Small business voip transition

Small businesses have tough time coping with newer technology mainly because the newer technology is always experimental in initial stages and costs a lot of money to install. On the other hand, the businesses also run the risk of successfully adopting it. Those at successful at this transition are those businesses which are thriving and looking forward to expansion and expecting a surge in their work force. Such a work force would require some subtle changes in the organization, one of them being their business communications network.

According to a report, which surveyed 1,250 telecom decision makers in small to medium sized business segment, the actual size of the company poses significant influence in the transition to VoIP. The report also mentions that, for much smaller size businesses where employee number is less than 50, often issues like lack of mobile integration, difficult system management, and call quality issues topped the reason to propel transition. For mid-sized businesses that have up to 250 employees, the report says that their issues regarding, small business phone system, were mainly focused on lack of features that allow building contact lists, adding new users, lack of other advanced features and difficult system management.

While these specific business segments are looking to solve their own problem domain, the cost to upgrade phone systems for small business, is the main focal point. The businesses apparently look for feature rich, user-friendly technology that is also in the arms reach so as to make a meaningful yet advantageous decision without losing too much money.

The main factor behind the surge in demand to transit to VoIP phone system is the need to unify. The unified communications systems that work hand in glove with VoIP telephone system add invaluable advantage to the businesses, irrespective of its size. In an era where more and more employees prefer using personal devices for business works, according to the report, a staggering 70% of small to medium size business employees prefer unified communications features like presence and mobile clients to integrate with their phone systems for small business.

The report also suggests that, VoIP enabled with UC like features allows the telecom decision makers to have easy time deciding and opting for the VoIP as it directly addresses the core and ever extending issues pertaining to efficiency and productivity of business operations.

Analyst Jon Arnold, the author of the report said, “smaller SMBs tend to lack in-house IT staff and are more cost conscious. CLECs and OTT providers have smaller infrastructure that allows them to offer cheaper services that don’t require much support from IT.” He also emphasized on that fact that, “once businesses start using VoIP, they see the possibilities that come from integrating telephony with other applications.”