How to Find the Ideal VoIP Solution for Your Business (Continued)

How long until you see a ROI?

In order to calculate how soon you will see a Return On your Investment (ROI), all you need to do is determine the total monthly cost savings you will receive by making the switch to VoIP, and then divide that number by your total upfront costs. This will reveal how many months it will take for your business to break-even on your upfront investment.

Hosted or on-premise?

The biggest factor in determining whether a hosted or an on-premise VoIP solution would work best is the size of your company. If you employ less than 30 people and/or have no desire to handle a phone system, then a hosted VoIP service is something you should consider. With hosted VoIP, your service provider hosts your phone system for you. For companies that employ 30 or more staff members, an on-premise VoIP service is likely going to give you the best return on your investment.

How strong is your in-house IT team?

While VoIP systems are a great deal easier to use and maintain when compared to the alternatives, having a qualified employee available to manage the system is crucial to keeping your services running smoothly in the event of an unforeseen issue. Unfortunately, this means that your cousin, neighbor, (or fill in the blank with whoever it is you know that can jailbreak an iPhone or hack into a WiFi network) might not always fit the bill. If that’s the case, our team can help you find a qualified technician.

What about a backup plan?

Believe it or not, many businesses actually overlook setting up a back-up plan in advance; but rest assured those are the same folks that are kicking themselves in the back-side as soon as their service goes down due to the weather or any other number of issues. Adding building redundancy and power protection into your VoIP service is a wise idea – especially since VoIP utilized the Internet as well as your network to transport calls.

What is your budget?

Last, but certainly not least, do you know how much you are able to spend on deploying your business’s VoIP solution? Pricing for today’s business-class VoIP solutions varies greatly due to the number of providers and ways that it is able to be deployed, especially when dealing with SMBs, allowing you to decide whether you want to pay for everything in advance, split it up into monthly fees, or make a down-payment and pay the rest off monthly.