Shifting to VoIP

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Merlin Telecommunications talks about the benefits of switching to VoIP

The rollout of superfast broadband across Cornwall has enabled many connected businesses to embrace the very latest technology and this includes hosted telephony.

More and more businesses are shifting from traditional land-line phone systems to hosted VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephone solutions, yet some are still unaware of the benefits hosted VoIP can offer businesses, such as the elimination of expensive in-house PBX hardware and having a far more flexible system with excellent functionality.

The massive shift towards hosted VoIP telephony is not just a short-term trend, most telecom experts know it is the future of business telephone systems.

One company that has made the leap with great success is The St. Aubyn Estate.

Being part of the West Cornwall landscape for more than 600 years, the Estate is a forward thinking, family owned enterprise with a diverse portfolio of businesses which include land and property management, tourism and hospitality, building and farming. At the heart of the estate is the well known Cornish landmark, St Michael’s Mount, which the St Aubyn family run in partnership with the National Trust.

St. Aubyn Estate turned to a hosted telephone system in 2014.

Jess Slack, Financial Director, comments: “Superfast broadband has allowed us to connect our businesses in ways that would have been impossible before. We have four separate sites, now connected via VPN (virtual private network), allowing us to share data and run applications.  It’s also allowed us to implement a hosted VoIP telephone system. This particular system, (provided by Merlin Telecommunications) has saved us money on our office set up and also allows us to scale up and down depending on the seasons – we can put phones where we want, when we want, and get rid of them over the winter when not required.”

Andy Bricknell from Merlin Telecommunications comments: “The system at St. Aubyn Estate just highlights how easy it is to scale your phone system up or down according to demand, which is perfect for a growing business or those affected by seasonal fluctuations.  That’s  just one of many benefits. A hosted VoIP system can be completely tailored for your business, working with you and your staff to maximise productivity.

You really have to forget about the concept of telephone lines, as hosted operates over a data connection and therefore has the ability to make and receive numerous calls at the same time. Free intersite calls, built in call reporting and management and voicemail to e-mail are popular features and converging voice and data makes best use of infrastructure.

For those businesses still relying on a traditional system, now is the time to implement planning a move to a hosted system to future proof your business.  It makes perfect sense especially with a fibre connection. Consider what aspects of hosted telephony would best benefit your company and think about further features such as unified communications that can be added to provide even further value to both your  business and your customers.  The beauty of the system is that you can trial a phone before committing so you can experience how easy it is to set up and use.”

Cost-effective and versatile, hosted VoIP telephony provides businesses with features that can improve profitability and productivity. A traditional telephone system does not deliver the same flexibility or the speed required to make the changes necessary in a growing and flourishing business.

Analysing data from the call reporting function of a hosted system could be one of the best management tools in your business.  So making full use of technology and using empirical evidence will enable you to :-

• Analyse trends and call patterns, therefore enabling allocation of staff and resources
• The ability of using call queues, hunt groups and IVR’s to channel calls and ensure all calls are answered.
• Give you the ability to take calls away from reception when those staff are looking after clients.
• Find out who within your team is being productive (or not).
• Provides an audit trail of conversations for compliance and legal purposes and can be used as evidence
• Possible to see the duration of calls and where a call has been transferred to
• Able to detect fraud, or if someone is using or abusing the telephone system
• Also ability of analysing calls to a specific telephone number used for marketing campaigns

Combining fibre broadband with a hosted VoIP telephone system will certainly give a business a competitive edge.