Making the Switch: Why VoIP
is the future of Voice Calling

They’ve been with us for more than a century. But in the next decade, dowdy phone lines will have been replaced by a glamorous digital alternative: Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP for short.

So why the big switch-over?

In short, organisations from across the public and private sectors are recognising the massive benefits a digital communication solution like VoIP can bring when working to deliver better education, health and social care.

Let’s take a look at what this looks like in practice:

1. The calls are cheaper

The internet cares little about geography or distance. And the costs of internal phone calls within your business are virtually eliminated.

This means that – yes – your monthly phone bills shrink. But it also means that phone calls will cease being a cost issue, freeing organisations to communicate with customers and suppliers whenever they need to.

Choose our cloud-based solution, and there’s no CapEx at all. You get the latest versions updated automatically and no hardware to maintain. And no one on your side needs to manage a thing. If you’d rather keep the kit you have, on-site under your team’s control, you’ll still make huge savings on call charges.

2. It's a more flexible friend

Because it doesn’t rely on copper wiring or large exchanges, VoIP can be rapidly scaled to fit the changing needs of any organisation. Forget waiting 60 days, just flick a switch (either on your hardware or, if you’re using our cloud-based solution, on your online portal), and you can add, remove or reroute any lines instantly.

Unlike using the traditional phone network, you’ll be able to add the exact number of lines you need, rather than committing to several extras you might never use. It puts you completely in control.

3. It makes your business more mobile

Apart from making organisations more agile (by letting you scale your requirements up and down exactly when you need to), VoIP lets you kick your desk habit.

Pick our cloud-based solution and flexible working becomes simpler. If your telephone line is virtual, you carry it with you, wherever you are. And you’ll never miss a message that’s sitting on the landline at another location. You can make free internal calls from anywhere – your office expands to the size of the globe.

Suddenly all your team needs is access to Wi-Fi. And that’s important; according to industry analysts, the number of mobile workers is expected to grow from 3.35 billion in 2014 to 3.71 billion by 2018.

What’s more, if one of your sites is down due to fire or power outage, there are more business continuity options than a traditional phone network, meaning a disaster doesn’t have to be disastrous.

4. It makes your team more productive

The internet lets you send data as well as make calls, and allows you and your team to use applications simultaneously so that you can share documents while on the phone. Virtual meetings are easy because several people can join the same call without needing to use a separate service.

Even better, it can also integrate easily with Cloud apps like Skype that are already part of an organisation’s digital toolkit.

However you choose to implement VoIP, your organisation gets the latest tech with more features and less maintenance. And as legacy analogue systems get closer to their expiration date (BT are scheduled to switch theirs off in 2025), less money will be spent on maintaining them. Already the quality is better with VoIP, and this gap is set to widen.

5. Locally available, nationally scalable

Non-geographic numbers mean that your phone number is no longer tied to the range of numbers available in your local telephone exchange, giving organisations the flexibility to direct calls to the most relevant team or department, irrespective of physical location. Not only does this deliver a more seamless customer experience, but it also dramatically improves call handling efficiency throughout the organisation.

6. You get to feel smug

You’re ahead of the game. With VoIP and ultrafast broadband in place, you’ve got a truly digital office. Your organisation is not only fast, effective and efficient – it’s also future-proofed.