compare business telephone systems
Links related to "compare business telephone systems"
Choosing the Best Small Business Phone System
Get smart about small business phone systems. The first personal point of contact a potential customer has with you might be through the phone. So it's important that you provide a positive and professional experience. And it's not enough to make do with personal phones. If you really want to make your business ready to compete and meet customer demands, you need a dedicated small-business phone system. There are lots of options out there, but many are geared toward businesses with hundreds of employees and multiple locations. While small businesses need to provide the same high-quality interactions as larger businesses, they have smaller budgets. It can feel like a tall order, but it's important that you make the right choice for your business. To help you evaluate your options, here's a brief look at what to consider in today's business phone systems, some common choices for small and medium-sized businesses ( SMBs), and why a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution might be the best fit for you. What to look for in a small business phone system,No two business phone systems are the same. There are many options out there to choose from—and often there are huge differences between the quality and capabilities in each. You need a small business phone system that helps advance your specific business goals. Here are a few basics to consider when evaluating small business phone systems:,Take stock of what you have—and what you need. Do you need a solution that only uses desk phones, are you fully mobile or are you a mixture of both? And if you're only using desk phones now, do you have plans to integrate mobile in the future? The system you choose should address your immediate needs, but also be right for where you hope to take your business in the future. Along those same lines of making sure the equipment will be right for your business in the future, you'll want to make sure the phone system you choose will easily grow with you as you want to add new lines. Only you know what your budget is, so you'll want to make sure you choose a solution that fits within it. But it's not enough to just look at the upfront costs of a business phone solution; you'll want to look at the monthly fees and long-term maintenance costs to make sure that you are getting the right value for your investment. With so many advanced calling features available, you'll want to look for the ones that align best with the way you work. If you field a lot of customer calls, you may want a solution that offers a virtual receptionist. If you have field teams working with office-based teams, then you could probably benefit from a solution that makes it possible to easily share screens. Just make sure the business phone system meets all of your needs. If you're a small business with limited IT resources and expertise, you want to make sure that the small-business phone system you choose will be easy for you to deploy, maintain and manage. And if you do run into issues, will you have access to the support you need to get things fixed?,What is a business phone system?,Different than a home phone system, a business phone system is built to:,There are two basic types of networks that you can use to operate your business phone system:,Types of business phone systems for small businessesA landline is what you'd most commonly call plain old telephone service (POTS). If you are looking for a straightforward system that lets you make and receive calls and requires no additional training to use, a POTS system might be worth considering.But for budget-conscious SMBs, the costs for landlines can escalate quickly. In addition to installation costs, there are monthly service fees per line, new-line fees, long-distance fees and more. And because landlines are physically connected by wires, they don't allow for any flexibility; if you want to answer the phone, you must be by the phone, wherever it is plugged in. For growing businesses, flexibility could be the key to growth, so landlines might be too restrictive an option. However, there are limitations to this option. The quality and reliability of your calls is totally dependent on the quality and reliability of your service provider's network. Plus, your provider will have complete control over managing the system, which could make it more difficult for you to customize an experience that's best for your business. While there are pros and cons to each of these options, we think that most small businesses could benefit from a VoIP business phone system. Why VoIP is a versatile option,Not only is VoIP a good first step to creating a more modern business, it also addresses many of the common concerns for growing businesses. First of all, VoIP is budget-friendly. Because it uses public internet, you can get all the calling capabilities you need, without the additional costs of a private network. And as far as equipment goes, you can purchase VoIP phones if your budget allows, or if it doesn't, there are adaptors that can be used to modify your existing phones. Or you could leverage your business computers and employees' mobile devices. When it comes to flexibility, it doesn't get much better than VoIP. You can build your VoIP system using any combination of desk phones, computers and mobile devices. And it's easy to add new lines as needed, so when your business is ready to grow, your VoIP solution scales with you. Your customers keep you in business, so it's important that you be there when they call. But what happens when there's a power outage or other emergency situation? Because it's cloud-based, it's easy for your VoIP service provider to redirect calls to a backup number in the event of a service outage, which can help reduce downtime and keep your business operating as usual. And those are just some of the benefits you could enjoy by choosing VoIP as your business phone system. The full range of advantages depends on the VoIP solution you choose. A solution like Verizon is