Business landlines are soon becoming a thing of the past. But are small businesses really willing to put them into oblivion and welcome VOIP technology and business mobile phones for their small businesses?
Nowadays, more and more consumers are giving up their business landlines in exchange for handy mobile phones and internet based phones to pave a way for more fiscal efficiency. However, some of them consider the switch quite tricky.
Regardless whether you are an established business or just a startup enterprise deciding on some alternatives for your business landline systems and dumping your business landline is never an easy option, and money isn’t an all-too important consideration.
One major reason is the fact that landlines offer steadfast and constant availability for they do not rely on an internet connection or a very robust network signal for one to make calls. This is an important consideration whenever the weather is bad, especially during a storm, where the only thing that might work for timely communication is your business landline.
Next consideration is the voice quality. There is practically no background noise if you work with your business landline where you can expect your conference calls to be crisper and clearer. But the ultimate question is whether the business landline is heading an untimely demise? Or people are just looking for something fresh and new to add to their old business landline?
To help you come up with a decision whether or not you have to ditch your business landline for good, we have outlined four major considerations to consider VOIP and mobile phones as against your customary business landline.
Cost Efficiency
The leading factor that made VOIP so attractive to many entrepreneurs worldwide is cost. Because VOIP is so cost efficient, more and more business owners are tempted to dump their business landlines in exchange for a high end VOIP phone systems in their business offices. Although VOIP plans are way practical in terms of lower monthly fees, making use of mobile phones at the office does away with extra fees of paying for two phone systems.
By simply turning to VOIP phone systems, businesses are able to cut their monthly phone bills in half. However, in your plan to switch to the new phone system, there are some inquiries you have to make:
1. How much will the new communications apparatus cost?
2. How much will I be charged monthly?
3. Can I truly save more money by eliminating the role of an onsite private business branch exchange (PBX) system manager?
4. How much valuation is attached to the new calling and system management tools which are not available or in use?
As for VOIP phone systems, enterprises must weigh a lot of cost considerations prior to determining if indeed they have to depend on mobile phones for business communications exclusively. Undeniably, nothing beats mobile phones, however when it comes to costs they can pose a huge problem for a business. Mobile phones break easily, they can get lost and incur damages too. On the contrary, business landlines get to have the least wear and tear in terms of constant use.
Mobile phones also pose a high risk for liabilities experts stated. As a matter of fact, a great number of road accidents are attributed to talking over the mobile phone while driving. Although a company may strictly write a policy against it, truth is, they can still be sued in case any untoward accident happens while their employee is on the company-issued phone talking when an accident occurs.
Easy Access
Besides cost, another major consideration that works in favor of business landlines is easy access. You can always access a business landline phone 100% of the time. Compared to VOIP and mobile phones, landlines do not need to depend on an internet connection or a very strong network signal to make calls. But with the recent innovations in technology, your VOIP phone system need not rely on connectivity for most of the time.
Although, internet downtimes are a fact of life, there are certain mobile technological innovations that made VOIP phones much more reliable than they were in the past. VOIP companies even provide an alternative in an occasion where users are unable to access the internet. With the new technologies, users can now easily reroute calls to another phone until such time that the outage or downtime has been fixed.
Furthermore, the fact that VOIP depends on an internet connection which may make it more of an appealing option for small business owners and employees who want to access their business lines whenever they are on the go.
Meanwhile, mobile phones can come with their own accessibility drawbacks. First of all, since mobile phones depend on the network’s signal, the quality of your calls is dictated by the carrier’s signal strength. For all we know, the signal strength will often rely on your specific location. Furthermore, mobile phones may only take two calls at a given time, which makes it a limited option for businesses that receive massive levels of calls day in and day out.
Your choice of telephone system for your business will all depend on your business needs and requirements. Basically, if you have a small business with 3-5 employees and you don’t receive big volume of daily calls then a mobile phone would work for your enterprise.
Voice Call Quality
Many mobile phone users know that the voice call quality will rely on a lot of factors as equipment, network signal, and location. Voice call from VOIP phone systems have since been suffering from poor voice call quality, which makes many businesses hesitant to ditch their business landlines for good. Currently, avid followers of VOIP technology claims that voice quality with VOIP are no longer an issue.
For those who are concerned about this matter, several VOIP vendors now allow businesses to try the service prior the switch. In fact, it is not that difficult to set up and configure. These tests will immediately show users that VOIP voice quality has improved substantially over the years.
The Future of Business Landlines
Mobile technology is forever changing and there are some new tools that change swiftly than others. As a small business owner, one of the major decisions you have to make is whether or not you will stick with the old and customary or go with the latest innovations. Even though conventional business landlines have yet to reach oblivion, all votes are deemed in favor of VOIP phone systems to be one of the leading and most preferred phone systems for many business organizations of today.
