by Larry Rohan | May 3, 2020 | Uncategorized
Hoping to have a serious discussion, speaking to businesses of all sizes and vertical markets, I will truthfully say I have met with some owners and after serious discussions and discovery a realistic transition was not possible. Usually due to contractual obligations on current systems. However timelines were set to re-evaluate. The other obstacle is poor or inconsistent internet, this is usually a misnomer, as most analog services comes from the company that provides internet. Sometimes router configurations or software program settings (One drive syncing during peak business hours comes to mind) cause inconsistent connections and a fear of VoIP communications. Managing expectations is key to understanding VoIP, The beauty of these systems is the versatility of them and ability to have redundant failovers when issues occur. (Let’s be honest every system fails at some point, The Pentagon was hacked, Amazon Shopping failed to process payments and so on.) So the key is to minimize these occurrences and provide quick and seamless solutions to them before they happen.
So here are a few of my educated conclusions:
Google Voice is free, no VoIP Asheville cannot compete with free, but it has limitations just like all free services and apps. Perhaps this works for your business, great when you grow and start finding these limitations problematic let’s talk, I will be here. Analog lines are expensive and getting more expensive, if you have 2 or more analog lines it might be cheaper to go to VoIP.
Basic internet of 2MB or less can create problems for VoIP but in all honesty with some minor router changes Qos and traffic shaping these hurdles can be overcome if the desire or need is there. You will not be able to host a 25 person video conference call but can you do that now? Manage costs and expectations is the key. Like everything in life you don’t trust the salesman do buy the product.
Internet always failing, first key is to figure out why. There could be an internal issues that is easy to resolve, there might be an external issue that needs to be address by the provider either way VoIP allows for fail overs that mean you never miss a call and are always able to return calls.
The last and hardest obstacle to VoIP is the objection that they had VoIP years ago and it was horrible, so they switched back. Anyone old enough to remember Microsoft Vista can have this same complaint but they probably still have and use a computer. VoIP needs to be installed and customized to your environment, “Magic Jack” was technically VoIP but I don’t think it worked for anyone other than the commercial. Have a demo setup onsite, in your environment with the equipment you are going to use. Are there limits in a demo, sure but then can be addressed then and a realistic plan can be established to solve these limitations.
So send me your comments, what did I miss. Perhaps you have VoIP with nagging and ongoing issues, if so let me know maybe there is a solution.
Larry The Phone Guy
www.VoIPAsheville.com
(828) 209-8647
by Larry Rohan | May 3, 2020 | Uncategorized
2 Small 2B VoIP (Part 1)
Having been in the telecommunications industry for many years and watching technology evolve the limiting factors that persisted about VoIP have turned into falsehoods. In this 5 part series of blogs we are going to dispel these 1 at a time.
Part 3
“Speed up and give me Options”
Now That we have shown the cost savings of VoIP in Part 1 as well as simplified solutions with BLFs in Part 2 it is time to focus on reliability. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, with “Internet” being the key word. What use to be a limiting factor, has now become a strength. Versatility, blazing Speed and reliability have now replaced the old descriptive terms of limited choices, slow and spotty connections. Today’s business owners usually have multiple choices of internet providers with speed options that were unthinkable 10 years ago. So let’s look closely as to how these new options create a reliable and redundant communication system.
A. Increased internet speeds have opened the floodgates to custom solutions and multiple options, for small and medium size businesses therefore I almost always recommend an offsite server. Hosted solutions are a perfect way to leverage today’s latest technology.
3CX and its open platform is optimal as a hosted PBX What are the benefits of hosting as compared to onsite lets take a look.
- By hosting your PBX in a reliable data house (OVH, Google, Amazon or Azure) you have removed the greatest point of failure, which would be an onsite PBX server. No longer will your communications be paralyzed if your internet goes down, or your office experiences a power failure, have a localized router issue or an employee task failure. Phone calls will reach the PBX and you will have multiple options to answer them. Cell Phone, Of-site location or Voicemail just to name a few.
- A Hosted PBX can be a simple solutions for those small businesses with limited or no IT department. Once the PBX is installed offsite in a virtual server, updates and scheduled maintenance are no longer your responsibility. Firewall and router configurations are simplified and devices like Cell phones, tablets and laptops are able to use secure tunnels for communications on site or off.
- 3CX is an ideal PBX for running in a Virtual environment, With a centralized dashboard clients are able to easily mange complex tasks in a visual interface. This dashboard facilitates being able to use Linux or Windows in a VPS environment. These cost effective virtual servers can be easily upgraded, backed up and duplicated as needed quickly and without much if any down time. They also allow for multiple ways of redundant fail over so your calls get answered.
B. Increased internet speeds brings other new options such as Video conferencing, Click to call, Click to Chat and WebRTC just to name a few (These integrations will be discussed in Part 4 of this Blog). A hosted 3cx solution opens the door to possibilities on how to get your message out there and stay connected.
C. Higher speeds have increased demand and competition among providers. Today’s savvy small business is able to make decisions between internet providers or even have 2 internets with a Dual WAN router that can either blend or automatically failover so that mission critical internet applications are always available.
D. Redundancy is the key to any system, what happens when this fails? This is part of the customization of any PBX. Some quick answers are as follows but these are not the only possibilities. So what happens if you building loses power and internet?
- Simply open the 3cx free App on cell or tablet and calls will continue to come in just as if you had internet. You will be able to except multiple calls as well as forward to VM or other extensions and outside numbers.
- Have calls go to a digital receptionist and let clients choose who they want to speak with and each extension can then decide if they prefer to have calls go to Voice Mail so that they can return these calls at a later time, or have their calls forward to another location, Cell or analog number.
- Using a hotspot as an internet failover can give you some additional flexibility
Better internet means better options. These options are versatile and customizable so speak to VoIP provider that is unable to understand your expectations and exceed them. VoIP Asheville is always here to answer questions if you need. 828-209-VoIP (8647), or email me Larry@VoIPAsheville.com
Look for part 4 of this blog tomorrow as we discuss Application Integrations between VoIP and websites, CRMs and or billing software. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to reach out to me.
Larry The Phone Guy
www.VoIPAsheville.com
(828) 209-8647