As all of us in the know, know, the Voip marketplace is an over-crowded melee of companies eager to take advantage of the seemingly endless procession of customers jumping ship from tired analogue communications networks and flocking to the shores of Voice Over IP technology. But how do you go about choosing the right provider?
But there are a couple of specific questions that should be asked of every service provider before any decision is made. And if a service provider doesn't answer each question to your satisfaction, simply move onto the next company and keep asking until you find one that does.
The first question to ask is "What are the real start-up costs?" Advertised start-up costs are one thing, but actual start up costs include items such as setup fees, activation fees, equipment costs & porting fees. As well as this, IP phones can be expensive and you may well need to supply a new phone at every desk.
Next you should ask about their help or support centre. Planning for the worst is not a great mindset or habit to get into, but it is essential to know that when something goes wrong you can get the support that you need immediately and not have to wait for someone to reply to you.
If you have to wait for a response then you could be waiting days, potentially costing you significant revenue in the mean time. And if they do have a manned support system, check what times they operate between - no point them being closed if you are open at unusual hours!
Another important question to consider is: How often does their server crash and what are the redundancies? Although no company is going to be very forthcoming with information about their servers crashing, a little online background research will reveal issues and concerns raised with a company's service.
And in case that doesn't reveal anything, it is always worthwhile looking back through past Twitter feeds and other social media outlets. And in case you're wondering, redundancies are the excess servers that an ISP has to handle its traffic should anything go wrong with their main servers.
And there are other questions such as what are the termination costs? that are always useful to know. But hopefully this outline guide has helped you to appreciate that the most important points to raise with a potential service provider are the ones that they would not otherwise want to mention.
But there are a couple of specific questions that should be asked of every service provider before any decision is made. And if a service provider doesn't answer each question to your satisfaction, simply move onto the next company and keep asking until you find one that does.
The first question to ask is "What are the real start-up costs?" Advertised start-up costs are one thing, but actual start up costs include items such as setup fees, activation fees, equipment costs & porting fees. As well as this, IP phones can be expensive and you may well need to supply a new phone at every desk.
Next you should ask about their help or support centre. Planning for the worst is not a great mindset or habit to get into, but it is essential to know that when something goes wrong you can get the support that you need immediately and not have to wait for someone to reply to you.
If you have to wait for a response then you could be waiting days, potentially costing you significant revenue in the mean time. And if they do have a manned support system, check what times they operate between - no point them being closed if you are open at unusual hours!
Another important question to consider is: How often does their server crash and what are the redundancies? Although no company is going to be very forthcoming with information about their servers crashing, a little online background research will reveal issues and concerns raised with a company's service.
And in case that doesn't reveal anything, it is always worthwhile looking back through past Twitter feeds and other social media outlets. And in case you're wondering, redundancies are the excess servers that an ISP has to handle its traffic should anything go wrong with their main servers.
And there are other questions such as what are the termination costs? that are always useful to know. But hopefully this outline guide has helped you to appreciate that the most important points to raise with a potential service provider are the ones that they would not otherwise want to mention.
About the Author:
Saul Saresi writes regularly about Voip technology and systems for his site VoIPDito business voip More information about Voip can be found by visiting here voip for business
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