Making the move to VoIP may seem daunting, especially if you’ve relied on your landline for years. However, changing your phone system doesn’t have to be scary or cause any downtime or disruption. There are a few strategies you can adopt to ensure a smooth, seamless transition to VoIP. Take a look at these five reasons why Cogent delivers VoIP that works:
1. Know what you want for your business
Start by understanding what you want to achieve by switching to VoIP. Is it to cut communication costs? Replace outdated equipment? support employees that want to work remotely? Or establish an international presence? Or perhaps a combination of these things? Understanding your goals can help you leverage the full power of the technology.
2. Choose your provider carefully
Cogent has decades of experience in voice systems and newer technologies such as VoIP. We’ve successfully transitioned a number of customers to VoIP systems. There are so many VoIP vendors and solutions in the market today, so doing your homework and focusing on what you want to achieve is crucial.
When choosing a provider, don’t merely settle for the cheapest one you can find. Try to look beyond the price and evaluate a provider based on factors such as product features, quality of services, ease of use, scalability, security, and customer support. Experience and expertise in the industry is also a significant factor to consider.
3. Have a clear migration strategy
Do you want to implement VoIP in one go or gradually? Do you wish to replace your legacy phones completely or keep some of them running in parallel? Whichever you prefer, it is important to decide about your migration process prior to scheduling the installation. Cogent can simplify the transition with a clear migration strategy to VoIP.
4. Make sure your employees are ready
In business, change is inevitable…and so is resistance to it. Introducing a new phone system may not always be welcomed by employees with open arms. They may have grown accustomed to your old business phone, and fear that trying something new will significantly affect them and their work. While resistance is a natural human behaviour, you can overcome it quickly by keeping them on board from the beginning or by implementing BYOD to keep the learning curve low. Cogent provides training services as part of our managed services
5. Have a backup plan
VoIP systems need electricity and access to Internet to function. If either of these two become interrupted, your VoIP service cannot work. So in order to ensure that power failures or internet disruptions don’t halt operations, it’s a good idea to have a backup plan.
The most common solution is establishing backup power systems such as uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and Power over Ethernet (PoE) switches. Another option is using a backup or alternate Internet Service Provider (ISP). Having a backup ISP will allow employees to continue making VoIP phone calls in case the primary ISP goes down for an extended period of time. Cogent can provide and support all of these backup requirements, as a service to you.