Category: VoIPFrog

As everyone knows in the tech sector, outages happen, and if the proper planning has not been made, you can find yourself with an office full of employees unable to work. Since VoIP is dependent upon a strong internet connection, it is important to make sure you have a backup ISP in case your primary goes down. Some of the most popular combinations in the industry are a Fiber primary with a T1 backup, and a Cable primary with a 4G backup. Of course, you can mix and match your solution to best fit your company’s needs.

On the flip side, you need to make sure your hosted PBX service provider also has redundancy, and this is where VoIPFrog shines. We have multiple geo-redundant locations across the US. We also use multiple upstream providers with automatic failovers in place. If your phones are mission critical to keeping your business up and running, we’ve got you covered.

Learn more about VoIPFrog’s Unified Communications Solution by visiting our website. If you want to chat with a sales representative, send us an email to sales@VoIPFrog.com.

On-premise		Cloud-Based
Your phone system is at your location and you are responsible for installing and maintaining.		Your phone system resides in the cloud using your Internet connection with no on-premise hardware or software to install or maintain, except for phones.
Costs
• Up to 40% more costly than cloud-based, requiring cabling, hardware, closet space, electricity, and cooling • Pay in advance for planned growth • Multiple locations require multiple phone systems • Pay for all upgrades and maintenance		• No hardware costs except the phones themselves • Pay only for what you need & use. Scale up or down on demand. • Multiple locations are supported by one phone system in the cloud • Most features and upgrades are included in cost
Installation
• Time-intensive setup, requiring the installation of significant hardware		• Quick and easy setup and installation due to minimal hardware deployment
Scalability
• Harder to scale, requiring thorough planning (and detailed, accurate forecasting) • Takes weeks or months to add or delete phone lines		• Scales to your needs as you grow, using exactly what you need, when you need it • Phone lines can be added or deleted in a matter of minutes
Maintenance
• Requires an IT specialist to manage and make changes		• Other than phones, no maintenance required
Upgrading Features
• Time to market varies • Upgrades require manual updates from an IT specialist		• Time to market is immediate • All upgrades are made available automatically through the cloud
Mobility
• Implementing mobile compatibility is extremely complex and expensive, making it more difficult to accommodate a mobile workforce		• Anyone can connect from multiple devices with an Internet connection, making it easy to extend to a remote workforce
Disaster Recovery
• Redundancy is possible, but costly • Recovery is typically slower, negatively impacting customer experience • Geo-redundancy, while possible, requires double the space, hardware, software, and capital		• Built-in failover in the event of Internet or power loss • Calls automatically rerouted to other data centers so customer experience is not affected • Geo-redundancy is built in, with no need for a capital outlay for space, hardware, or software

With a cloud-based solution, your business can take advantage of the following benefits:
• Lower cost • Faster setup • Improved scalability • No maintenance	• Faster time to market with new technology • Only pay for the hardware and services you use	• Simple and cost-effective mobility solutions • More reliable disaster recovery	• Automatic updates • Eliminate the cost of future-proofing
How to Switch
Interested in switching to VoIP Frog? Call +1 (844) 955-FROG (3764) to receive a customized quote detailing the benefits of utilizing our innovative products and services. When you’re ready, we’ll install your new phone system with ZERO downtime, so you can get back to business.

The versatile, simple solution to business phone systems.

With Hosted PBX phones, your staff can work from anywhere there is an available Internet connection. Hosted PBX Phone Systems offer outstanding capabilities with customizable features and the versatility to perform multiple functions on a single phone system. Whether you operate a call center, multiple business locations, or have staff that telecommutes, a Hosted PBX Phone System is the business tool for you.

Key factors when choosing your next Business Phone System:

• How many workstations do I need, and is there expandability when my business grows?
• How can I make this as simple as possible in order to free up my IT staff for more important tasks?
• How do I keep pace with changing technology and insure the best functionality of the phone system?
• Can I have the versatility to connect multiple locations seamlessly and afford my staff the ability to telecommute and manage their own phone settings?
• Can I reduce the workload for reception staff?
• Do I need a separate phone system to operate my call center?
• What is the most secure and reliable way to achieve my communication requirements?
• Who or what is the best resource to provide you with answers and solutions?

8 Benefits of Hosted PBX Phones that position your business for growth

1. Reduce upfront capital cost for your business phone system.

Hosted PBX offers you the versatility to add users and features without buying expensive equipment yet affords you all the functionality of traditional key systems.

2. Free yourself from management headaches.

With a Hosted PBX phone system from VoIPFrog, all calls are routed through a secure location. Your VoIPFrog team is responsible for managing all of the support equipment and software necessary to keep you connected. A Hosted PBX system eliminates the need for an IT Department, or a climate-controlled data room, as there is no equipment – other than the actual phones — to install, power, or maintain.

