In your business you may have a specific answering machine, or you may have a secretary who answers the phone for you. Depending on the size of your business you may have a preferred way of addressing telephone calls. Here are the pros and cons of both a VoIP answering machine and a human answering machine.

VoIP Answering Machine:

Pros: When you have a VoIP answering machine, the service directs callers to specific people or departments in your company. A touchtone automated service eliminates the need for a secretary and streamlines the calls you receive. You can set the call waiting for a specific amount of time and play music. Hosting can be remote and applications can be hosted in a public network to accept greater call volume than one person can handle. When callers receive a touchtone automated service they are more likely to assume the professionalism of your business. With this is the fact that time is money and workers in your company are busy doing other things, that if your phone call is really important, then they will they answer it but otherwise phone calls are distracting.

Cons: When you have customers with a specific question that doesn’t quite fit into one of your departments, or they really want to speak with someone immediately they may get frustrated and hang up. But if they really need to talk to someone they will call back. Hint: it may be a good idea to have as an option, perhaps the last, speak with an operator.

Human Answering Machine:

Pros: A secretary usually does much more than answer the phone; administrative procedure and the like follow under her duties. That being said, having a human handle your call volume usually means that they can offer more than a VoIP answering service.

Cons: You have to pay an extra employee, whereas most of the time, an automated phone menu is included in your monthly VoIP service providers phone bill.

So, it seems as if the pros for a VoIP answering machine are greater than the cons. If you have a business with more than five people, it is probably a good idea to invest in VoIP. If your company is still developing , wait until you have some more people before choosing a touchtone automated service. Allowing customers to talk to a live representative will help you build the customer base that you need to grow into a larger company.

Plus when you use VoIP you can save a lot of money on other features. Long distance calling is a cinch because you pay through your internet service. You can have multiple party communication because VoIP compresses data packets so that more data can be handled, and more calls can be taken at once. Software and hardware is relatively cheap too so making the switch won’t cost an arm and a leg. It seems like a VoIP answering machine is the right choice.

http://www.ITP4YOU.com is the leading business VoIP service provider in the United States. Visit ITP VoIP for business voip service and voip broadband phone. Visit our blog at http://itpvoip.blogspot.com/

Article Source: Articlespan

There are now more options than ever when it comes to your phone service. Spending large amounts of money every month on long distance telephone calls is a thing of the past- or at least, it should be. New technology of today can make all of your phone calls more affordable and many of them free. This is because there are new ways to place phone calls other than the previous, standard method of calling.

VOIP phones can make your long distance fees a thing of the past. With promotional VOIP phones you can make your long distance calls with nominal or non-existent long distance fees. How great would it be if you could make all of your business calls without expense or call any of your friends and family and talk for as long as you want with no fees at all? This is what VOIP allows you to do.

What is VOIP?

What is VOIP? VOIP stands for voice over Internet protocol and is a technology that uses packet-switched networks to transmit voice over audio files. The voice/audio files are received by a computer, a VOIP phone or a standard telephone. Systems can be set up for the VOIP service to work in the most convenient way for you.

You can use promotional VOIP phones to give away to your employees, to host contests and rewards and much more. In fact, you are limited only by your ability to get creative so spend some time thinking about great ideas for using promotional phones.

Take Advantage of Offers

You can take advantage of the many great offers given by the companies who host VOIP phones and services. Because they are trying to get more people into the use of these phones, they give promotional VOIP phones with deals such as free phones for two years, $19.95 unlimited calling and much more. If you want to get the most from your use of VOIP phones, be sure to look into these offers and choose the best one for you and your needs at the time.

How to Use Promotional VOIP

There are different ways you can make use of promotional VOIP phones to benefit you. For example, you can offer packages or phone deals to your employees for personal use as a motivational tool in your company. Here are some other ideas:

• Use them within the company to make calls when needed
• Allow employees to use them to make personal calls during breaks at work
• Give the promotional phones away as gifts and rewards
• Use them for contests at work and among employees

When it comes to VOIP phones, there are many different ways you can use them to advance your business or even to help save money with personal calls and usage. The more you learn about VOIP phones and promotional VOIP phone offers, the better equipped you will be to make a decision about them for yourself.

