VoIP facilitates working from home. So What is VoIP?

What is VoIP? Voice over Internet Protocol takes us away from the traditional office PBX, the on-location physical equipment that provides voice telephony using physical wires or fiber to transmit analog signals. PBX technology allows for some audio conferencing (though it can be a bit clumsy to set up) as well as voicemail, call forwarding and some other call sorting features. However, a PBX has some serious limitations on available collaboration features and requires a trained technician to configure any changes. Even moving someone to a new office requires expensive labor to move the extension to a different physical location.

VoIP pulls us away from the physical limitations created by the PBX. VoIP turns analog signals (basically your voice) into digital packets that can then be sent via the internet to any destination supported by broadband internet service. Once free to send digital signals via the internet, a whole host of new collaboration tools suddenly become possible.

VoIP matters to working from home because once you are freed from the physical, wired connection of your phone to the world, not only can you take advantage of whatever  features your PBX traditionally offered, a whole new range of communication tools become possible. And all of those tools can be accessed on a single platform.

Your organization needs a good business continuity and disaster recovery plan and VoIP can improve your disaster recovery capacity. Due to VoIP’s flexibility, your business can still operate even if a physical location becomes inaccessible.

The move to WFH alerts us to how important technology is to the survival and success of your business, and why a migration to a VoIP environment is essential to modern WFH policies. VoIP technology will enable your organization to maintain and improve productivity and collaboration no matter where your workers are stationed. Adopting VoIP makes it easier to integrate all of your technologies under one roof, meet the demands of WFH, and understand the role your IT and Managed Service provider can play as a strategic partner. Talk to a Managed Service Provider with experience in VoIP to learn more.