fbpx

Latest News

The Blog

voip-blog
Phone service for small business

What is the Best Phone Service for a Small Business

What is the best phone service for a small business? One of the mistakes that a lot of small businesses make is not thinking about of the system as the first priority. Most of them stick with the cheapest alternative that they know so that they can cut the cost because the thought is that who even calls anymore. You might be amazed to know that whenever a customer face is an issue with your service or has a complex enquiry for you then they still choose to make a phone call. A Phone system for small business needs to incorporate multiple phones the VoIP phone technology and several accessible features to enhance the efficiency these kinds of phone systems are also known as the main system. In this article, we are going to talk about a number of the best phone systems for small businesses in the market so that you can save your time and your money. What Small Business Phone System do you require?   VoIP vs. traditional PBX system: what is so different? It is an obvious fact that the best phone system for any business will depend on the type and size of the business. If your business is expected to have and make a lot of goals and have an employee office based during the day, then you should not buy the highest Technology phone system because it will just be a waste of your time in money. Moreover, it is also important that you should think about the long term. Even though your business may be small at present but what about the next coming years? You might just need an office-based system at the moment but what will you need if some of your employees wish to work from home or another remote location. You will need a business phone system which can facilitate this kind of flexibility instead of hindering these advances. That is where the VoIP phone system comes in. VoIP phone services allow businesses to move away from the traditional onsite business phone lines. Employing VoIP phone services allow your employees to communicate with each other and with customers in a better way by using their Smartphone. It is a fact that if you have the right phone system and a strong internet connection then your business can lower the cost and gain from every feature of the traditional phone systems. Before making a decision you may want to know the difference between VoIP and the traditional office phone system. Traditional phone system PBX If you are opting to buy a traditional business point system then you should know that all of your employees will need an individual phone line. If you own a small business setup then you will have just a handful of employees so you might be able to use the home phone system. If you want a lot of extensions for your office then you will have to look at the private branch exchange. It can coordinate all of the incoming and outgoing calls which helps in transferring the calls and managing the voice mail of different extensions. If we used an on-site PBX system that is mounted on the wall then every phone line will be plugged into that mounted box. These days the PBX can be virtual too, providing the same functionality as the traditional hardware did. VoIP Contrary to the on-site business phone systems the voice phone services work by transmitting the phone call audio over the internet it is essential to ensure that all of your voice phones don’t utilize the identical connection for the internet.  Because if several employees are online at the same time then you could experience garbled are dropped phone calls. For instance, if you have a 2 person business then you will probably just need 2 phone lines. Instead, if you have gotten 10 employees business then you will most probably need 5 to 7 lines and if you have a company of 100 employees then you will most likely need 20 or more phone lines. It is also worth knowing that VoIP phone systems also provide hosted cloud-based and non-hosted versions Read more: Team Managing and Video Conferencing with VoIP Phone services So what is actually the difference between VoIP and business IP phone systems? The IP phone systems use of private data network to carry all the conversations over the distance. Whereas, VoIP users use public data network. In case you don’t have a private network then you will need to go for VoIP. you will not notice any difference in the quality if the system is installed properly. How can you find the correct match for your business? As we have described the difference between traditional and VoIP systems. We hope that you have now a more clear understanding of how different they are. When you are searching for a phone system you should always ask yourself the following 11 questions: How many four lines are you going to need? How many extensions are you going to need? What type of features do you want on your phone system? How many and provider sockets are you going to need? Does your phone system have the capability to expand with your business? Are you going to need call forwarding and feature integration into your system? Will you need call redirection for employees who work from the remote location? Do you want to have a high speed that a network which can run on wireless Technology? Do you need your business to integrate with the phone system with it used? Do you want to recognise customer details and then dial number from the computers it is called computer telephony integration (CTI)? How much can you pay for the line rental? You must have all the answers to these questions when you go out to look for the best provider. Now we are going to discuss some of the best or top of their game phone systems which are best for small businesses. Small business phone providers in the UK   4com 8×8 British Telecommunications BT Mitel Networks LILY comms Cisco Systems   1.     8×8 Selecting a business phone system is a hard task but it can be harder to find a provider more innovative than 8×8. The company has won several high profile awards because of their industry leading and cost-effective technology. The company also has high clients like NetSuite and McDonalds. Supplier Rating: Ratings Customer Service Features Reliability Price What benefits 8×8 can provide your small business:   Work from anywhere: with feature-rich desktop and mobile apps you can work remotely. Highly responsive customer service team: you get setup aid and resolve issues as they arise. Go global: you get virtual office editions which support call to and from up to 45 countries.   