Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is an innovation that has revolutionised how businesses work and interact with each other across geographical borders. Today, using VoIP solutions, you can make calls over the internet rather than with conventional or analogue phone systems.
Here, sound - i.e. your voice - is converted into a digital communication format and transmitted across internet broadband.
During this pandemic, many companies and teams have been forced to retreat into their homes and continue working - it’s all just business as usual. In these circumstances, making international calls can be a major logistical and cost-related nightmare.
With VoIP solutions, however, this transition is incredibly seamless. This post explores how you can make this transition from work to your home office, minus any stumbling blocks, with VoIP setups.
The benefits of using these types of calling solutions are numerous.
Firstly, it means that you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg on international calling charges. Secondly, it’s multi-functional in the sense that you can also use it for video-conferencing and to stay in touch with your teams and clients around the world.
For sales executives, using VoIP means that they can make calls to people around the world over the internet. These numbers then appear as local landline numbers, helping agents build stronger relationships with the individuals or companies they’re reaching out to.
Given that VoIP solutions facilitate calls over the internet, the sound quality of your calls will depend on the strength of your network. This also means that if your internet is the slow, hair-yanking kind, you’re going to have a little difficulty with enjoying uninterrupted calls!
If it’s possible, it would be better if you run a speed test on your IP network and estimate if that’s sufficient for your VoIP calls. Given that the required network capacity depends on what your requirements are, make sure you speak to someone with expertise on the technical side and make an educated guess.
If you lack these resources, consider speaking to your company about using some office equipment during the lockdown period for your work. Wi-Fi routers are relatively easy to move, so this shouldn’t present too much of a problem.
In this process, it’s equally crucial that you prepare for an internet outage or network failure. Since you’ll be working from home, this might be more common than if you were in a corporate office. It’s a safe bet to invest in a 4G LTE failover solution or a secondary connection from a different service provider.
In addition to a stable and powerful internet connection(s), you will also need the hardware to match. If you don’t have the right equipment at home, make sure you get some of your office calling devices to go, especially if you have a high-call-volume workload.
That being said, physical phones aren’t strictly necessary. VoIP solutions now include client apps on your mobile or other devices or cloud-based systems, which may or may not include fully-hosted systems - all depending on your requirements.
If you belong to the former category, just make sure that your equipment at home is up to the task.
Regardless of your exposure and experience with VoIP, setting it up at home, by yourself, can be a little challenging.
For comprehensive VoIP solutions and implementation, get the right support from experts with experience in leveraging these systems. Moreover, it’s important to find a partner in this process, especially if you’re struggling with the technical elements of setting up.
Beyond setup issues, working from home can still pose other challenges to how you leverage your VoIP solutions. It will prove to be next to impossible to make any meaningful dent in your workload if you’re constantly struggling with technical issues.
If you work in the sales industry or constantly have to make long-distance calls during this WFH period, VoIP solutions can cut down on cost and any inconvenience involved in having to shift your station of work.
With this type of technology, change how you and your teams work during this lockdown period and ensure targets are met and it’s business as usual, as far as possible.