If your business has been relying on your old time-division multiplexing (TDM) phone system but you’ve been considering an upgrade, it’s time to consider migrating to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in your transition. Not only does doing so reduce costs from traditional telephony, it also offers flexibility to grow and further upgrade to Unified Communications (UC) and equips your staff for mobility.
After you make the decision to move to VoIP, there are five steps you’ll want to include in your implementation:
Test your network: Because VoIP relies on your network for performance, it’s important to determine whether your network can handle the additional traffic that VoIP will add. There are online tools that will help you assess speed and strength of the network and whether you’ll encounter any problems with jitter or latency once you’ve made the switch.
If there’s any evidence of jitter or latency expected on a VoIP option, this means you’ll have dropped calls and poor quality on the line. As you deploy VoIP, you’ll want to keep testing your network to see how the technology impacts performance.
Examine your wireless WAN: Particularly if your wireless wide area network (WAN) has been primarily accessed by guests to your location, you’re going to need to make sure it’s ready for VoIP. You’re probably accustomed to employees accessing it for tablets and phones, but it’s a good idea to make sure it’s ready for more traffic.
Design your VoIP system for your needs: You’ll need to design and configure your VoIP system for your specific business needs. Outline the number of concurrent calls your employees will need, at minimum, as well as the required bandwidth and telephony features. You may want to isolate VoIP over a virtual local area network (VLAN) to enhance performance.
Test VoIP throughout the process: Focus on different types of calls, including local and long distance, toll-free, and international, to determine how the system is performing. Test any features you’ve opted to include, such as conferencing, mobility, and instant messages to see how they function in the VoIP system. You can also include a roll-back plan in your testing, so that you can revert back to TDM if migrating to VoIP turns out to be a rockier process than anticipated.
Try migrating to VoIP gradually: Whether on a site-by-site basis or by division, taking a gradual approach can help you iron out any problems as you go. You should be assigned a project manager by your provider to help you navigate each stage of the transition.
As you deploy VoIP at each site, test inbound numbers and see if they are working properly, because number porting is a complex part of the process. It involves coordination between your company, the legacy phone provider and your VoIP provider.
If you’re ready to transition from your TDM system and reap the benefits of migrating to VoIP, contact us at eXemplify. We can help ensure that each of these steps leads you to a successful deployment and seamless transition.