2.     Mitel Mitel is one of the leading business phone service providers with almost 2 billion connections each day. The company caters for businesses that have one to 2500+ employees, in a wide range of industries from hospitality to healthcare. The company can identify the requirements of office phone systems which can make life simpler and technologies which can adapt to the changing dynamics of the businesses. Categories Ratings Customer Service Features Reliability Price Supplier Rating: What benefits Mitel can provide your small business:   Everything in one place: this means that your desk and mobile phones, voicemail, web conferencing, instant messaging etc together in one integrated system. Facilitate mobility: remote working and host desking will not have an impact on your staff’s performance. The company takes all this into account. Specialists in call centre solutions: you will not have to risk the aggravating potential and existing customers with a frustrating call. The company works to provide your customers with the best experience possible.   3.     4Com The company is proud on offering tailored services to every individual business. The company is an expert when it comes to the small businesses, it knows that the one size fits all approach cannot work or everyone. 4comm works closely with their customers to reduce their business cost and enhance their business efficiency. Therefore, the company has earned a lot of recognition and is among the top 1000 companies to inspire the Britain. Categories Ratings Customer Service Features Reliability Price What benefits 4Com can provide your small business:   Computer telephony integration (CTI): this means that your phone system and business computers can work alongside each other. For example, CTI enables you to see incoming caller’s information and hence offer a more personal customer service experience. Call reporting: with this, you can analyze how the customers can transfer through your phone system and to know when there are ‘blockages’. Call recording: this makes it easy for you to provide staff training and monitor your employees’ performances.   4.     BT BT offers you a great collection of phone systems including cloud based VoIP and on-site PBX for small businesses. Particularly businesses that move often also can get the BT one phone office. This option gives customers the best of both landline and mobile, all in one phone. BT has a lot of industry experience and knowledge making the extremely reliable choice. Categories Ratings Customer Service Features Reliability Price Supplier Rating: What benefits BT can provide your small business:   Plug ‘n’ play options available: with this, you can set up and have the services running in no time. Dedicated project manager: a person who will know your business from inside out, and will even visit your office space to make recommendations. Access to 4G and more than five million BT Wi-Fi hotspots: with this, you can work outside the office easily.   5.     Lily Comms Lily Comms is an expert in providing customers with affordable and effective small business phone services. According to a recent survey almost 86% of customers saved capital when they switched to Lily. They have worked alongside high profile customers including Lidle, Specsavers, Citroen and NHS. Categories Ratings Customer Service Features Reliability Price Supplier Rating: What benefits Lily Comms can provide your small business:   They promise the most up-to-date technology: company’s partner firm Ericsson-LG, have reported spend almost four times as much on the development and research than their closest competitor. You can ensure that each solution has the cutting-edge. Dedicated account manager: the company is proud to provide customers with ‘friendly expert’. Further, your dedicated account manager works with you to choose the best option. Save Money: the company has a track record of save their customer’s money.   6.     Reach Digital Telecoms Even though the company is relatively new, it has still made a lot of name of itself by fulfilling its commitment of making life easier for the business customers. The company offers all-inclusive packages along with top quality services. Reach Digital Telecoms has you covered whether you want a new, nothing extra system or the full works including call on-hold, call transfer/divert and auto-attendant etc). Their every solution is tailored so that you are just paying for what you require. Supplier Rating: Categories Ratings Customer Service Features Reliability Price   What benefits Reach Digital Telecoms can provide your small business:   All-inclusive packages: you have the free consultation, installation and maintenance. There are no hidden charges or malicious surprises. Improved business telephone systems for all: the business of every size can boost their productivity and enhance customer service through the advanced and user-friendly telephony. Top customer services: one of the company’s proudest achievements is the proactive aftercare service.   7.     Cisco Even though the company was established in the US it provides services in the UK and Ireland as well. The company has been in business for more than 30 years. It offers tailored phone systems for small businesses. They stay ahead of their competitors with the latest communication solutions such as cloud-hosted software. Categories Ratings Customer Service Features Reliability Price Supplier Rating:   What benefits Cisco can provide your small business: Simplicity: the company unifies your communications instead of making the system more complicated. Build relationships: the company provides high-class video links that enable you to connect with customers and providers like never before. No phone? No problem: the Cisco software enables you to make and receive calls from multiple devices such as computers or tablets.   Try free signup now with Business VoIP UK. 