designed to address many of the concerns of small businesses. If you're looking to improve the user and caller experience, Business Digital Voice comes with more than 30 advanced calling features, such as automatic call forwarding, voicemail to email, seamless call transfer and more. If you're primarily looking for something that's easy to use and manage, Business Digital Voice has a simple app and online dashboard that gives you intuitive control over call management. Whatever your specific goals for your business, the phone system you choose will serve as the foundation to get you where you want to be. It's a big decision, and one that should not be taken lightly. But once you understand your needs—and your options—you'll be able to make the right call when it comes to selecting your small-business phone system. Create better customer experiences with VoIP,Give your customers what they want—and then some—with a VoIP system that lets you:,* Business Digital Voice is available in select areas of nine states and the District of Columbia. Tell us about your business, then meet with our professionals to ask questions, get advice, or obtain a quote. These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. We use both third party and first party cookies for this purpose. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly. These cookies may be set through our site by Verizon and third parties. They are used to present Verizon advertising on third party sites that you may visit. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising from Verizon. BackClear Filters,All Consent Allowed
Learn moreChoosing the Best Phone System for Your Business
How to choose the best VoIP provider for your business,You've done your research. You know that a business Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system is an efficient, simple and affordable communications option that can help keep your growing business competitive. And you've decided to make VoIP part of your operations. Now you have another decision to make—which VoIP service provider to partner with. There are many VoIP solutions out there, but not all are created equal. When choosing the best VoIP service for your small business, you want to make sure you're getting a solution that meets more than just your calling needs. Here are a number of things you should consider when evaluating VoIP solutions and providers. Reliable VoIP needs a reliable network. A good VoIP solution starts with a strong foundation. Because VoIP calls are routed through the internet, it's critical that your VoIP solution runs on a network that gives you reliable connectivity and coverage where you need it. You should never have to worry that you're missing important communications because you can't trust your network. Your VoIP system should grow with you. One of the best benefits of a VoIP solution for small businesses is that it is scalable. A complete VoIP solution should be able to easily expand as the number of users changes. Adding new lines or devices—or even locations—should be virtually effortless, and not cause any disruption to your operations. Competitive features can help create better experiences. Your customers have come to expect a certain level of service from the companies they do business with. When they call a business, they expect to reach someone who can help them—and they don't like to wait. So your VoIP solution should come with a rich variety of business features that can help you operate more like a bigger business without costing a lot. Features like automatic call forwarding, seamless call transfer between devices, virtual receptionists and more that make it easier for your callers to quickly connect with the person best suited to help them. Not to mention features like visual voicemail, virtual meeting rooms and personal phone directories that make it easy for your employees to do their jobs. VoIP should make your job easier, not harder. An efficient communications solution should allow you to monitor, fine- tune, streamline and manage your network assets. And you should be able to do it all easily. If you don't have a dedicated IT department, or if your IT resources are just stretched thin, you want to make sure that your VoIP solution won't create a management headache. Look for a solution that comes with an intuitive web-based management system, so you can stay in control of your communications from where you're working. Customer support should be available when you need it. A good VoIP solution should be easy to manage and deploy. But in times when you could use a little extra help, you need a comprehensive VoIP solution that comes with access to professional support throughout the design, implementation and management phases. You need your communications system to work around the clock, so it's only fair to expect that your VoIP customer service does, too. The bottom line. The communications system you choose for your business will play a pivotal role in building relationships with your vendors, partners and customers—and those are the relationships that will determine how successful your business can be. So you need to partner with a service provider that will help you strengthen those relationships at every turn. Many small businesses have put their trust in Verizon because of our proven ability to deliver effective . We continually invest in our VoIP network, and we have the expansive reach your growing business needs. Verizon ,* our VoIP business solution, offers more than 30 features—including Auto Attendant, Hunt Group, Extension Dialing and more—to help you control your communications, improve customer experiences, streamline your business and simplify your day-to-day. By choosing the right VoIP solution, you're taking the first step toward a productive and competitive future for your business. So you need to make sure you choose a provider that has the experience, reach and range of services that will support your growth. * Business Digital Voice is available in select areas of nine states and the District of Columbia. Tell us about your business, then meet with our professionals to ask questions, get advice, or obtain a quote. These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. We use both third party and first party cookies for this purpose. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly. These cookies may be set through our site by Verizon and third parties. They are used to present Verizon advertising on third party sites that you may visit. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising from Verizon. BackClear Filters,All Consent Allowed
