VoIP for Business vs On-Premise Phone Systems

Today many businesses are exploring the opportunity of operating a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephone system. In fact, as they probe into the prospect, they are deciding between an on-premise system or one that is hosted. A hosted VoIP means that another company provides the service including technology and maintenance with the features operated through that other company’s cloud. An on-premise system is one that your company would choose and all the equipment and software are handled through your office. Here are some of the things they are discovering.

You already know that a VoIP system will save on the cost of phone calls. If you work in an international market, you could be saving up to 90%. But to set up an in-house system you will need to spend money on all of the setup, which can be significant. While the monthly charges will be lower than with a hosted system, your company will be responsible for all ongoing maintenance and troubleshooting. In the hosting system, you reduce the setup costs and the monthly fee to the host is generally much lower than the cost of maintaining a staff to work on the system. With a known cost, you also have access to all upgrades and new features as they are available.

As your business expands, you will need to add more phones and employees together with adding additional features. With an in-house system, you will need to deal with all the large and small details. Using a hosted system means they have business models already available that can be scaled to your needs and adjusted when necessary.

Speaking of upgrades, with your on-premise operation, you will need to research, take bids, install and troubleshoot all software as well as hardware. With a hosted function, you just make a simple call to your customer support representative and upgrades and maintenance are done.

Contact us at Southeastern Communications for the details of how we can help you improve your business.