Read More
checklist-box-PTH8EMY-scaled

Business VoIP Requirements Checklist 2022

Before you decide to set up Hosted PBX service or a VoIP (voice over IP) service in your workplace there are some considerations you have to first address. To switch from conventional telephone service to VoIP phone service you will need adequate bandwidth, a switch and router, and an excellent battery backup to keep your system safe in case of power failures. The VoIP implementation checklist includes: Bandwidth – deciding on how much bandwidth you will require for voice-over-IP in your office is your initial step. The Router – selecting a low quality or under performing router is an expensive mistake that will decrease your call quality. Quality of Service – You have to settle on whether voice traffic will be separated from standard internet users or if it will share the same network. VoIP hardware – the market offers a vast variety of em office phones, softphones, headsets, and telephone adapters to pick from. Power Failures – VoIP cannot work in case of power failure so you will need to get a battery backup system and maybe a Power-over-Ethernet switch if you have a budget for it. These are the following some trending VoIP implementation checklist. How much bandwidth do I need for Hosted PBX? Voice over IP or Hosted PBX requires a particular amount of bandwidth in order to maintain your conversations clear and free of disturbances.  Bandwidth is the amount of information that your internet connection can send and receive in a particular period of time. Your initial step has to be to employ an online speed test to discover what your maximum upload stream and download stream is. We recommend you do this test through a fixed internet connection rather than using your Wi-Fi (wireless) connection to acquire correct results. Try to use several tests at different times of the day to obtain a good average of what you can be expecting from your internet connection.  In general, Bandwidth is measured in kbps or kilo-bits per second. You will require having a high speed (broadband) connection to utilise voice-over-IP. Usually, A DSL connection is rated at 600 kbps for the upload stream and 5000 kbps on the download stream. You will see that your upload stream is always nearly less than your download stream which can become a limiting factor for using a VoIP system. The next would step is to decide on how many employees in your office are expected to be using the phone simultaneously.  Such as, having twenty people on the phone will need twenty times as much bandwidth as having a single person on the phone. Selecting a router for Connecting Hosted PBX A router connects every computer and network device to your Internet connection. Often it is an unnoticed part of the puzzle that can have a huge effect on the success or failure of your VoIP implementation.  There are a lot of routers in the market, a number of them are extremely cheap (less than £40) and others may cost you thousands of pounds. There is nothing worse than putting a bad quality or under powered router in your office which can cause a good Hosted PBX installation to go bad. Your router must be powerful to handle the number of phones you will have in your office and must also work perfectly with a VoIP device.  A good place to begin when choosing a router is to talk with your VoIP service provider. We also suggest that you should ensure that your router is compatible with VoIP services. You have to review your Router Compatibility Guide. The following is a list item that will help you to decide whether your router is right for VoIP: How many VoIP phones will you connect to the router? The additional phones you will connect, the more powerful the router has to be. Do not employ a £40 router to run an office with 20 IP phones. Will your VoIP phones have their own dedicated Internet connection? If not, a router with a quality of service (QoS) setting to prioritise voice traffic over normal traffic is a total necessity. Without the quality of service, you will face poor quality phone calls frequently. What other functions will the router have to complete? You may want your router to handle VPN connections, let wifi (wireless) connections or perform other functions. Ensure you can bridge your router to your modem. Routers that are not bridged can be a reason for issues with VoIP installations. Never utilise more than one router or Nat gateway on the network at the same time as this can cause issues for IP Telephones when they try to do NAT. Make sure your Router Compatibility Guide to confirm your router is compatible.   Quality of service: Call quality functions for your network and the public internet. A number of setbacks and network blocking cannot be avoided because of the information moving over the public internet whilst other kinds can be avoided. Good network design is significant to a steady and dependable VoIP implementation. Quality of service refers to the capacity of your router to prioritise voice traffic (VoIP) another way than normal internet traffic on your network or the separation of voice traffic. VoIP phone service is a real-time protocol which means that if the information is missing or held up it will result in an obvious drop in call quality or an absolute failure of it. Symptoms of network blocking consist of garbled audio dropped calls and echo. When you set up VoIP in your office there are three possible means to handle voice traffic. A number of clients report completely good results with no quality of service (particularly in a small office) and others report bad results with the quality of service enabled on their router as a number of routers do a bad job of implementing this. Normally the best mean to give reliable VoIP service is through a dedicated internet connection that is just used by the VoIP equipment rather than sharing the internet with computers. Following are the different ways of doing the quality of service: VoIP Installation Checklist:   No Quality of Service – Voice traffic and normal internet traffic in your office share the same internet connection.  