7 Ways A Flexible VoIP Phone System Drives Business Success
If there is one true constant, it is change. In today’s business environment, new technologies, evolving consumer behaviors and a fluctuating economy continually underscore this fact. Constant change presents real and persistent challenges for businesses of all sizes, so flexibility is key.
But flexibility is more than just a leadership mindset. Your infrastructure needs to be flexible too, and that includes your phone system. A flexible VoIP phone system should stretch and bend to fit your current and future needs. Below are seven ways flexibility within a VoIP phone system can help drive business success.
Flexibility can help you meet growing capacity demands. It can happen at any moment: A new customer signs and suddenly you need to support thousands of its employees. How easily can you flip the switch? With a highly scalable VoIP phone system, you can say “yes” when large customers ask if you can deliver what they need.
Flexibility simplifies market expansion plans. Today’s businesses are more likely to operate across a national or even global footprint. That means the phone system you choose should seamlessly support a virtualized workforce as well as employees based at headquarters. Look for a VoIP phone service that offers the option to choose an on-premises system, a cloud solution or a combination of both (hybrid) to meet the needs of each location.
Flexibility means modernizing at your own pace. Some businesses aren’t quite ready to fully embrace the cloud. Your IP phone system provider should enable you to migrate, slowly adding sites or teams at your own pace. This flexibility allows you to deploy a cloud phone service for newly added locations, while still hosting an on-premises solution back at headquarters, so you can continue to maximize the investment made in equipment.
Flexibility helps you manage budgets. If your business is still young, and new product development is a top budget priority, a subscription-based VoIP phone service is likely to fit your needs. In the future, though, you may want to manage your own infrastructure. Be sure your vendor offers the flexibility to choose either payment option.
Flexibility enables smarter use of IT resources. Legacy systems can be labor-intensive to maintain. A simple upgrade, for example, can consume your entire IT staff for days. But VoIP phone systems simplify the implementation process, speeding deployment times and freeing IT resources to work on higher value projects. Look for a vendor offering full support and maintenance and an interface that makes the system easy to configure and administer.
Flexibility increases employee productivity. Perhaps one of the most significant advantages of business VoIP is its potential for application integration. From Microsoft Outlook to CRM, productivity applications can change the way you do business. A vendor that supports open standards, especially open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), will offer you the greatest flexibility in integrating leading business process applications into your business communications platform.
Flexibility supports a mobile workforce. By 2020, there will be more than 105 million mobile workers in the U.S., accounting for more than 75% of the workforce, according to research firm IDC. A VoIP phone system offers tremendous flexibility for mobile workers. They can still make and receive business calls, no matter their location. Be sure your provider offers a mobile app with the same productivity features as desktop workers.
Ultimately, flexibility is a competitive advantage. Your ability to respond quickly to new challenges, such as new competitors or changes in customer preferences, will enable greater business agility. That’s why the VoIP phone system you choose should make it easy for employees to collaborate, solve customer problems and access business intelligence that drives the business forward.
