Small businesses are showing an inclination towards VoIP phone systems. Several reports supporting this shift have been submitted by researchers of late. A few of the detailed reports depict what the organizations actually need in their new phone systems.

Switching to VoIP

Researchers have come across facts suggesting businesses worth 57% or more are opting for VoIP systems in their attempt to purchase a new phone system. The cost of procuring IT maintenance staff for on-site systems is pretty high; in comparison, hosted systems amount to a better scalability and security. That’s why the small businesses are mostly trying this out. A VoIP phone system yields the advantage of scalability which enables businesses to accommodate users without incorporating fresh landlines, expensive hardware or system upgrades.

Extra functionality and lower costs have prompted a number of users to switch to VoIP systems. All respondents seemed quite satisfied in terms of audio quality and other features.

Facts Concerning VoIP Systems

In comparison to IP-PBX on-premise systems, cloud based systems have been preferred by about 77% of users. On-premise systems are hosted by the business, so they don’t need to bear any monthly expenses. At the same time, you must remember that these systems need bigger outlay besides expensive IT maintenance. In comparison, the cloud based systems don’t need to bear such higher costs initially.

Features that are in Demand

Online fax, voicemail and conferencing are some of the important features that all businesses are looking for. Automated distribution of calls and computer aided integration of telephony rank much lower down their list. For a few good users the caller ID feature seemed truly important while voice to email feature seemed more useful for the others. Number portability also seemed quite important for a few of them. Features that are in demand include-

• Conferencing – For all VoIP system users, the ability to make conference calls seemed important. This has been stated by some 40% of the respondents.
• Voicemail – A VoIP system finds one of its most vital features in voicemail. This has been stated by about 30% of the respondents.
• ACD – Auto attendants have found a specific variation in automatic call distributors. The calls can be routed towards specific extension groups or extensions with the help of this tool. According to 25% of users, this feature seems truly important to them.
• Internet fax – A little more than 30% of the users wished to use their VoIP system for gaining access to the internet fax.
• Number portability – Around 7% of the respondents expressed their eagerness to enjoy the feature of number portability in their VoIP systems.
• Caller ID – A majority of the business users want their VoIP system to reflect the number of the caller. They feel a caller ID will protect them from losing potential customers.
• Voice-to-Email – Businesses worth 7% had stated the importance of voice-to-email function for client dealing.
• Call recording – Around 15% of the respondents stated the importance of call recording for their business.

The most important feature as per small business users is the Auto attendant. Callers can be routed and calls can be answered with the help of these auto attendants.