No prioritisation of voice traffic over normal traffic is being carried out and therefore there is the high possibility that voice quality might be corrupted if there is not enough bandwidth for both voice and normal traffic. A number of clients experience just a few issues with this method whilst others report a high frequency of poor quality calls, dropped calls and distorted voices. Everything depends on how much network blockage your office has. The majority of internet connections are likely to be upload bound which usually results in people not being able to hear you, as all of your upload bandwidth is being utilised by something on your network. Router enabled Quality of Service – Voice traffic and normal internet traffic in your office is sharing the same internet connection. However, your router is able to differentiate between voice traffic and normal internet traffic and provide the voice traffic with a higher priority.  The difficulty with this technique is that routers can just prioritise upload bandwidth which means your voice will be clear except the router cannot make sure that download bandwidth will be prioritised. If workers on your network are downloading frequently this will cause a noticeable slump in call quality, however, this technique is better than no quality of service. A number of internet providers can prioritise the download bandwidth through TOS or COS at their end which will make a nonstop quality of service solution. Large amount clients find that even prioritising upload bandwidth for VoIP provides a remarkable development in call quality as the majority of internet connections are limited by their upload bandwidth and have huge download bandwidth free. Separated Traffic – Voice traffic and standard internet traffic are divided into two separate internet connections and networks. This is particularly important for bigger offices with 5 or more workers.  Voice traffic is passed on one internet connection and data from computers is passed on the other connection. In this case, no prioritisation is necessary by your router as voice traffic has its own dedicated internet connection.  This is a great mean to make sure clear voice communications and the method we usually suggest customers whenever possible. The technique you choose mostly depends on how much bandwidth you have, what you are through your internet connection for besides Hosted PBX, and the desired level of call quality.  A lot of offices report completely good results without using any QoS, whilst others discover that it makes a big difference in the quality of their calls. Choosing VoIP phones and equipment: Before setting up VoIP phone calls in your office you are going to need to settle on how every employee will be connected to your VoIP provider. There are a lot of options on the market today. Digital IP Telephones – these kinds of phones seem just like standard multi-line business phones apart from that they connect directly to your internet connection through a network cable. Soft Phones – A softphone is a software program that runs on your computer that appears and feels a lot like a real phone.  This requires you to buy a USB headset that connects to your computer or laptop; as a result, you can make and receive calls. Wi-Fi Phones – A Wi-Fi phone appears and feels a lot like a normal cell phone except that it connects to your wireless router in the office. Analog Telephone Adapters (ATA) – the Analogy Telephone Adaptors is a small box that connects to your router and lets you plug in usual analogy phones so they can work with VoIP.  ATAs are usually inexpensive options to digital office phones and are simple to take with you when you travel.   Battery backup and Power-over-Ethernet With Hosted PBX and a large amount of office telephone systems, you have to think about what happens when there is a power failure.  For a number of offices, this can be a normal incidence and for others, it may happen at a very low frequency. One of the things you will require is to settle on whether or not you will install a battery backup system. Here are a few significant terms you must know: Power over Ethernet (PoE) – It is a technology that lets VoIP phones to be powered through normal network cables rather than power adapters which plug into the wall.  This has the benefit that you can power all the phones in your office from a single source and makes it easier to install a battery backup unit. Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) – it is a device that powers your equipment whenever there is a power failure at the office.  The system has a built-in battery that keeps your network equipment operational when there is a power failure. The simplest method to protect your phone system from a power failure is to power every phone through a Power-over-Ethernet switch that would generally be connected in the back room where your router and cable/DSL modem is placed.  This has the benefit that your every phone is drawing power from a single source that you can backup through an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). All you want to do is plug in your PoE switch, router, and DSL/cable modem into an adequately powerful UPS device so that when there is power failure your every phone will remain up and running.

Read More
close-up-telephone-landline-at-office-concept-HHM79UL-scaled

What is VoIP PBX – How VoIP PBX Works?

VoIP PBX – also known as IP PBX – can switch between VoIP users so that employees can share external lines among themselves. These boxes have the capability to handle the traditional users or can switch between VoIP and the traditional users.

Read More
connect voip to landline

How Does VoIP Connect To Landlines?

Voice over internet protocol is the future of telecommunication. We offer VoIP to the customers to reduce the charges as maintenance, wiring, etc. A call from VoIP technology to landline is not difficult but costly. Don’t worry, stay relaxed with VoIP business, we have the solution to your problems.

Read More
Scroll to Top