How to Save Money on Business Phone Systems While Improving Security

The Hidden Costs Killing Your Budget

Most people that have a legacy phone system think it just works. When things work and you know what the bill is, 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 problem comes when you add up the real costs. You’ve got hardware sitting in a closet that your IT people have to maintain. You’ve got separate systems for security, separate systems for paging, separate vendors for each piece. Each system needs its own support contract, its own maintenance schedule, its own emergency response plan.

Here’s a real example that shows how quickly costs can spiral out of control. True IP had one county government reach out about a plain old telephone system line. They were paying 75 dollars a month and didn’t want to deal with changing it. They got an email from their provider saying the price was going to go up, and they thought it would be fine, maybe 20 percent, maybe 100 dollars.

The next bill was 2,000 dollars for a 75 dollar phone line. They called True IP frantically and said they needed it fixed right away.

How Voice Over IP Eliminates Infrastructure Costs

Voice over IP is just basically phone calls over the internet. 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, the web phone, whatever you want to do to connect. You don’t have to deal with all the infrastructure, all the other pieces, and 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.

Albert experienced this transformation firsthand 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.

The Security Integration That Pays for Itself

What makes True IP’s approach unique is their “triple play” system that combines voice, security, and paging into one integrated solution. This integration creates additional cost savings that most businesses never consider.

They actually manage voice over IP, so your phone system. Then they do security and access control. So if you want badge access, you want video cameras, all of those different things. And the last piece is paging.

These three systems really all start to interplay together. Your phone system can talk to the door access control. If you’re a building and you don’t have somebody that can see the front door, but you don’t want people coming in and out, they put a video call box. It then shows up on the screen on your phone at your desk and then you can talk to them. You can see them. You can talk and then you just click a little button on the touch screen that says unlock the door and then they get to come in.

This eliminates the need for separate security monitoring services or having staff dedicated to watching doors. The phone system handles the security function automatically.

Business Continuity Savings During Crisis

During COVID, True IP ended up picking up quite a few new clients in the county government space or city government space when they started doing COVID hotlines. There were nightmare stories all over the media that phone systems at these county governments when they would launch a COVID hotline for people to come in to get a shot were just crashing the phone systems.

True IP had multiple clients that they didn’t even do work with. They just said they were there to help. They knew this was a weird situation. They set up a COVID hotline for them. They did that work with a bunch of different county governments that later came on to be full time clients because they were there. They proved their system could work. It could handle the capacity they needed and that started building relationships in that space.

The cost of system downtime during critical periods like this can be enormous. Having a system that scales automatically saves businesses from lost revenue and emergency fixes.

Transparent Pricing That Eliminates Hidden Fees

True IP takes a different approach to pricing than many providers. They’re a small family owned company, so they take a little bit of a different approach to a lot of things.

Their small business customers are going to pay a little bit more than a school system or a church or a county government. But they still don’t charge as much typically as the larger brands do. They look for opportunities of how they can offer the best amount of service that they can at a price point that customers are going to feel good about and they’re going to feel good about.

They try to do more of a package pricing where this is what your price is per user and you just understand it and there’s not a lot of usage or a lot of other hidden fees or charges. They try to make that very transparent.

The Support Cost Advantage

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.

This eliminates the hidden costs of dealing with overseas support, language barriers, time zone issues, and the productivity loss that comes from support calls that don’t actually solve problems.

Employee Retention Creates Long-Term Value

True IP’s approach to employee development creates additional value for customers. They have some employees now that have already hit over 10 years. One of their first employees is still with them. They have two more people in the next year that are hitting their 10 year mark.

Hunter, who has been with them for over 10 years and is probably almost at his 11 year mark, is as much of a stickler for wanting it done right and wanting it to be supported as the owners are because he’s just been kind of ingrained in that mentality and he’s seen the benefits of what that looks like. Over the 11 years he’s been with them, he’s continued to grow into a role and financially that’s made a lot of sense for him and his family.

This continuity means customers work with experienced technicians who understand their systems and can provide better, faster support.

Real-World Implementation Flexibility

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.

They have clients that want them to come on site and help them. They have other clients that have full big IT teams and they want to handle it themselves. They look at customers and say they will do as little or as much as you want them to do. If you want to handle moves, changes, and setting up all of your different systems and users, more power to you. They’ll train you. 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.

Advanced Features That Drive Additional Savings

The voice over IP world offers features 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.

Getting Started with Your Cost Analysis

The best way to understand your potential savings is to reach out through our contact page. Our team will review your current communication setup and provide a clear cost comparison, showing exactly where you can save and improve.

Whether you’re looking to upgrade your phone system, integrate security, or simplify your infrastructure, we’ll work with you every step of the way. Our experts can meet virtually or on-site, ensuring a smooth transition that fits your organization’s needs.

We’re here to be your long-term partner — helping you solve challenges, streamline operations, and reduce costs with solutions that simply work.

Don’t wait for unexpected expenses to add up. Click here to get your free cost analysis today.