Common mistakes in Setting up a VoIP Phone System
There are many pros and cons articles regarding VoIP phone systems out there, but the simple truth is that the majority of the ‘cons’ or system issues are simply due to incorrect system and service provider configuration. When choosing a VoIP system, you must either do a lot of research or hire a seasoned VoIP professional to do the work for you and here is why.
I hear quite a bit of common complaints stating that “my calls sound choppy” or “some of my phone calls get dropped” with people using voip phone systems and “… so voip is not ready for the business environment” which is far from the truth. In this article I will address the most common mistakes people make when switching to voip.
Choose the right phone system for your business! I cant stress this enough, and it really comes down to ‘you get what you pay for’. Since one of the major factor in switching to voip is backed by saving a few bucks, one tends to skimp on the system and hardware associated with it. Do your research! Make sure you choose a phone system that has the functions that you need now AND a few years down the road so you are not stuck with an investment that you will regret later. Allworx makes a great future proof hybrid voip phone system that supports analog, T1 and VoIP.
Choose a reliable carrier for your voice/data. Since voip calls are transported in a data format, it is essential that the carrier of your choice is a reliable one (Tier 1) and is can prioritize your voip traffic on the public network so you do not experience “choppy calls” and your calls being dropped/disconnected. Don’t go with a small carrier ITSP because you might not get the support you need if you start to experience service issues.
Now that you have the perfect phone system and carrier you are not out of the woods yet. Its time to make the appropriate considerations to your network infrastructure. Since your carrier will prioritize your voip traffic on the public side, you might also need to do so on the local network as well. This may not necessary as this depends on the type of network you currently have.
Does your current network have high traffic services such as streaming media servers or file servers?
Is your current LAN utilization high?
If you answered yes to the two questions above, then its a good idea to install smart or managed switches and routers that recognize the SIP protocol.
If you follow these guidelines closely, you should have a solid VoIP communications solution.
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