Best VoIP Phone & How to choose the right phone for your business

What should you consider when choosing a VoIP phone and how to choose the best VoIP phone?

Many businesses today use legacy phone systems that rely on outdated, expensive old-fashioned telephone lines. VoIP has turned the telephone business upside down by providing solutions to the inefficiencies that have plagued the market. Businesses that look at VoIP can be interested in the cost savings and maintenance-free service that VoIP provides. Although VoIP is still considered new technology it has been around for over a decade! There is no question that legacy phone systems have provided service to many customers for a generation, but today businesses need more than a phone to just ring. With an ever rising mobile market it is critical to have features that make our phones flexible, that allow our phones to follow us around. You don’t find yourself running across your house to answer your phone anymore, today your phone is in your pocket! Your business phone should work for you as well. Today Improcom provides reliable VoIP phone service using secure and reliable Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The choice your business makes when choosing a SIP phone is one of the most critical choices that will be made during a migration to VoIP from an old-fashion phone system. With almost all legacy phones providing the same function, VoIP phones offer a variety of features that range greatly from Cisco VoIP phones to Polycom VoIP Phones it is important that the company you work with understands your needs and provides a proper recommendation. Scroll down to read some important factors in your decision making process.

Features

When looking at various SIP telephones to connect to a VoIP provider like Improcom it is important to review the features that each phone offers. Basic features that are used on a day-to-day basis includes the amount of available lines a phone can handle. Do you want to be able to handle 4 calls at once on the phone or 8? Do you want a color display screen? How easy are the buttons to navigate the phone when you want to change your ringtone, call volume? How easy is it to use voicemail on the phone? Do you need video conferencing from your phone system? Do you currently own or interested in purchasing a headset for your phone? What kind of network does your business have? These are all important questions that should be considered when choosing a phone. Improcom provides a free consultation that reflects all these questions to provide the best solution for the customer and although Improcom supports nearly all SIP phones, we work closely with Cisco and Polycom branded phones to make sure that clients are able to get the features needed.

Phone Costs

Improcom understands that for small to mid-market companies unnecessary expenses can be enemy number one. When choosing to go VoIP there is often a significant cost savings over legacy phone service, these savings should be applied to purchasing quality VoIP SIP phones. Purchasing phones that are not user friendly, or have bad reception can make the entire process a nightmare. Even worse, most VoIP phones are fairly close in price making the choice for some business owners frustrating. Phone quality should be the number one factor when purchasing your phones.

Phone Style

When choosing a phone, it is important to review what kind of phones you may need before settling on a manufacturer. Are you always walking around your office and want to make sure your phone is compatible with a Bluetooth headset? Perhaps you would like to have a cordless phone in your office? Some businesses are always on the move and need to have their desk phone on their mobile device. Does your business have employees that work from home and need a basic phone they can plug in from their home-office? Improcom offers a variety of models from basic entry level phones, to the most advanced video conferencing phones on the market.

Quality

Believe it or not SIP phones come in all shapes and sizes and some have been on the market since nearly the first day VoIP has come online. So if many phones are within a few dollars of each other how does a business choose which phone is the best quality? There are several factors to consider such as the number of years a phone has been on the market. Some models such as the Cisco SPA series have been powering businesses for years. Some cheaper SIP phones offer a multi-year warranty, but generally fail after one or two years requiring frequent repairs. This is unacceptable to Improcom, and should be to your business as well! To get the best value from moving to VoIP it is important to choose a reliable phone from the start. Beyond choosing a reliable service provider, the physical phone hardware you choose may be the most important decision. Improcom recommends only Cisco or Polycom VoIP phones. With their superior call quality and outstanding reliability it is no wonder why these manufacturers have are market leaders today.

Warranty

It is important to have a long-term strategy relating to keeping your phone system online. When purchasing your phone it is important to inquire how long the warranty is for the product. Does your vendor offer 30 days or 6 months? What are your options after the warranty expires? Is there enough phones in stock to ensure that throughout the years you are able to add new phones and keep the same model throughout your business? These factors are exactly why Improcom offers a one year warranty on all hardware. maintains a full line of stock on all the phones we offer plus we offer an extended warranty service directly through us, no third parties are ever involved.

Lease or Purchase

Many vendors offer businesses the ability to lease their SIP phones. Improcom does not suggest leasing phones due to restrictions put in place on those phones by vendors who offer this service. If you are not happy with the quality of the phone or service you are locked into a lease-term for the phone. Even if there is no contract you must return the phones and anything paid during the time of the lease is lost. Now your business must begin the process purchasing new equipment. It is important to purchase your phones, and ensure that the phones purchased on fully unlocked. This gives businesses the most flexibility in not only choosing their phone, but their service provider.

Your VoIP Service Provider

Although this last factor may seem out of place when trying to find the best VoIP Phone, today it is recommended that you purchase phone service at the same time as the phones. A Hosted VoIP phone system is what powers the phone. Each phone directly connects to the internet and using a secure connection to your VoIP service provider. It is incredibly important to make sure your service provider supports the features you need from the phone you choose. This is not always the case, and many service providers try to charge extra for activating features the phone already has! For example, if you are purchasing an 8 line phone some companies will only activate one or two lines of that phone, and charge you for every line you need after! That means when you have two calls on hold waiting to be transferred you cannot get a third call! Improcom will activate, at no additional cost, as many lines as your phone can handle. It is important to ask your service provider if the features you are planning to use are functional!

During the consultation process Improcom will review all the questions from this article and more, to find the right solution for you, and make sure that it works from day one and lasts for the life of your business. This is why Improcom has been ranked one of the best VoIP companies in NY.

Are you looking at purchasing VoIP Phones for your business today? Fill out the form below and a dedicated account manager can provide a free, no obligation consultation.