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How VoIP Affects Business Mobility
These days, and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, business mobility has become one of the most important factors upon which business owners rely for success and growth. At first, when every business was forced to function remotely, many companies struggled due to the lack of preparation for working from home. But as the pandemic took longer than hoped for, it became crucial for every business to be ready to function remotely as efficiently as it does at the office.
To ensure the success of remote working, you need to work on two aspects mainly: training your employees and owning the right equipment. The internet is now full of courses and learning material on how to train your employees to work from home. As for the right equipment, the industry has adjusted its products to fit the needs of businesses with many tools that help with remote working; one of these tools is the business VoIP phone systems.
How Does VoIP Help with Business Mobility?
A VoIP system is not merely a phone system through which you can make and receive phone calls; it is a system with a significant number of features that allow you to create a whole virtual office for your business. Below are some of the ways in which a VoIP system affects business mobility:
Group audio and video calls
Group meetings are a part of most jobs; managers and employees need to meet frequently to make sure everyone is doing their job and to share updates about their progress. With the shift to remote working or with some companies hiring international employees, VoIP offers a virtual platform where businesses can have group audio and video calls to help with communication.
VoIP allows you to convert a normal phone call into a group conference easily and without needing any extra tools. And as long as all the participants own a compatible device with a built-in camera, your audio conference can be made in a video call. This way, no matter where your employees are, they can all be connected within minutes. You can schedule meetings and notify everyone beforehand so that when it is time, everyone would be there on time.
Integrate different communication systems
Some types of businesses require different communication systems to function efficiently; if these tools are not present, your employees may have a hard time doing their job. VoIP systems can integrate your office software so that employees can have access to it from home.
Having the software available on your VoIP system means that you can carry the whole office anywhere. This will allow your employees to easily switch between email, voicemail, and messages as needed. It also means that your employees can contact customers no matter where they are to avoid late replies that can lead to customer frustration.
Make calls from any device
Instead of being tied to a landline that restricts mobility, your employees can make and answer calls from any device that is compatible with the VoIP system; this includes smartphones, tablets, desktops, laptops, and more. VoIP allows you to let go of the limits of hardware and gives you flexibility in choosing.
Employee status
A VoIP system allows all employees to update their availability status with available, away, on a break, lunch, and so on. This can save everyone time that could otherwise be wasted trying to reach an employee. It also allows managers to make sure all of their employees are working and getting their job done. Presence information can also be customized to show how long a certain status will take; for example, you can set "lunch" for 30 minutes so that when someone wants to reach you, they know when to reach out.
On top of all of that, VoIP systems can help your business cut down on the costs of being at the office, especially if your company is growing, which means that you may need a bigger office for all of your employees; a virtual office can solve this issue.
Business VoIP Systems Recommendations
That being said, let us get into the best VoIP providers on the market that offer features designed for business mobility:
1. Ooma
Ooma is one of the biggest VoIP providers on the market. They have four plans designed to help with business mobility and allow businesses to grow and maintain their visibility. We will go over our #1 top pick among these plans:
Ooma Enterprise
This plan starts at $27.99per month per user and requires a contract. It is a customizable UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) solution with the following features:
- Desktop App with Softphone
- Video Conferencing
- Call Recording
- Voicemail Transcription
- Enhanced Call blocking
- Attended Transfer
- Advanced Custom Call Flows
- Hot Desking
- Shared line appearances
- Barge, Whisper & Eavesdrop / Silent Monitor
- Custom Business Process Integrations
- Custom CRM and productivity tool Integrations
- IM with Presence, video chat
- Video conferencing with chat
- Open and documented APIs
- SLAs
- SIP Trunking
- Dedicated Customer Success Managers
- Graphical IVR & Call Flow Builder
- Estimated Wait Time (queue-based)
- Position in the queue (queue-based)
- Time of day routing (via Call Flows)
- Abandon Call Counter (Admin Portal & Qstats Reporting)
- Multiple Call Distributions (Intelligent call routing)
Try Ooma today!
2. Dialpad
Dialpad offers three VoIP plans that offer features for different business sizes and needs. The three plans are:
Dialpad Talk Standard plan
This is the company's basic plan; it starts at $15 per user per month, and it includes:
- Unlimited calling
- Unlimited SMS
- Unlimited MMS
- Customized voice mail
- Call controls
- Voice mail transcriptions
- Google and Microsoft 365 integration
- Call routing during off-hours
Dialpad Talk Pro plan
This plan starts at $25 per user per month, and it includes all the features in the basic plan plus:
- CRM integration
- Unlimited meetings
- Local number supported in over 50 countries
- Hold ques
- International SMS
- Desk phone support
- Slack, Zapier, and Zendesk integration
- 25 ring groups
- 24/7 phone support
Dialpad Talk Enterprise plan
This plan includes all the features in the basic and pro plan as well as:
- Unlimited office locations
- Retention policy
- Extensions
- Unlimited ring groups
- enhanced 24/7 phone support
- Azure, IAM/SSO integration
- Enterprise service level agreement
Dialpad offers a big number of services that help with business mobility; our top pick service is:
UberConference Business service
- 100 meeting attendees and 5-hour conferences
- Automated meeting noted
- Call transcripts
- Advanced dialing option
- 24/7 phone and coverage support
Get Your Free Trial Now!
3. Nextiva
Nextiva is one of the biggest VoIP providers on the market. They have four plans to fit all business needs and they customize their services to help with business mobility. We will go over two of these plans:
Essential Plan
This plan starts at $18.95 per user per month and comes with a list of all the essential features a small business needs in VoIP. Some of these features include unlimited audio and video calling, unlimited internet fax, free local and toll-free numbers, and 24/7 customer support. You also get a few more features, like voice-to-email, virtual attendant, and a mobile app. This VoIP system can integrate Outlook, Google Contacts, and more.
Professional Plan
This plan starts at $22.95 per user per month. The Professional plan is good for small teams, according to Nextiva. This plan offers many features, including unlimited audio & video meetings, business text messaging, team collaboration tools, and voicemail to email & SMS. It allows unlimited conference calls for up to 40 users and unlimited video conference calls for up to 250 participants.