Hosted VoIP Best Practices

5/2/12 - Votacall Hosted VoIP - Boston, Massachusetts - Deploying reliable business class Hosted VoIP with the priority being the long term customer experience is not challenging when best practices are considered. The following will detail best practices for a seamless transition into the Cloud and hopefully this information will influence how businesses select a Hosted VoIP Provider.

1. Wire - If the Hosted VoIP Provider is not asking about wire, he or she is not doing their job. Hosted VoIP needs CAT5e or better to pass voice. Anything less, the experience will be terrible or you will be hit with a bill for wire and labor in the 11th hour.

2. HD Voice - Anyone positioning a product that does not support HD Voice should not be considered and I would go as far as to laugh the account executive out of the room. With Voice it is all about clarity and customers will be ready to judge voice quality as they should. So, why anything less than HD? You wouldnt by a "tube" TV or even a step further, a black and white set would you?

3. Onsite redundancy - Redundancy is a major advantage of Hosted VoIP - regardless of the onsite environment, to your customers you are always live - well, take it a step further and purchase (2) data connections from diverse carriers for onsite redundancy. The beauty is if done correctly, that secondary voice connection can be your primary data connection which gets the customer the most bang for the buck.

4. Managed Service - If it is not a fully Managed Hosted VoIP service, well, you get what you pay for. Off load the telecom to the experts, have them manage the solution. A major benefit of the Cloud is the lack of responsibility on the customer end for onsite hardware, so don't be swayed by low cost month to month VoIP service because you will not only be the President, but also the telco engineer.

5. Implementation - If the Hosted VoIP provider does not come onsite and simply ships you the phones ready to "plug and play", I wish you the best of luck. It is important for the Hosted VoIP provider to understand the onsite environment, if they are going to manage it...which leads me to

6. POE switches - The phones need power, so don't let someone convince you to use power supplies. If POE switches are not being brought up during the sales process and they are not on the proposal and/or contract (and you are not providing them), there is a problem. Either you are involved in the old bait and switch or the provider includes external power supplies and if that is the case, you now have an additional point of failure, a management issue and potentially an outlet issue. Simplify the situation and you will simplify the implementation and management.

7. Managed Switch -Speaking of management, what about a managed switch? If there is no Managed Switch, RUN! It should not affect your firewall, it should sit infront of it and the solution itself should not require repplacing the firewall. Without a managed router, how can the Hosted VoIP solution be managed? How can it be considered business class? The answer is it cannot. If the sales executive cannot talk in great detail about the managed router, then you know the provider does not put an emphasis on it, does not have confidence in it and does not find it to be a useful tool.

8. Bandwidth - This seems obvious, but for some businesses the question gets asked post implementation..."What is your bandwidth, what type of connection". A true Business Class Hosted VoIP Provider will tell a potential customer that their DSL connection is not up to par for VoIP and if they are unwilling to replace it or cannot due to facilities issues, then unfortunately they are not a good fit for Hosted VoIP. Once equipment is onsite and numbers port, it is too late to address the bandwidth.

9. Platform - What is the underlying platform? That is a huge question that rarely gets addressed. Is it a class 5 switch? Is it a redundant platfrom? Where do the platform(s) reside/are they geographically diverse? What type of data center do they live in? What are the security certifications for those data centers?

10. Innovation - Is the Hosted VoIP provider vanilla or a make your own sundae shop? Take advantage of the Cloud and the upgrades as they come as part of your package by making sure the provider actually has a history of innovation and a road map for the future.

11. Failure - Ask the simple question, can you guaruntee (5) 9's on the platform? How many outtages has your platform had?

This may seem like a daunting task, vetting the providers, but it is necessary becasuse the Cloud and Hosted VoIP are rapidly gaining momentum which means players are entering the game daily and some should be on the JV squad, make sure you are dealing with a Varsity Hosted VoIP Provider.