If you’re one of the many companies out there looking for a new and innovative way to encourage, reward or motivate your staff or team, consider the options available when using promotional VOIP phones.

Matt Franks is director of Fluid Branding, the UK’s largest supplier of promotional VOIP Phones and other Promotional Products at www.fluidbranding.com. For Eco Friendly promotional products, including Recycled, Organic and Sustainable items visit www.ecoincentives.com

Article Source: ArticleSpan

Voice over IP telephone services are revolutionising how the world communicates, individuals, and businesses are embracing the capabilities and harnessing the power of the internet. Despite voice over IP being a great technological breakthrough, security is still a major concern, yet with the proper precautions it should not have to be.

Most users implementing VOIP these days are primarily concerned about voice quality, latency and interoperability. However we shouldn’t overlook the security risks that can crop up when the voice and data worlds converge, users and analysts say.

With voice over IP, voice traffic is carried over a packet-switched data network via Internet Protocol. VOIP networks treat voice as another form of data but use sophisticated voice-compression algorithms to ensure optimal bandwidth utilization. As a result, VOIP networks are able to carry many more voice calls than traditional switched circuit networks. Voice over IP also enables enhanced services such as unified communications.

Securing voice traffic on such networks isn’t very different from securing any data traffic on an IP network. In a VOIP world, private branch exchanges are replaced by server-based IP PBXs running on Windows NT or a vendor’s proprietary operating system. Such call management boxes, which are used both for serving up VOIP services and for logging call information, are susceptible to virus attacks and hackers. Break-ins of these servers could result in the loss or compromise of potentially sensitive data..
Consequently, it’s important that such equipment is properly locked down, placed behind firewalls, patched against vulnerabilities and frequently monitored using intrusion-detection systems.

The University of Houston went one step further and made sure that its call manager and its entire VOIP network aren’t directly accessible from the Internet. The school has put its IP PBXs in a different domain than its other servers and has limited administration access to the servers.

VOIP gateway technologies are also a potential weak point. When VOIP is used externally, gateway technologies convert data packets from the IP network into voice before sending them over a public switched telephone network. When VOIP is used internally, the gateways basically route packetised voice data between the source and the destination.

The concern here is that such gateways can be hacked into by malicious attackers in order to make free telephone calls. The trick to protecting against this lies in having strict access-control lists and making sure the gateway is configured in such a fashion that only the people on this list are permitted to make and receive VOIP calls.

As with traditional telephony, eavesdropping is a concern for organizations using VOIP-and the consequences can be greater. Because voice travels in packets over the data network, hackers can use data-sniffing and other hacking tools to identify, modify, store and play back voice traffic traversing the network.

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that securing a VOIP infrastructure involves nothing that is drastically different from the measures corporations have always taken to protect their data. To sum up, There are a few simple things any corporation can take to protect their VOIP network, firstly separating and isolating voice traffic onto a virtual LAN is one way of mitigating the risk, of unauthorised access. Secondly using access lists that define exactly who is entitled to access the network will stamp out external threats. Finally using encryption, as you should with any sensitive data, adds another layer to your secure communication.

John Mce writes on behalf of G3 telecommunications Find out about enterprise & business VOIP solutions & IP telephone systems at G3 Telecommunications.

Article Source: ArticleSpan

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services are becoming very popular in businesses around the world. To put it simply, VoIP telephony is an internet phone. Using the same technology that allows other data to be sent over the internet, such as emails, pictures and music, VoIP allows live conversations over the internet.

VoIP uses IP addresses instead of phone numbers, and Ethernet cables in place of the phone line. There are lots of VoIP applications like Skype, as well as hardware such as specially designed IP phones.

