You are no longer limited to traditional phone connections. With an IP- PBX your phone system is future proof, full of features and able to take advantage of the huge savings VoIP has to offer.

How it all works:

Terminology / Buzzwords

VOIP
VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. It simply means delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet

PSTN / POTS
PSTN stands for Public Switched Telephone Network. It also goes by POTS (Plain Old Telephone System). This is the worldwide telephone network (the phone service we use for every ordinary phone call).

VSP In telephony
VSP means VoIP Service Provider. In order to make a VoIP call to normal (PSTN) phones requires a VSP. They act essentially as a phone company.

IP PBX
An IP (Internet Protocol) PBX (Private branch exchange) is a business telephone system designed to deliver voice over a data network and interoperate with the normal Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

I heard Voip quality is questionable/unreliable - is this true? 

No.  When a phone system using VoIP is implemented properly - the quality is often times better than traditional phones for outgoing calls (interoffice is always equal or better depending on the phone).

The way in which your company utilizes its phone system (IE: call behavior) will dictate the proper combination of broadband, switches and carrier requirements.

In some cases we have recommended companies keep their existing copper lines yet upgrade their phone system.  In other cases we have blended solutions to where outgoing calls use VoIP yet incoming stay on the copper.  The solution which is right for your company may(and often times is not) the same for others.

How does Voip save you money?

VoIP to Traditional

With normal (non-VoIP) phone systems your calls have to travel over the public phone network.  For local calls it is a short trip which is why the phone company charges you a flat fee for local service.  When you place a long-distance call, however, your conversation travels further and each leg of the trip incurs costs (on each telco's network).

What VoIP does is bypass more than half the public phone system - cutting your cost.  So instead of you having the pay for the full trip of your call you only pay for the piece that ends up on the public phone system.  You can literally save over 70% of long distance costs and in most cases find a provider with flat-rates.  For business you will more than likely also be able to afford more local lines at a fraction of what the traditional telco's would charge you.

VoIP to VoIP

For calls between two VoIP enabled systems the public phone network is bypassed completely (you pay nothing other than your normal Broadband service fees).

Are there any drawbacks?

Inside the office there are no drawbacks (if implemented properly).  In a matter of years every new phone system sold will be based on VoIP.

Things to keep note of:

Make sure your broadband is backed by a Service level agreement(sla), make sure it has enough throughput

If your phone systems lines are handled purely by VoIP (IE: no traditional lines) then outgoing/incoming calls will completely rely on your broadband connection.  This potential drawback can be avoided by ensuring your broadband is business class and backed by a service level agreement.  These agreements lay out uptime guarantees and most importantly guarantee issue resolution procedures.

Another point to keep in mind is that if you plan to heavily utilize outgoing VoIP channels then it is paramount to calculate concurrent call volumes and communicate that to your implementation specialist (who should be able to guide you in a broadband solution).

One main reason you hear that outgoing VoIP is not reliable or has bad quality is that their Internet connection was the last thing they considered.

Faxing

Faxing is not reliable over VoIP channels.  If Faxing is important to your company either keep at least one traditional phone line for your fax or consider paying for one of the available online fax solutions like e-fax.  It is expected that in the next few years the fax issue will be resolved.

Point of Sale devices

Point of sale devices (Credit Card Machines) will not work correctly over VoIP lines.  If your point of sale device (credit card machines etc..) uses a traditional phone connection and you are moving completely to VoIP then you should either buy a new POS device which works over the Internet or keep one of your traditional lines specifically for that purpose.

Security Systems

Security Systems utilizing the traditional phone network have the same problem as fax and point of sale (they will not work correctly).  If not already then we would suggest you switch your security system to use a cellular connection.