Business Applications
Businesses have been quick to embrace VoIP, both for its cost savings but also for the flexibility and features it offers.
For the home worker or small business, VoIP can provide functionality that is impossible or impractical using traditional services, or that are only found on commercial phone systems. These include conference calling, call forwarding and call diversion. VoIP is also a quick and cost-effective way to install extra phone lines in a small office.
The freedom from ties to a local telephone exchange also creates opportunities for business. VoIP makes it easy to create instant, virtual offices around the world. A company could set up local numbers in London and Los Angeles, but route calls from both to Liverpool or even Lisbon.
Firms can also use VoIP to route calls to overseas offices out of hours, or to staff working from home, without the caller ever needing to know. Staff working away from the office can pick up their voicemail from a soft phone or WiFi handset and even take their extension with them if they are working in a different office for a period of time.
Large businesses are also using VoIP to create inter-departmental phone networks between sites, even across borders. Calls within such networks are usually free of charge, and as they use the Internet, running costs are far cheaper than for leased, private circuits. And some companies have gone as far as removing their switchboards altogether, because VoIP covers all their communications needs.