One of the most difficult parts of running a small business are the managerial tasks that you may not have a background in. An art studio may find it difficult to manage finances, an accountants office may not excel at marketing, and a great deal of businesses outside of the tech sector likely do not have experience with selecting an appropriate telecom system. Further complicating this unfamiliarity is the introduction of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony, which introduces a wide range of new options for both setups and service features. For those who don’t know a PBX from a PB & J finding the optimal phone solution might require some help.
The following graphic from WhichVoIP attempts to simplify the variety of features and options found in modern telephony setups. Focusing on the five most common business setups, the graphic matches these setups with the features they provide and the type of business environments they work best with. Running a professional moving service? With the mobile nature of that work, a cell phone plan may be the simplest option. How about a dentists office? A solution that offers software for tracking calls and advanced support for maintaining the network, features found through a Hosted VoIP service, might be the best option. Running a simple one person operation? A traditional landline may suffice.
Whatever choice is made, it’s clear that the choices available on the marketplace and the feature options for business phone networks have improved dramatically since the development of VoIP technology.