Business Technology FAQ: What equipment does a VoIP business phone system require?

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As a trusted hosted telephone solution provider in Hampton Roads, BCS is well-equipped to answer any question you may have about VoIP, Unified Communications, and more, because we’ve just about heard them all.

We get this one a lot from clients: “I understand that VoIP provides lower ongoing costs, but what equipment do I need to make it worth my while? How much do other system components drive up costs?” 

 

Here’s our answer:

First off, there are two approaches to VoIP — a premise-based system that doesn’t use an internet connection, and a hosted or cloud-based solution that does use the internet.  In either case you can use an IP-based business phone system.

 

Internet Connection and a Hosted or Cloud Solution

For hosted or cloud-based phone systems, a fast and reliable internet connection is its main requirement.  However, you don’t need to have a fast internet connection to take advantage of VoIP benefits within your office.  If you’re not sure if your network can support a hosted phone system, give BCS a call and we can perform a network analysis and help you select the best system for your current, and future, situation.

VoIP Business Phone System

If the situation calls for it, a business may not even need a phone system, since VoIP calls can be made from a desktop, laptop or mobile phone as part of a Unified Communications solution.

Newer systems are quite affordable, adaptable, and many are even more feature-rich than the leading analog-based business phones.  IP phone systems like the kinds Mitel offers through BCS grows with your business without the fuss of complicated installation and hardware rewiring.

 

Most of the costs incurred by switching to a VoIP business phone system pay for themselves over time, whether they are cloud-based or premise-based. With minimal ongoing maintenance charges, lower (or nonexistent) local and long-distance rates, and the flexibility of modern business phone systems, you’d be surprised how much you can save by upgrading.

Are you interested in discovering the VoIP phone solutions that are right for your business? Call or contact BCS today to learn more.

June is National Employee Wellness Month: Manage Stress With BCS

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Your employees are more than just employees, but you knew that. They are people with multifaceted needs, including the need for a balanced, healthy life. Without that balance, your workers won’t be able to do their jobs to the best of their potential. Since June is National Employee Wellness Month, we encourage you to consider what you can do to help improve your employees’ mental, physical and spiritual well-being, and learn a bit about how BCS can help you do that.

According to a 2011 Gallup poll, about 86% of workers in the U.S. are “above normal weight and have at least one chronic condition.” These workers missed an estimated 450 million more days of work than their healthier counterparts. In a separate poll, focused on U.K. workers, Gallup found that overweight and obese workers miss an estimated 103 million additional days of work, “resulting in an estimated cost of more than 21 billion pounds [over 32 billion U.S. dollars] in lost productivity annually.”

Employee wellness boosts productivity, improves office morale and helps reduce absenteeism. You can promote wellness in the workplace by offering corporate gym memberships and mental health screenings, stocking the office kitchen with healthy options, and most importantly, doing all that you can to help your employees manage stress–arguably the biggest contributor to chronic illness.

While BCS doesn’t have much say in whether or not your employees make it to the gym, we can help reduce stress in their work lives by making day-to-day communication a breeze.

Unified communications technologies like Mitel UC360 allow employees to work from home as needed without missing a beat. This capability is especially important for maintaining the work-life balance. If need be, a home-bound employee can give an entire multimedia presentation to the office from the comfort of their kitchen table using UC360.

IT outsourcing is another BCS solution that can cut down on office stress, not only for your employees, but also for you. We handle the maintenance, daily operations and support of your entire IT infrastructure so you don’t have to worry about fixing technical problems yourself or hiring an expensive internal department to do it for you.

What can you do this month to enhance the well-being of your employees and the productivity levels in your office? How can we make it easier for you? Call or contact BCS today for a free IT, VoIP or audiovisual consultation.