Small Business VoIP Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

• You fail to fully understand the technology – You don’t have to go nuts and read every book ever written about VoIP, but a thorough understanding of the underlying principles that govern the technology will help you better understand the potential pit-falls of it.
• You assume you know what you are doing – Too many people assume they know what they are doing when it comes to VoIP and they simply assume too much. You know what happens when you ASSUME right?
• You don’t ask your users what they need (and want) – You might be the only one making the decisions, but you aren’t the only one who will be using the system. Make sure you listen to what users want and need from a VoIP phone system and the IP Phone they will be using. VoIP can increase productivity, but only if you understand the technology and how your users can use it to do more.
• You buy the first thing you see – You have a million other things to do that are probably much more important to you then buying a VoIP phone system, so why not just buy the first thing you see and call it a day? Well, regardless of how important this switch is to you, your businesses communications is important and should be handled as such. Make sure you explore a few different options, then make sure you compare them to ensure you are getting the right system at the right price.
• You forget to test your network –  Network infrastructure is cheap and chances are it might need upgrading anyway. Make sure your network can handle VoIP.
• You never calculate the amount of bandwidth needed for VoIP calls – You are probably excited about the cost savings benefit of making the switch to VoIP. You have good reason. The average small business is seeing monthly cost decreases in the neighborhood of 40 -60% of their normal telecommunications costs. However, because VoIP uses your Internet connection to transport calls, it puts greater demands on your Internet connection, often doubling or tripling the amount of traffic you generate. Without adequate bandwidth, you won’t be happy with the quality or your calls – and neither will your customers.
• You don’t properly plan out your deployment – If you expect to “simply do it tomorrow morning” then you are bound to fail (at least most of the time). Whether you are deploying a single seat or 300, make sure that you properly plan your cut-over to VoIP. This means coordinating your bandwidth needs, VoIP service, VoIP phone system purchase and the actual work implementation of the system. The last thing you want to do on Monday morning is start plugging things in and realize that you don’t even have a VoIP service provider yet.
• You don’t have a plan B - Yes, we are asking a lot of you to just deploy a VoIP phone system – who wants to think about what happens “if” something goes wrong with your system. Disaster recovery and redundancy are issues even for today’s smallest business. Don’t be left in silence when that horrible ice storm takes down your network – build in backup plans for your system.
• You put “George” in charge of your VoIP phone system – My apologies to anyone named George that actually knows VoIP, but as easy as it may seem, you can’t just put anyone in charge of your VoIP phone system. On-going maintenance and support of your system takes real knowledge and experience, so putting just anyone in charge of it is a recipe for disaster. Many vendors offer low-cost maintenance programs and certification programs for in-house staff. Don’t skimp here, when something goes wrong or you need something fixed, you want it done right. The first time.