The current economic conditions faced by small businesses means that you are having to find new ways to free up existing capital in order to finance your own  revenue growth. While at the same time, remain flexible enough to weather sporadic increases in demand, especially as the economy struggles with volatile fuel prices, inconsistent regulations, and other market fluctuations.

Considering the fact that small businesses represent approximately 99.7 percent of all employer firms and employ about half of all private sector employees, it is extremely important to put small businesses on a stronger footing.

Since telecommunications and related IT expenses count for as much as 28 percent of a small businesses operating costs, many owners cut costs by auditing for circuit disconnects (circuits companies no longer use), long distance carrier charges, and billing errors. But those standard audit procedures only represent a fraction of what the average small business can save. A business that makes the move to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) reduces costs associated with traditional telephone services by 58 to 85 percent and can even eliminate the telecommunications operating line item by merging a company’s IT and phone solution costs.

WHICH TYPE OF VOIP SOLUTION IS BEST FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

VoIP is a business telecommunications solution that allows companies to make phone calls using a new or existing broadband Internet connection. There are two primary benefits a customer can gain. The able to use the same broadband connection to serve both its computing and telecommunications needs, which takes advantage of a more cost effective pricing than the traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).  In addition, almost all VoIP service plans include bundled services designed to increase productivity, and many also include the integration of instant messaging, email, fax, and video.

One’s decision to move away from legacy phone systems ie:  traditional telephone, T1, and PR1 services and toward VoIP has never been easier to make. But even companies that have already made the decision to take advantage of VoIP still need to determine which type of service to integrate: on-premise Private Branch Exchange (PBX), Cloud-based Hosted VoIP, or Cloud-only Virtual Services.  This is where Acqua Communications can help !

ON-PREMISE

Many enterprises (more than 500 employees) with dedicated IT departments install, maintain, and update VoIP systems. This includes all servers, cables, and routers. When VoIP was relatively new, on-premise PBX could sometimes reduce the cost of telecommunications. This isn’t always the case today, even for large companies.

HOSTED

Hosted VoIP eliminates the need to invest in on-premise PBX equipment. The service provider is responsible for all remote servers, cables, software, and upgrades. There is never any reason to worry about scalability — businesses can easily purchase additional phones and activate new lines and features as they grow. As time has proven Hosted VoIP a mainstay, and established this technology as the new standard in telecommunications, Hosted VoIP services are becoming more widely available and more affordable than ever.

VIRTUAL

Cloud-only services operate much like Hosted VoIP, except the businesses often opt to forgo

traditional desktop phones. These fully virtual solutions only require the activation of smart numbers, which can be integrated with up to five different devices, all of them displaying the same outgoing number.

To help visualize the potential cost savings between these three service structures, Acqua Communications can put together a specific 4 year evaluation for your business to show hypothetical total cost pricing model based on standard services and then tracked the total projected costs over a 4 year period.

The most striking outcome in comparing total costs over a 4-year period is the demonstration that even larger businesses, including those with 50 to 100 phone lines, experience considerable savings with a Hosted VoIP system. This is true even when excluding major software and hardware upgrades that are needed to support additional features and more lines.

This is considerably different from telecommunications

analysis three to five years ago when many reports

suggested on-premise PBX systems could deliver cost

savings to companies with 25 to 50 employees. But

today, things have changed. It is now even more cost

effective to switch to a hosted solution than to take on

the costs of upgrades and maintenance associated

with the on-premise solution.

WHY SELECT ACQUA COMMUNICATIONS HOSTED VOIP AND VIRTUAL SERVICES

Beyond lowering the total cost of ownership and maintenance, there are other benefits many

businesses experience with an upgrade to VoIP and Virtual Services. According to a study conducted by Intel4, small businesses frequently benefited from additional efficiencies, including:

• Measurable employee productivity improvements

• Reduced time and money for moves, adds and changes

• Simplified management of servers, systems and endpoints

• Greater flexibility of feature selections

These are among the best reasons to move to VoIP and Cloud-based services along with continued access to the most advanced features in telecommunications today. Consider some of the possibilities made available with advancements in Cloud technology.

• Smart Numbers. Allows for a single number to be used to receive business calls anytime,

anywhere from up to five different devices. Outbound calls will also keep your personal number

private by displaying your business number instead.

• Voicemail To Email. An email notification with an attached audio file of the voicemail message is sent straight to the user’s Inbox and can be heard via computer, smartphone or any other email enabled device.

• Electronic Fax. A fax line can be equipped with the ability to send/receive faxes by email.

• Online Account Management. Web-based solution enables employees to add or remove

business lines and adjust features settings at any time. While these services do not include the full scope of Momentum’s feature-packed small businesses or enterprise bundles, it does provide a clear representation of how VoIP and Virtual Services are evolving at a faster pace than most on-premise PBX operators or other service providers in the industry.

Acqua Communication’s small business solutions empower cost savings and scalability that can free up operating capital within weeks of activation. With the capabilities advanced telephony services offer, small businesses are able to keep up with increasing demand without having to expend time, money, and energy attempting to locate additional external capital. In other words, the capital you need may already exist within your business.