Learn moreSD WAN vs. MPLS: Comparing for a Business Solution Business
SD WAN versus MPLS:,As your business grows in a marketplace that's increasingly digital, your ability to compete may hinge on the speed and reliability of your networking and internet connections. Bandwidth and the right technical tools are today's must-haves for connecting with customers when, how and where they want. But the bandwidth you need—the capacity and speed—for advanced digital communications becomes pricey as you add employees, locations and digital services. Before long, you may be looking for networking options that can help you more securely control and streamline your connections to sites, customers and the cloud. Two options are particularly appropriate for businesses with a mix of technologies and connection types to branch offices and remote users. These are software defined wide area networking (SD WAN) and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS). A better understanding of SD WAN vs MPLS and their benefits can help you choose which solution—or combination of solutions—is best for your business and your budget. What is SD WAN?,is a type of software defined networking (SDN) that helps you manage and control a wide-area network (WAN) from a single dashboard in near real time. It also helps you use your bandwidth efficiently by routing important traffic, such as e-commerce, through channels that you designate. Less important traffic, such as web surfing and social media updates, can be sent inexpensively over the internet. What are the benefits of SD WAN?,Because SD WAN is a cloud-based solution that businesses typically obtain through a service provider, it can dramatically simplify WAN operations that use a variety of protocols for internet and other types of connections. When you need to provision a new site, SD WAN allows you to do so relatively quickly and economically. Because you can securely access many network operations through a dashboard on a laptop or tablet, it's easier to scale your capacity to accommodate changing traffic demands. SD WAN can also improve performance and simplify operations with the ability to set pre-programmed policies to automate routing decisions based on prevailing real-time network conditions. You can take any number of different connection types and put an SD WAN service overtop of those to dynamically manage traffic flow. That combination of connection types depends on your application environment and business objectives. Because it is based on software instead of hardware, you can easily implement, scale and manage SD WAN regardless of the underlying transport technology. Benefits of SD WAN include:,However, if your company's networking is limited to only a few branches, and if you don't conduct a lot of business using cloud-based applications, you may not need SD WAN. Instead, MPLS may make more sense. As you'll see, these dedicated circuits are separate from the public internet. What is MPLS?,MPLS is essentially a virtual private network (VPN) that, like SD WAN, readily accommodates a wide range of networking technologies to connect disparate WANs. Also like SD WAN, MPLS is typically delivered and provisioned by a service provider and provides the ability to prioritize traffic. Unlike SD WAN, MPLS doesn't include a breakout to the public internet. Connections act as a direct, point-to-point or any-to-any link. What are the benefits of MPLS?,MPLS has been a critical foundation of many WAN networks for years because of its any-to-any connectivity, ability to prioritize data traffic, and capabilities around VoIP and Video over IP convergence. It has served enterprises reliably for more than a quarter of a century and is still valued as a highly stable means of routing traffic without using the public internet. As SDN technologies have emerged, such as SD WAN, newer hybrid networking models sometimes featuring lower cost broadband circuits have emerged causing some customers to move away from models featuring redundant private connections such as MPLS, Ethernet, Wave, etc. However, there are still reasons to continue using MPLS connections including enhanced application performance and optimized costs. Benefits of MPLS include:,Which one—SD WAN or MPLS — is right for your business?,So when you're trying to decide between SD WAN vs. MPLS, if you're concerned about quickly and easily building on your network while carefully allocating bandwidth over the internet to potentially control costs, then could be a good choice for your business. On the other hand, if you're more concerned with the reliability you get by establishing direct network connections, your business may be a good candidate for MPLS. To illustrate how the options may or may not suit your situation, here are two scenarios. Let's say your retail business has five storefronts and no Wi-Fi for customers or staff. You network with one or two suppliers and distributors. The stores and businesses on your network mostly handle point-of-sale transactions, fulfill orders by mail, and track inventory and shipments. You've grown as big as you intend to, and any more overhead is out of the question. MPLS may be a great choice for your business. The happy customer for SD WAN is more likely to be a business that depends on cloud connectivity that's virtually always on. For instance, a company with a voracious appetite for speed and capacity may appreciate SD WAN's flexibility for allocating bandwidth to run video, webinars and sharing of large media files. This company may also want to provide Wi-Fi service to guests and use that bandwidth