All small businesses need a phone system. That is, a way to accept phone calls from customers, record voicemails when they are closed and a way to transfer calls between extensions. Traditionally, they needed to pay AT&T for a number of expensive “lines” and also to have an expensive box on the wall (also known as a PBX or private branch exchange). That box had to be maintained and periodically replaced, often, along with all the phones.

For some time, VoIP (Voice over IP) has been an alternative. Essentially, VoIP is sending and receiving all your phone calls over the Internet. The obvious benefit with VoIP is that you no longer have to pay for your phone lines which can be as much as $60 each.

In addition, VoIP comes with a number of really cool features that are typically not available or are an expensive option in a traditional analog PBX system. A couple of examples would be:

• Integrated IVR (interactive voice recordings) – IVR are the recordings that you hear when you

call some companies, “Hello and welcome to ABC. For directions to our location, press 1, for

address information, press 2, for a dial by name directory, press 3”

• Voicemail to email – any voicemail left can be emailed as an attachment to an email address

• Call following – You can route an incoming call to an extension, then a cell phone, then a home

phone, etc. making sure that you can be reached

• Call scheduling – You can schedule recordings that your callers here based on a schedule so you

could have an IVR for operating hours and then have a message kick in when you are closed that

One of the main disadvantages of traditional VoIP systems is that you still had an expensive box that satat your business and had to maintained and periodically replaced.

With the rise of hosted VoIP, the need for the expensive box is eliminated. This brings the best of all worlds together. No box to maintain, all the features of VoIP and no big check to AT&T. Hosted VoIP is priced by extension but the extension cost is always cheaper than an analog line through AT&T, Comcast or whoever.

Give us a call to see if hosted VoIP is a good fit for your company.