3. Enable your team to work from anywhere.

With Hosted PBX phones, your staff can work from anywhere there is an available Internet connection. While beneficial for telecommuters, Hosted PBX Phones can be invaluable to your business, should disaster strike, and you need to operate from a temporary business location.

4. Select a platform that grows with your business.

Adding Hosted PBX workstations is as simple as plugging in an additional phone. There is no additional control equipment to purchase and other than an internet connection, no additional cabling necessary. When enhancements and upgrades are available, OTT Hosted PBX Phones are seamlessly updated from the cloud.

5. Gain the peace of mind of knowing your phone system is when you need it, no matter what.

OTELCO’s fully redundant network is monitored 24 /7 and provides peace of mind, since there is always a backup keeping you connected.

6. Tailor your Hosted PBX to your business’ unique needs.

Setting our Hosted PBX Phone Solutions apart from other hosted providers is our use of our Geographically Redundant hosting platform that greatly enhances the features and functions already inherent with hosted phones. A secure web portal augments basic phone functionality and allows users to control and configure their PBX phones to suit their individual needs.

For example, a VoIPFrog Hosted PBX user can, with a few clicks on a web page or via an app on their mobile, selectively forward calls from an office phone to a cell phone. The user portal also simplifies deployment of new features as they occur. There is no need to upgrade your platform for new features; you get them as they become available.

7. Answer and direct calls automatically when you can’t answer yourself.

Hosted PBX’s integrated auto attendant answers calls for you and directs your customers where they need to go when you don’t have staff available to answer calls. The system can also be programmed and advance-scheduled to greet callers with customized messages including holiday closings, inclement weather notices, and virtually any message you would like customers to hear when they call in.

8. Effectively manage contact teams with robust call center features.

If you operate a call center or any customer service function, whether with 5 agents of 50, you know about the challenges of managing a call queue, quality assurance monitoring, and maintaining a high level of customer care and satisfaction. Hosted PBX can be fully customized to your specifications and the call center module can easily operate at multiple sites or even for home workers.

Learn more about VoIPFrog’s Unified Communications Solution by visiting our website. If you want to chat with a sales representative, send us an email to sales@VoIPFrog.com.

What is Hosted PBX?

Unlike a traditional PBX, or Private Branch Exchange, which requires a large investment and ongoing maintenance and training, a hosted PBX is a cloud-based PBX system accessible via an IP network. Rather than being responsible for hardware, software, training, maintenance, and more, a hosted PBX provider takes care of it all. In addition to being completely managed off-site, resulting in no IT or installation costs, a hosted PBX system also provides businesses with the ability to manage their phone systems via a user-friendly control panel. For these reasons and more, hosted PBX systems are becoming increasingly popular solutions for today’s growing small to medium-sized business owners.

Features and Benefits of Hosted PBX

If you own a business with fewer than 300 lines, hosted PBX can provide you with a multitude of features and benefits. For starters, a hosted PBX system is much less expensive than a traditional on-site system. With hosted PBX, there is no need to buy expensive hardware and software, pay for installation, and manage the system. You simply pay a monthly fee and enjoy all of the benefits of the service.

While less costly than standard on-site PBX systems, hosted PBX solutions are teeming with valuable features, such as on-hold music, call waiting, call routing, transfers, and more. Moreover, as the popularity of hosted PBX continues to grow, additional features like auto attendants, extension dialing, and ACD queues are being introduced.

A hosted PBX can also be deployed immediately. In fact, most business owners are able to have their hosted PBX setup and running in under a day. Best of all, newer and more flexible hosted PBX applications are being deployed as well. Adding these applications and features can typically be done with a simple download or click of the mouse.

The ability to add new features as they roll out is just one example of the scalability of hosted PBX. Additional lines, phones, and even an entire new department can effortlessly be added, which would be much more complex with a traditional on-site PBX.

When you opt for a hosted PBX and outsource all the techie stuff, you will find your stress levels lowering as well. With a hosted PBX, a mountain of responsibility will be taken off your shoulders, allowing you to focus your attention on more important matters, like improving your bottom line.

Benefits of Hosted PBX

There are many benefits to using Hosted PBX rather than a traditional phone system, or an on-premise PBX. The main benefit is cost- a Hosted PBX system costs much less to set-up than an on-premise PBX. In many cases, there are no set-up fees for a hosted PBX system. Purchasing and setting up an on-premise PBX can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Hosted PBX phone systems fall under operational expenditure rather than capital expenditure, which also makes hosted PBX service attractive to businesses. With hosted PBX service, you pay a monthly fee, and the hosted PBX service provider takes care of the rest.

