Business telecommunications and IT systems

A guide to Hosted VoIP Telephones

VoIP stands for ‘Voice over Internet Protocol’ and in basic terms allows telephone calls to be made over a standard internet connection using an IP Phone. Traditionally business telecommunications used to rely on century old copper wire and telephone exchanges to connect businesses with customers and their suppliers. But now thanks to the vast improvements in internet connectivity there is now a new option, VoIP.  For VoIP to work in a business environment there needs to be an internet connection to the building, a router and a network switch (PoE or otherwise), once this is all in place your business is ready for VoIP.

VoIP - Flexible working and disaster recovery

There are many benefits to a hosted VoIP telephone system. There is no tin box attached to your wall in the office, and the system never needs replacing. Any upgrades are done automatically, meaning there is no business downtime required to keep the system up to date. It promotes the business to implement flexible working and disaster recovery policies, as employees can simply take their phone home and once plugged into their broadband router the phone will operate as though it is still in the office (keeping all internal calls free and still displaying the main office number on out bound calls). Meaning the next snow shower, flash flood or other natural and unplanned disaster does not need to affect your business or its customers.

Free multi-site calls

A hosted VoIP system is also ideal for businesses with more than one site. Essentially all the phones are linked to the same ‘phone system’ which is hosted in a secure data centre, so all inter-business calls between sites are free, regardless whether the sites are in the same country or not. For example, if your business had an office in Singapore, they could call head office back in the UK and it will not cost the business a penny in call charges.

VoIP soft phone options

Another advantage to having a VoIP system is that you do not need a physical phone on your desk to be able to use the service. If your laptop or desktop PC has speakers and a microphone it is possible to make and receive calls using a simple PC application, which is usually called a soft phone. You simply open the application on your computer (which appears as a standard telephone on your screen) and you can then make and receive calls the same as you would if you had a ‘hard phone’ there. This is ideal for people who are always travelling abroad or never have a fixed office location, removing the need for a company mobile or needing to set up a call forward whenever that person’s location changes.

VoIP - making moving easy

One potential advantage to a VoIP system over the more traditional telephone systems comes if you need to move your office. Usually if you were to relocate your office to another building or area, you would usually have to change your numbers, or pay to have them transferred to your new premises (if you are still in the same STD code). With a hosted VoIP telephone system there is no need for any of that hassle. You simply install and internet connection to your new premises and any CAT5/structured cabling you require, and once your phones are plugged in, the phones will operate as they were in the old building. There is no need to spend money on call redirects, or on marketing campaigns to tell your customers your details have changed, which in turn can help reduce the risk of missing out on business. In theory with a VoIP telephone system your communications can be up and running when you need them to be, reducing your reliance on any third parties.

Expanding your business

A VoIP telephone system adds flexibility and removes hassle, lost business hours and cost. Upgrades and additions are easy to make with a hosted VoIP telephone system. If the business expands, simply purchase more phones and plug them in to active CAT5 connections and then they are fully operational, no need to pay for an engineer to come and physically install a phone (any programming requirements can be done before the phone is sent to you). Another example of VoIP flexibility would be if your business decided it required more voicemail mailboxes, you simply place an order for extra mailboxes which are then made active to the phones or groups you require. The same principals are applied to call recording, or any other programming changes or applications you require thus reducing the cost of labour and the purchase of hardware to the business.

Quality of Service (QoS)

When VoIP was first introduced there were initial concerns over voice quality, but now this is no longer an issue. Depending on the router you can set up QoS (Quality of Service), this gives voice traffic priority over the internet connection, meaning there is no drop in voice quality. If you choose du Pré as your hosted VoIP supplier, we have established agreements with our supplies regarding SLA repair times and quality of service.

du Pré - Offering hosted VoIP telephony to UK Businesses

du Pré offer their own business grade hosted VoIP telephone solution, called du Pré Connect. Whether your business has two employees or 2,000, the system can be tailored to your exact requirements. du Pré Connect allows your business to reduce costs, implement flexible working and disaster recovery practices as well as offering a future proof telephony solution for your business.

You can find out more about du Pré's hosted VoIP telephone solution here - du Pré Connect Hosted VoIP