SMBs Can Find Significant Savings by Switching to VoIP Phones

Even in the best of times it behooves small businesses to take advantage of ways to maintain and improve productivity without spending a lot. When the economy’s not good, like now, it’s furthermore important.

Area SMBs can focus on to find cost savings

So it’s good news when there’s an area SMBs can focus on to find cost savings. Many can, as a matter of fact, look at communications and IP telephony and find fairly significant cost savings in products which don’t themselves cost an arm and a leg.

According to the Telappliant blog, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) hardware is just such an option for many smaller firms, ones with an IT infrastructure in place. As a matter of fact, according to James Harper, from Maintel, cited by

Telappliant officials, during broadband speeds in the UK are not as fast as those found in other countries, VoIP nevertheless makes sense: "There are few other uses of bandwidth that make as much sense from the perspective of a small business."

As TMC’s Susan J. Campbell wrote a couple months ago, VoIP phones function the same way "normal" phones do, just within the VoIP environment. Essentially, the IP phone allows you to make telephone calls over the IP network, converging voice and data over the same connection as an alternative to the standard PSTN. Calls made on an IP phone traverse the Internet, or the private IP network of a particular company.

To operate effectively, IP phones rely on protocols just as SIP, SCCP or any other of various proprietary protocols. The IP phone can be as simple as a software-based softphone, or as complex as a purpose-built hardware device that will appear to look like an ordinary telephone or a cordless phone. When an analog telephone adapter is in place, the ordinary PSTN phone can be used as an IP phone.

Those using an IP phone rarely notice that they are not using the PSTN as their functions remain much the same. When added features are optimized, nevertheless, users will quickly notice the advantage of the IP phone. For openers, this platform will offer features just as e-mail like IDs for contacts that can be easier to remember over phone numbers or names.

The latest in communications

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and research? At the time be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's as well where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.