Another benefit to a hosted PBX system over an on-premise PBX is that hosted PBX service providers will take care of all the set-up and installation, meaning you do not need to be a telecom or VoIP expert in order to get a hosted PBX system. A downside to a hosted PBX is you may have a little less of an ability to customize your solution to your business, but many hosted PBX service providers can achieve a deep level of customization.

Learn more about VoIPFrog’s Unified Communications Solution by visiting our website. If you want to chat with a sales representative, send us an email to sales@VoIPFrog.com

Contact Center (CC), is an evolution of call center functionalities. Over time, your organization’s needs for customer engagement have likely increased in scope. Previously, customers only had voice channels for real-time communication with your business, so call centers like yours only needed voice capabilities. As your customers’ options for communications expand to email, live chat, and text, we know you need to respond accordingly by offering those same channels as means of modern customer engagement. This demand spurred the evolution of our Contact Center customer engagement solution.

Contact Center provides your company with a powerful and flexible set of tools to enhance the customer engagement experience for any contact style including voice, text, or chat. This solution empowers your agent with instant information on their desktop about the caller which boosts human engagement, increases First Contact Resolutions (FCR), and decreases call times.

Contact Center reduces overhead by helping your supervisors and agents manage resources more efficiently without sacrificing customer satisfaction. It offers a customizable experience for both administrators and agents including dashboards, reports, and screen pops with database integration. Contact Center also integrates with nearly all platforms (PBX) and databases and can be deployed as a standalone cloud offering.

With Contact Center you’ll be able to:

Regardless of vertical, your organization must continue to strive for efficiencies when providing customer service without sacrificing quality levels. Contact Center empowers your agents with detailed data about your customer contacts within one interface. It has the ability to utilize CRM integrations and intelligence gathered through IVR call flows to display relevant and powerful information on the desktop to enable FCR.

While building toward more efficient and pleasant customer engagement, your contact center managers must look for new ways to enhance their caller and agent experience while managing staffing levels efficiently. CC provides administrative tools for workforce management that allow your managers to offer information and tools to your agents that reduce requests for previously collected data and automate routine, time-consuming tasks.

Who can use Contact Center:

Our Contact Center solution is built for organizations that want to create a pleasant customer experience through the management, monitoring, and enhancement of the entire customer engagement. Today your customers have a higher expectation of how they interact with companies in customer service, sales, accounting, and management. These expectations create higher demand for staff and technology within the business, demanding that you implement advanced technologies to compete and win in this rapidly changing environment. Contact Center is ideal for your organization if it is struggling to meet these expectations and deliver on improved customer engagement. Regardless of industry, your business can be more successful with the implementation of a Contact Center.

How Contact Center is used:

Your organization can utilize Contact Center for a number of customer engagements, the most prevalent being customer service, outbound sales, technical support, and inbound sales orders. You can implement Contact Center as simply as a small call center with voice only interactions, or as a fully featured, omni-channel call center incorporating voice, live web chat, SMS, email, IVR, custom CRM integration, and more. Contact Center can scale from 5 agents to 1,000+ with any or all of the features implemented. In short, you can use Contact Center in any way that best supports your organization’s needs. Example vertical markets that use Contact Center today are:

•  Health Care: centralized patient services &
   private practices

•  Government & Public Sector: local, state, & federal   
   facilities with centralized service locations

•  Financial: customer & membership services

•  Insurance: policy management & customer services

•  Utilities: billing services & customer services

•  Retail: centralized ordering & customer service
   departments

•  Education: human resources & educator services

•  Transportation: dispatch & operator services

Learn more about VoIPFrog’s Contact Center and Unified Communications Solution by visiting our website. If you want to chat with a sales representative, send us an email to sales@VoIPFrog.com

86% of small businesses are considering replacing traditional phone systems with cloud-based communication

Do you take business calls on your cell phone? Of course you do! Do your employees or sales force work remotely, from home or the road at least some of the time? Most likely. A study by web conferencing software company, PGi, indicates that globally, 79% of office employees work remotely at least one day each week.

Are your employees asking to bring their own devices to work? It’s a growing trend and one that can drastically reduce your initial expenditure in device acquisition. Gartner research showed that in 2017, 90% of organizations supported some level of BYOD and in 2018, twice as many employees used their own device versus company owned technology.

As business communications become more diverse and sophisticated, advanced technology is necessary to keep pace with new trends and market demands. Unfortunately, most legacy phone systems cannot support the future of business communications needs, but fortunately, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have options to overcome this challenge.

79% of office employees work remotely at least one day each week.

Modern communication applications once reserved for big businesses are now affordable to businesses of all sizes. Through hosted phone services (aka VoIP), SMBs gain the capabilities needed to support diverse devices, connect remote workers to the office and streamline communications between employees and customers. These tremendous benefits are likely why 86% of small businesses are considering replacing traditional phone systems with cloud-based communications, according to a recent Cisco survey.

