Best VoIP Service Woodland

A quick guide to choosing the best VoIP service in Woodland

A successful VoIP implementation generally has three key components. The first is robust network infrastructure. The second is a high-quality VoIP service vendor and the third is appropriate end-user support and training. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to choosing the best VoIP service in Woodland.

How To Choose Best VoIP Service?

Start by deciding who is going to manage the network infrastructure

If you want to implement VoIP for audio-only, you’ll need a reliable connection with a minimum speed of 0.1Mbps per line. If you want to implement video-calling then the minimum speed is 0.3Mbps and that’s for a low-quality webcam. If you want full-HD, then you’re looking at a minimum of 1.2Mbps.  

What’s more, those speeds have to be maintained regardless of what else is happening on your network. Although you can, and almost certainly should use traffic prioritization to make sure your VoIP traffic is processed ahead of everything else, you can’t let the rest of your network grind to a halt every time someone picks up the phone.

In short, VoIP places significant demands on network infrastructure and you need to think about who is going to manage that and in what way. Theoretically, you could implement the necessary infrastructure yourself. In practice, however, the cost, effort, and space-requirements of this approach would make it unsuitable for most SMBs.

The other options are managed hosting plus a separate VoIP service contract or a VoIP service contract which includes hosting. If you’re already using managed hosting, then it might be easy enough just to scale up your arrangements. If not, or if you’re in the public cloud, then you’d almost certainly be best to look for a VoIP service vendor who can also handle hosting.

Decide what endpoints you need and how you’d like to pay for them

If you’re happy just to use softphones then you can usually get them for free with your VoIP service contract. You will, however, probably need to buy headsets to go with them, so remember to budget for that. If you’re using VoIP handsets, then you need to think about whether you’d prefer to buy them yourself or have them bundled as part of a contract (or a combination of both).

Although softphones can sound appealing in theory, they generally only work in practice if users have screens that are big enough for them to see the client along with whatever else they need to use at the same time. Otherwise, you get confusion, frustration, and misclicks. VoIP handsets take up desk space, but this means they’re both easy to see and easy to answer.  

Whichever option you choose, it’s strongly recommended to give it some thorough testing before you decide whether or not to commit to a bulk purchase (or even just a bulk implementation).

List the VoIP services you will need/want and in what timeframe

If you’re implementing VoIP through a managed hosting arrangement, then you should have minimal upfront costs. This means that, in principle, there is nothing to stop you undertaking a large-scale implementation of VoIP if you wish. In practice, just because you can, it doesn’t mean that you should. Major changes can cause major disruption and if they go wrong you may find yourself with a major crisis on your hands. It therefore generally makes more sense to start small and build up from there.

This means that you could potentially sign an initial contract with a VoIP service vendor who can only support some of your needs/wants, as long as you are happy to wait for them. If your first VoIP service vendor remains unable to support the functionality you planned to implement, then you have to decide if it’s a need or a want and, in the latter case, if you’d prefer to stay with the VoIP service vendor you know or change to another one.

The advantage of this approach is that it may allow you to get a better initial deal, for example, to benefit from lower calling costs, which are probably most companies’ top priority in the early stages of a VoIP implementation. The disadvantage is that it potentially means going through the process of selecting a new VoIP service partner at a later date, having to go through the process of switching to them, and then getting them up to speed on your systems.

Define acceptable service standards

Only consider working with vendors who can demonstrate the highest standards in service quality, security and compliance, and customer service and support. Compromising on these for a lower price is almost always an expensive mistake.

If you’d like to speak to one of the best VoIP service partners in Woodland, please click here now to contact Aperio.IT.