We spent 6 months researching dozens of business VoIP providers and service offerings on a mission to find a solution so compelling we would not only recommend it, but employ it ourselves. And our findings may delight you.

Our clients have been asking us for a hosted voice solution that was affordable, easy to use, reliable and feature-rich. As a result of our research, we have found that hosted VoIP voice solutions are the preferred alternative to expensive, traditional analog phone service.  Unlimited calling, never miss calls, ability to connect their remote workforce, ability to provide better customer service and winning new business, are just some of the benefits reported by the users that we interviewed.  In most cases they were able to accomplish this for a fixed monthly fee that was lower then their previous phone / internet bill.

What is VoIP?

Voice-over-Internet Protocol is a method of delivering dial tone over your internet connection rather than traditional copper phone lines.  The number of VoIP providers has grown exponentially in the last decade as a result of their ability to provide economical communication solutions to the small to medium-sized business segment.

Although plentiful, we quickly learned not all VoIP providers are the same.  Our selection process included examining the following:

• Stability of Publisher – there are hundreds of VoIP providers out there and the first question should always be the stability and size of the publisher.  It does not matter how functional the solution is if the publisher does not have the financial stability and organizational structure to support their long-term efforts.
• Innovative Proprietary Technology– Out of hundreds of VoIP providers, only a few manage and maintain their own platform technology.  We made a decision early on that open source technology was not going to be an option.  Proprietary technology allows for the best control of code, flexibility in design and timeliness in  reacting to customer requests.
• Reliability & Quality of Service – Reliability and quality of service are the most commonly ask questions regarding switching from a traditional dial tone provider to a hosted provider. Our response to that is that when deployed properly with the appropriate bandwidth requirements and network configurations Hosted PBX and VoIP solutions are just as reliable if not more reliable than traditional dial tone. Many times that is a subject matter on which IT Help Central can consult.
• Affordable Scalability – Hosted VoIP solutions are much more affordable to own and maintain then traditional on-premise PBX systems. We focused on providers that allowed you to purchase only the lines and features you need, when you need them.
• No Commitments – There are many business VoIP providers that require annual contracts, making it difficult to switch if your needs or expectations change. Our selection focused on providers that require no contracts.
• Superior Business-Class Support – When introducing any technological advancement to your business you want to be sure you have the support you need when you do inevitably need assistance. We interviewed many vendors, attended user groups and spoke with references to make sure that our provider’s support was timely, courteous and effective.  Another major consideration is that support is US-based and not outsourced, which provides a level of consistency among the support teams and end-user experience.
• Robust Features – VoIP providers are known to provide all the traditional features we’ve grown accustomed to, as well as a comprehensive list of advanced features. We wanted a provider that offered a compelling feature set including online dashboards, remote call queue management, mobility solutions and CRM integrations.

We’ve learned much on our quest to determine the right VoIP provider for our business and understand how tedious of a process that can be, so if you would like to learn more about our selection process and our recommended Business VoIP Voice Solution provider, contact us today!

Contact us today to learn more or to try out hosted VoIP for free!