In this highly connected world where customers increasingly expect you to answer their call from virtually anywhere, at any time, the power of VoIP offers next-generation business communication tools to support all your emerging needs. Here are four reasons why you should consider replacing your antiquated phone system with a future-proofed cloud communications solution.

IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS

Cloud communication services enable the same sophisticated audio and video capabilities as even the largest players in your industry. A hosted solution allows access to modern applications like virtual audio attendant and Unified Communications, or products like voice, chat, data, technologies, and more that integrate with your phone. Companies with cloud communications improve customer service, employee productivity, and customer connections.

Example: a virtual auto attendant supports remote or long distance workers by ensuring employees never miss an important business call even when working away from their office. Serving the role of a front desk receptionist, the virtual auto attendant greets each caller then automatically routes them to the appropriate employee. Calls can be forwarded to any device, with messages accessible from any cell phone or home phone as well. With this functionality, employees can work remotely or travel while maintaining excellent communication with coworkers and customers.

Unified Communications decreases the complexity of integrating and coordinating a wide range of communications channels, networks, systems, and applications by uniting them under a single interface so employees can better collaborate to work more productively. What’s more, with Unified Communications, businesses can now contract all their communications needs from a single provider with one invoice as opposed to sourcing multiple vendors. According to an Inc. Magazine research study on the benefits of Unified Communications, 67% of user organizations reported increased mobile worker productivity and faster problem resolution. Adopting the latest business communication applications transforms the way you do business and keeps your company on the cutting edge for a better, more collaborative experience with customers and employees.

SCALABLE SERVICES THAT GROW WITH YOU

• Choose only the hosted services
  and features you want right now
• Immediately scale up or down
• Automate the upgrade process

VoIP is highly scalable and saves you money by:

• Eliminating the need to predict the future and pay for services not currently required by your business. Instead, you can choose only the hosted services and features you want right now.
• Providing added cost-efficiency with the ability to immediately scale up or down at the drop of a dime, depending on your specific requirements.
• Automate the upgrade process with contracted services, so your business benefits from using the latest cutting edge technology at all times.

SO, WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE?

To maximize the benefits of this transition, partner with a company that offers high-quality cloud communication solutions to help you enhance agility, increase employee productivity, reduce operating expenses and gain a competitive advantage. Contact VoIPFrog now or email us at info@VoIPFrog.com.

Is VoIP a good idea for small businesses?

In a word, Yes!

VoIP is a good idea for any sized business. There is a preconceived notion that only large organizations gain the advantage of using VoIP. However, that is not the case! 

Keep reading to hear 10 reasons VoIP is a good idea for small businesses. 

Flexibility and Scalability

VoIP is customizable to your business needs. It can grow (or shrink) as needed. When your small business grows into a large corporation, your communications solution will grow with you. 

No IT Team Needed

With VoIP, you do not require a fully trained IT team to manage your communications. The provider for your hosted VoIP solution will take support off your hands. 

No Commitment 

A long-term commitment can be scary in personal relationships and business relationships. Hesitation is common with large purchases, and many people are unaware that VoIP is purchasable on a month-to-month basis. No contract. No commitments.  

Cost-Effective 

Hosted VoIP solutions are more affordable than on-premise solutions. You avoid a significant upfront cost, and the payment covers support, maintenance, and updates. If you prefer an on-premise solution, the system is deployable on your existing hardware and network. VoIP will also save your small business on domestic and international call charges. 

Convenience

Small businesses can focus on their day to day activities without worrying about their phone systems. VoIP is easy to use, and calls can be tracked, monitored, and recorded. Users can change their account information at their convenience, and one telephone number can be provided, with individual extensions for employees. 

Security 

Security should be a top priority for any business. But for small businesses, lack of security could mean the end of their company. VoIP is more secure than traditional phone lines. 

Increase Productivity

VoIP features like call recordings, CRM integration, archiving storage, and more will increase your employee’s productivity. Users of VoIP can do more than making phone calls. 

Accessibility

VoIP users can make or receive calls from anywhere with an internet connection. Your employees are reachable from anywhere, allowing you to outsource to remote employees.

Quality

Quality and I cannot stress this next part enough, over quantity. The overall quality of your voice calls will vastly improve with VoIP. As long as your internet connection is stable, you will notice the difference in call quality, especially international calls.

Additional Features

Chances are your VoIP provider will have unified communication applications that your business can implement. You can have all your communication channels from one provider, on one platform. 

Learn more about VoIPFrog’s Unified Communications Solution by visiting our website. If you want to chat with a sales representative, send us an email to sales@VoIPFrog.com