for business data if there's a network outage or heavy congestion on the normal link. Both are typically managed services offered by a service provider, so your teams are spared much of the heavy lifting relative to maintenance and security. Your service is also usually backed by a service level agreement (SLA). Combining SD WAN and MPLS,As your network evolves, complexity often escalates. Business owners know the risks of change when it comes to essential connectivity. When you team with a provider you can trust, you're better positioned to adopt a solution that extends your operational capabilities as it eases your path to tomorrow's technical advancements. The right partner can provide a stable solution that addresses your networking challenges and does so on your terms. Verizon can be that partner. We'll help you take the next step into your digital future with confidence. Whether you operate a small business with several remote workers or a multi-location enterprise, we have networking solutions that can help you maximize the amount you've budgeted for bandwidth. With our hybrid, dedicated and SDN solutions, we can work with you to implement or MPLS—or a solution where SD WAN and MPLS complement each other—on the same network. Your business needs to deliver high-quality service along with top-notch security. Doing all that over broadband isn't going to cut it. You'll need a robust and resilient network. So which is better: MPLS or SD WAN? The answer is both. You need to have the right mix of MPLS connections (for high-bandwidth priority applications) and broadband (for lower-priority applications) and even 4G LTE or 5G wireless connections along with a smart way to direct your traffic. Benefits of mixing SD WAN with MPLS,That's what SD WAN does, and why it's not a replacement for MPLS. A hybrid WAN made up of a variety of connectivity types based on location needs and SD WAN to intelligently manage the flow of traffic is the way to go. That means you shouldn't compare the cost or security of SD WAN vs. MPLS. You need to compare the mix of access types of SD WAN against the needs of your business and determine the that can help you achieve your goals. When you're connecting large data centers together, you're not going to use broadband, which only offers best effort. You'll need to use a big, powerful connection with reliable service levels — MPLS. Chances are, that's something you already have. By using SD WAN as an overlay solution, you can take your existing infrastructure and help it run more efficiently. SD WAN is application and user aware, which allows it to route traffic over the most effective path for high performance and low latency in near real-time. Mission-critical applications and data will still be sent through MPLS, while lower-priority apps like email can be sent over the public internet. Should there be an issue with your MPLS, SD WAN can reroute your data through alternative channels, giving you the redundancy you need without the cost of maintaining redundant connections. When considering SD WAN vs. MPLS costs, keep in mind that SD WAN will help you reduce some of your MPLS costs, but not all of them. It certainly won't help you eliminate MPLS; you still need that reliability. What SD WAN can do is help you mitigate the need to scale your expensive MPLS to meet your connectivity needs by instead letting software help maximize your current investment. In addition, the question of SD WAN vs. MPLS security isn't a matter of either/or. MPLS is a private network, which means that it isn't exposed to outside hackers via the internet. Meanwhile, SD WAN encrypts data to provide a secure overlay that's independent of transport. Together with traditional network security capabilities like and next-gen firewalls, MPLS and SD WAN work together to help keep data safe and sound. When it comes to your network, MPLS is part of the connectivity component. SD WAN manages the traffic. Ultimately, it's not especially useful to compare SD WAN vs. MPLS one-to-one—they're complementary technologies: that is, one is not a replacement for the other. And more importantly, one is not going to cannibalize or replace the other. Choose SD WAN or MPLS for the best business solution,Whether you operate a small business with several remote workers or a multi-location enterprise, we have networking solutions that can help you maximize the amount you've budgeted for bandwidth. With our hybrid, dedicated and SDN solutions, we can work with you to implement or MPLS—or a solution where SD WAN and MPLS complement each other— on the same network. Our is a flexible, secure SD WAN solution that can help unify your networks to improve accessibility, scalability, speed and reliability. Our webinar explains how this service can provide a single-package solution for secure and rapid turn-up of sites in a simpler way. For enterprises seeking MPLS with advanced IP capability, our solution can securely connect locations or cloud service providers. As your network evolves, complexity often escalates. Business owners know the risks of change when it comes to essential connectivity. When you team with a provider you can trust, you're better positioned to adopt a solution that extends your operational capabilities as it eases your path to tomorrow's technical advancements. The right partner can provide a stable solution that addresses your networking challenges, and does so on your terms. Verizon can be that partner. We'll help you take the next step into your digital future with confidence. Learn more about . Choose your country to view contact details. Manage your account or get tools and information. These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. We use both third party and first party cookies for this purpose. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly. These cookies may be set through our site by Verizon and third parties. They are used to present Verizon advertising on third party sites that you may visit. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising from Verizon. BackClear Filters,All Consent Allowed
Learn more
