Many businesses are missing out on the many advantages of VoIP (Voice over IP) telephony because they believe the cost of having to “scrap” their entire analogue system and start from scratch, is too high.
However, says Hennie van Tonder, head of products at MWeb Business, there is absolutely no need for businesses to write off their investment in analogue technology – unless they want to.
“Businesses can enter the VoIP arena at any point in their telephony or business lifecycle,” he says.
“For example, if a business is opening a new office and has no telephony infrastructure, it makes sound business sense to go the VoIP route immediately as the savings on total infrastructure costs is considerable.”
However, if a business already has a full analogue telephony system – complete with an analogue PABX and analogue handsets on the desks – taking advantage of VoIP to reduce external local and international call costs is simple.
All that’s required is a special gateway device that links the business’s existing telephone and data (LAN) networks, allowing the business’ voice calls to be carried over the LAN connecting to the internet.
“Once the gateway is in place, it’s all systems go. The existing analogue PABX and handsets remain in use. As would be the case with an end-to-end VoIP system that utilises a VoIP PABX and VoIP handsets, the analogue system can easily be connected to the external VoIP service provider over an appropriate connection – leased line, fibre, ADSL, Metro Ethernet and so on,” Van Tonder explains.
Having recognised that businesses have different VoIP requirements, MWeb Business has ensured that its MWeb Talk Business offering is sufficiently flexible to make it quick, simple and affordable for any business to utilise VoIP.
“MWeb Talk Business takes account of where the business is in its VoIP lifecycle and is able to provide businesses with everything from an end-to-end, turnkey solution to VoIP handsets and PBXs, to VoIP appropriate connectivity,” Van Tonder says.
He emphasises that regardless of what type of VoIP a business has internally, the success of the system will ultimately depend on the quality of the connection between the business and the VoIP service provider.
“If a business has access to fibre connectivity, then switching to VoIP is really a no-brainer as fibre delivers the speed and consistency a VoIP system requires. With ADSL, however, things can become a little more complex. At MWeb Business, we strongly recommend that any business considering a VoIP solution invest in nothing less than a 4Mbps connection,” he concludes.
In addition to VoIP and connectivity solutions, MWeb Business offers a range of services and solutions to meet a wide range of an organisation’s IT needs including email, archiving, cloud-based back-up, hosting, and other business application services.