What’s more, with VoIP you can save a lot of money on conventional ‘landline’ phonebills, whilst making internet-to-internet and internet-to-phone calls all over the world. VoIP just plugs into any computer or laptop, making it completely portable, affordable way of staying in touch. Many businesses worldwide are looking to improve business communication through the use of VoIP phone services.

The communication requirements for businesses may vary according to their nature, but the key factors remain the same; Maintaining frequent contact with customers, suppliers, dealers and distributors. To improve business communication, many organisations employ VoIP phone services. They are an affordable means of communication, and are more flexible than traditional phone systems, allowing data to be more easily archived and syndicated.

Businesses can continue using existing permanent phone lines and mobiles, and VoIP allows users to make multiple international phone calls while browsing the web. It is generally accepted that most businesses could benefit from introducing VoIP communication services, to help make tremendous improvements and cut the cost of business communication.

VoIP systems have fax detection built in, to automatically route these calls to the fax machine. VoIP systems allow easy recording of phone calls, allowing for playback for review or to take note of important details. The compression of the sound is adjustable so a large bandwidth is not necessary.

VoIP also allows remote access to computer systems for technicians or managers. Travel, time and money is saved. VoIP can allow home and mobile users to obtain the same amount of access and functionality they would expect when working from the office, and allows a single communications network to handle all communication needs.

Despite their flexibility and convenience, they are not yet desireable for home users, since to use VoIP effectively, a VoIP gateway must be installed at every location where you intend to call regular phones from. This expense may not be cancelled out by the savings in phone bills, which explains why VoIP is still the preserve of major corporations and call centres that ca afford the initial expenditure required to setup a VoIP network.

G3 Telecommunications designs and installs VoIP solutions using IP telephony technology which can stand up to the daily rigors of even the most demanding of enterprise environments.

Article Source: ArticleSpan

Even with business communication advances of the last twenty years, many companies still use outdated office phone systems. They have leveraged the communication advantages of email, instant messaging and dynamic web applications and yet make their calls on archaic systems little removed from Alexander Graham Bell’s original. Modern digital phone systems using VoIP are much more flexible than older PBX phone systems.

Today’s Non-Traditional Worker

Communication technology allows businesses to adapt to the personal and professional needs of individual staff. Workers balancing home and work life appreciate some leeway. When home and work are in harmony the worker is happy, and happy workers are productive workers.

However a versatile office phone system isn’t just about Bob in Accounting working from home when little Johnny has the flu. Companies with full-time telecommuting save money on office space, utilities and other onsite employee costs. Small business VoIP provides business-level phone service for workers in home offices. Clients and partners won’t know if the person on the other end of the phone is in an office, working at a kitchen table, or sitting in a coffee shop.

A VoIP digital phone system helps traveling employees, allowing them to receive calls no matter where they are without having to leave clients a long list of numbers to try. Whether meeting with a client across town or at a conference across the country, staff are available when needed.

Digital Phone Systems Allow Employees to Be Reachable Anywhere

One key feature of a VoIP office phone system is the phone number belongs to the phone not to the geographical location. The handset is plugged in anywhere with internet access, making the employee immediately available. Callers dial the same local number but it rings through to the phone anywhere in the world.

For those who don’t want to carry their IP phones around, business VoIP phone system could forward calls to any possible phone including home or cell numbers. The forwarding can ring specific phones according to a schedule, ring each phone sequentially until one is answered, or ring all at once even across multiple telephone numbers.

Do Not Disturb

The problem with being universally reachable is you are universally reachable. Even the most dedicated employee needs time away from work. The goal of a VoIP digital phone system is not to follow the worker around like some wild-eyed stalker, but to give each individual options to control availability.

During meetings or other time the worker can’t answer the phone, the Do Not Disturb function makes the phone "busy" and sends incoming calls to voice mail. Caller ID allows manual screening of calls while Caller ID lists automatically filter incoming calls so a given number might always be sent to voice mail while another is always allowed through.

VoIP offer every feature of a traditional office phone system along with additional capabilities your old phone system can’t match.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on digital phone system , visit http://www.telesynergy.com/.

Article Source: ArticleSpan