Author: Albert Steed
Company: TrueIPSolutions
What exactly is Voice Over IP and how does it work?
How long does it take to replace an old phone system with VoIP?
What happens to my phone numbers when I switch to VoIP?
How do I know if my current phone system needs to be replaced?
The Problem Most Business Owners Face
Albert Steed from True IP Solutions has seen it countless times. Business owners call in a panic when their old phone system fails. Just like the dentist office in Wilmington that got struck by lightning one day.
“His 10 phone calls inside of his dental practice went down. They had to go to the store and buy one phone line to plug right back in. And that was the only way they could make and receive calls. And they called us in a panic.”
Within two days, True IP ported their numbers and got them set up on a new system. But this emergency could have been avoided entirely.
What is Voice Over IP Technology?
Voice over IP is just basically phone calls over the internet. It started way back in the day with little apps that you could do on your house phone with a little box that you would plug in. Now it has moved more into the small business and government style places like school systems and cities.
From a technology standpoint, it makes life easier. It takes all of the individual pieces of hardware and things that your IT people were hosting in a closet somewhere and maintaining, and you move all of that over to the cloud.
True IP has five different data centers across the US that guarantee their servers are up from their SLA standpoint. All you need to use is either a desk phone, a mobile app, or the web phone to connect. You don’t have to deal with all the infrastructure and other pieces. You just make and deliver your phone calls, have auto attendance and all the great bells and whistles you need to run whatever your organization is.
When Should You Consider Replacing Your System?
Most people that have a legacy phone system think it just works. When things work and you know what the bill is and it’s in the budget, you really don’t have a lot of incentive to change it. You start thinking about a phone system and it’s really not that bad. A lot of your business runs through it, but as long as it’s running fine, why do you want to change things?
The impetus for that becomes when you start thinking about what happens when it breaks. If you have got an old phone system and it gets struck by lightning, you’re in trouble.
You also need to think about growth. If you’re looking to open that second office location, do you want them both standalone or do you want them on a unified calling platform so that when somebody calls this office, if somebody’s not able to answer, it rings over to the other office?
Real Cost Savings Examples
One of True IP’s largest customers ended up saving a million and a half dollars a year on their telephone spend. Just because of all the legacy hardware they had to maintain servers, they even let a couple of people retire early that they just didn’t need on staff anymore because they didn’t have all the extra work that they had.
The biggest opportunity Albert saw was when his previous company was a FinTech that ran call centers for banks and credit unions. They had literally a phone system in a box and if there was a hurricane coming to Wilmington, they would have to take that phone system and fly down to Atlanta. They had a whole separate office so their staff could go down there in the event of a disaster.
When they moved over to True IP, that whole setup and the whole other office got to be decommissioned. They made little go bags. If you had a hurricane coming, they gave you a headset and a laptop and told you to go anywhere that you want to go, a hotel, a family member’s house, and they could set up and work anywhere they wanted to in the world that had an internet connection.
Features That Make the Difference
There are all these cool features in the voice over IP world outside of what they traditionally call the plain old telephone system. There’s find me, follow me features and mobile apps.
If you’re a sales agency or a car dealership, do you want to have your customers calling a personal cell phone for your sales agent? And then when they decide to go to the next agency, everybody’s still calling their cell phone and now they’re over here selling something else. You’ve lost that connection.
If you give them a voice over IP app like True Talk, they put that on their cell phone. You give them a number, you give them SMS capability. Now every phone call they make, every text message they send, you own it. It’s yours.
The Implementation Process
True IP will do as little or as much as you want them to do. There’s no change in their price. There’s nothing else they’re going to do differently for you.
If you want to handle moves, changes, and setting up all of your different systems and users, power to you. They’ll train you. They have got all kinds of cool stuff for self automation in the system for you to be able to do it.
But if you don’t want to deal with it and you just want to pick up the phone or shoot an email and say you need something right now, they’ll take care of that for you too.
Why Local Support Matters
When you call True IP for support, the only accent that you may hear is a little bit of a country accent because they’re in North Carolina. They have technicians in Florida and other places, but they will never outsource any type of support overseas.
You’re going to talk to them. You’re going to know that if you have an issue, you can pick up the phone and call them and they’re going to fix it. They’re staffed 24 seven. If you send them an email and you’re not sure who to call, they have personal cell phone numbers. You can text or call them directly and they will get the problem solved.
Getting Started
The best way to reach out is on our website here. They have a contact form, phone information, and email information. They’re happy to come out and visit. Albert might even fly out and visit you, depending on where you’re at.
They want to meet you wherever you want to be. If you love face to face and you want them to be there face to face, they are more than happy to meet you face to face.
Their main geographic area right now is North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.
They have technicians down the East Coast. But depending on what they’re doing, they’ve been to Chicago, Texas, Iowa, and South Dakota.
They’re willing to go anywhere they need to help work and be a good partner with their customers.
Don’t wait for lightning to strike your old system. Contact True IP Solutions today to learn how voice over IP technology can save your business money while providing the reliability and features you need to grow.
