Technology has certainly come a long way in recent years. Just a few decades ago, the internet was unheard of, and wireless technology was a baffling concept. Along came the internet, and this completely transformed how people communicate. The traditional landline phone that we all knew and loved is slowly being replaced with even more sophisticated technologies such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).
More businesses than ever before are turning to VoIP technology as a convenient method of communication. But is VoIP the winner over analogue/ISDN? Let’s take a closer look.
Technology
One of the major benefits of VoIP is that it makes use of the internet to send and receive voice signals as data packets, rather than analogue/ISDN which uses copper wires and POTS (Plain Old Telephone Systems) to send analogue/ISDN signals. These are expensive to run and can be quite challenging to change or scale. The expense of traditional phone systems can be eliminated and replaced with a much cheaper alternative known as a SIP trunking service. VoIP systems can also support video, voice, and other types of multimedia while traditional analogue/ISDN systems can only work with voice signals. The technology also makes VoIP much more cost-effective.
Features
By far, one of the most significant differences between analogue/ISDN and VoIP is the features. While VoIP and analogue/ISDN offer a variety of calling features, with the ability to receive, make and reroute calls, VoIP takes this a step further. With traditional analogue/ISDN systems, they are very difficult to scale as your business grows. Modern VoIP systems offer many more features such as unified communications, call waiting and the ability to send voice messages as texts. When you can integrate voice, messaging and cloud technology and combine these into a single platform, it completely transforms the way that your team can communicate.
Location Flexibility
An analogue/ISDN phone system isn’t just costing you more money. It is also difficult to offer the geographical flexibility that VoIP systems can provide. Analogue/ISDN phone systems are restricted to a physical, wired office phone. If you wish to expand your business or relocate, this will involve a lot of extra expense to install the necessary hardware and additional phone lines. Analogue/ISDN systems also offer little flexibility in terms of remote workers.
VoIP systems, on the other hand, can be easily scaled without the purchase of new equipment or additional phone lines. As the calls are routed over the internet, it is possible to set up and maintain a virtual, worldwide presence quickly and relatively cheaply. These systems also offer a mobile app that analogue/ISDN systems just don’t support. Using these types of applications, employees can almost bring their desk phone with them wherever they go.
With landline technologies being phased out more and more and their features becoming less and less, businesses are increasingly turning to VoIP systems as a better way to communicate. VoIP phone systems offer continuous improvement and innovation as they evolve, and they have the potential to perform well for many years to come. VoIP phone systems also have a high amount of uptime which makes your business more reliable and connected.
Overall, VoIP systems offer your small business much greater flexibility, ability to scale and tools available to make the communication experience much more professional and effective both for you as a business owner and the customers you speak to.
