is a broadband internet connection available at your home, at your hotel or even at your vacation rental

Many small business owners are fearful of making major changes to their office operations due to the fact that the disruption could cause headaches and service issues. When it comes to upgrading to VOIP service from traditional phone service the switch is likely much simpler and stress free than most small business owners would believe.

The old adage, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” may make perfect sense in many situations relating to small business operations but making the switch to VOIP phone service certainly isn’t one of them. Upgrading to voice over internet protocol can be performed quickly and seamlessly and the potential benefits of VOIP make the switch completely worthwhile for any size business.

Upgrading to VOIP phone service in your office eliminates virtually all of the complex equipment that you are required to keep on site for proper operation of your traditional land line service. As this equipment is removed from your office the excessive leasing and maintenance costs are removed as well which results in a substantially smaller monthly phone bill.

VOIP phone service can be implemented into your office environment in as little as fifteen minutes once you’ve got the phones. This means that you won’t lose any precious time communicating with your customers during the transition. Upgrading your current phone system is a virtually hassle free way to enhance your ability to stay in contact with customers and coworkers and to dramatically lower your cost of office operations.

You may be experiencing plenty of success with your current business phone system but when you analyze the available information you may realize and even greater opportunity by switching to VOIP phone service. Upgrading your current land line phones to VOIP will provide you with an immediate and noticeable savings on your operating expenses and those savings will continue and grow moving forward.Upgrading

With voice over internet protocol you’ll be able to realize immediate savings on your expenses by

Business owners who have tried VOIP service in the past over a home internet connection may be skeptical about implementing the technology in their office.  It’s important to note though that there have been dramatic improvements made in VOIP over the course of the last few years.

Widespread use of broadband internet has made VOIP connections much faster and much more reliable.  In fact small business owners who make use of VOIP today experience service that is every bit as good, if not better, than a traditional land line service.

Accessibility is one of the most important factors in the success of your business.

Traditional business phone systems consist of a tremendous amount of complicated equipment tucked into a communications closet somewhere within your office.  If you plan on making upgrades, additions or you just want to grow your business that equipment will likely have to undergo some serious changes that could take valuable time to implement.  You are at the mercy of a field technician’s schedule every time a change or upgrade needs to be made to your equipment.

If you are looking for an easier, more efficient and more effective mode of phone communication

I decided to research Voice Over IP (VOIP) phone for my business. It felt like the industry had reached a point where voice quality, features and price made it a smart choice. I was also very frustrated about my phone bill from Verizon. They were charging me for calls to Annapolis and when I called to ask them about it they gave me some double-talk about Latas or Stratas. I told the operator to "get real". Do they really expect businesses to pay a premium for in-state calls? OK. We aren't in Maryland. But Annapolis is only 45 minutes away. I guess they feel like they might have an advantage with call quality or service. Or maybe they think people want to work with a big name company.

Well, I decided to call on my old friend, Allen Kadis of EMC. Allen has a lot of experience with VOIP and small businesses. He immediately recommended Vocalocity. So, I did some more research and they received good reviews for service and price. I also learned that there is a bit of a price war going on in the VOIP phone industry. It seems that there might be too many players for the market. And VOIP phone companies just handle the phone traffic and do not make their own phones. So, you buy industry standard phones and pick your carrier. It is a very competitive industry.

So, I chose Vocalocity and got my phones in the mail in about 2 days. I was very excited because I would have a phone that I could take anywhere and that had auto-attendant and other great business features. Actually, it seems to have all of the features of a standard business phone system. I plugged it in and it worked. I was very impressed. But then I started experiencing some problems with the service. I found that about 1 out of every 5 calls would lead to the caller not being able to hear my voice. So, I called in to Customer Service and was told that I might need an adjustment to my firewall settings.

The technician worked remotely and eventually gave up. She told me to get a technician on-site to make the changes. I called back a few days later and was told that my firewall was too old and would not work at all. So, I removed the firewall. Well, that just made my phone worse. That made it so that the phone once and disconnect. I called in again to Vocalocity and was told that my router was also too old and that it was incompatible with VOIP.

So, I ordered a new D-Link Router for $45 (including shipping) and plugged it in. That made my VOIP phone die. I had "No Service" on the phones. No dial tone. No ringing. Nothing. When I called into Customer Service they told me to get Verizon (my Internet Service Provide) to "bridge my router". So, I called Verizon and I spent about an hour working with them to change the settings in my  modem and my new router. I was told by Vocalocity that this would be the last step. But after the bridging process I still had "No Service" on all of my phones. Grrrrrrr.

Now this was my 3rd day without a business phone. All of our calls were being forwarded to my cell phone. I called Customer Support and Jack Jackson spent about 45 minutes gettings the phones corrected to communicate with our new "bridged router". Jack was very helpful, knowledgeable and patient. And he got our phone system working.

The lesson I would like to share with you is this.

Switch to VOIP. You will save a lot of money and you will get MORE features than you have now. And the sound quality is excellent. But before committing to a VOIP phone system, make sure you tell them the make and model of your router, firewall and modem at your office. Otherwise, you might have 2 or 3 days of no office phone! The other consideration is to make sure that you have enough Internet speed. Check your speed at Speedtest.net.  How much speed you will need will depend on the number of phones at your office.

I highly recommend Vocalocity. They ultimately did help me find and fix all of the problems. And I now have a really great VOIP phone system that is packed with lots of great business features. So, if you want to make the switch, give them a call at 1-877-862-2562 and tell them that Progressive Office referred them to you.

Feel free to comment or to contact us if you need help.