A growing number of enterprises are turning to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services as a cost-effective and powerful alternative to traditional telephony services. Each passing year has seen continuous improvements in overall service quality and customer satisfaction. Nevertheless, some enterprises express occasional dissatisfaction with VoIP services, often citing call quality concerns as a major factor. These concerns include not receiving calls, lack of dial tone and poor call quality, as well as echoes and static on calls.
Addressing Quality Concerns
The latest advances in VoIP technologies have made most quality concerns a thing of the past. However, companies should still carefully communicate their business requirements to any prospective vendor to ensure that they are able to provide quality service. Companies should also consider network configuration, bandwidth reservation, and internal quality testing as effective methods of ensuring the best possible quality for their VoIP services.
Optimizing Internet Connections
Most companies have Internet connections that are geared toward desktop and mobile device usage. Any Internet solution that’s primed for VoIP implementation should be able to handle high voice data usage patterns. For this reason, some companies may have to migrate toward business-class high-speed Internet solutions that are better suited for VoIP services.
The amount of effort required to optimize a network for a VoIP implementation depends on the network’s own characteristics. In some cases, installing a VoIP-enabled router may be all that’s needed to optimize the network.
Making Provisions for Faxing Capabilities
Although many companies have traded faxing for scanning and e-mailing documents, there are still plenty that continue to rely on the fax machine as a critical means of communication with clients and vendors. To avoid quality issues, it’s important to make provisions for high-volume faxing services if those are needed.
For instance, companies that need faxing capabilities after implementing VoIP can opt for combined gateway and analog telephone adapter (ATA) technologies to fax over VoIP. Reserving an existing telephone line for faxing purposes is also an available option for avoiding complaints over VoIP quality.
Making Provisions for Card Processing
Maintaining Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance is essential when it comes to credit card processing. Using VoIP to conduct high-volume credit card processing could prove to be an extremely risky move, as businesses could lose their card processing capabilities altogether due to compliance issues.
Many vendors are working to roll out end-to-end encryption for card processing over VoIP telephony. In the meantime, companies must stick with analog phone lines utilizing an RS-232 telephone port to remain in compliance.
Considering Alarm Security and VoIP
Having an alarm system in place can have an unexpected impact on overall VoIP quality. In some cases, a planned VoIP implementation could prove incompatible with a pre-existing or planned alarm system. Fortunately, many alarm vendors can help companies navigate the complexities of integrating their alarm systems with a compatible VoIP vendor.
It’s also crucial for a VoIP vendor to have redundancy plans in place to mitigate the effects of power outages and other issues that could cause service interruptions. Physical security vulnerabilities should also be considered to avoid dissatisfaction with VoIP services among users.
Taking the right approach to implementation can help companies circumvent quality issues and ensure that users are completely satisfied with their VoIP services. To learn more about what eXemplify can do for your company’s VoIP needs, don’t hesitate to contact us today.