It is difficult to imagine a successful company without quality telephone connection: any business requires constant communication with customers, partners and employees. The cost of telephoning a large company is very tangible: the purchase of equipment, payment for connection and maintenance of lines. You can reduce costs by using modern technologies in the office - IP-telephony. However, it is not only budgetary savings that are important. Only communication that fully meets the needs of the company can guarantee the efficiency of work. We will compare the quality and flexibility of analog and IP telephony settings, as well as the cost of connecting and making calls within each type of connection.
Which telephony system to choose for the office: the truth - in comparison
At the moment, telephone connection is carried out in two ways: using analog and IP-telephony. Let's take a closer look at each type.
classical system - this is the connection of one or more subscribers to the telecom operator with the allocation of an individual telephone number for each of them. This type of telephony is acceptable only for companies that need only one or two lines, that is, small businesses, small shops or offices with a low frequency of incoming and outgoing calls. For large companies, this approach is too expensive, because the connection and maintenance of each number will cost money.
An analog mini-PBX helps to partially solve this problem, which “distributes” the existing lines to internal phones subscribers, creating the so-called multichannel communication system . Thus, many employees can use one number, but the number of simultaneous incoming and outgoing calls will not exceed the number of established lines. However, this rule does not apply to internal calls - employees can communicate with each other without restrictions. This method of organizing telephony is suitable for small and medium-sized companies for which intra-corporate conversations are important and there is no need to make a large number of calls.
Until recently, analog telephony using a conventional telephone cable was the only possible way ensure the reliability and quality of voice communications. But in recent years, the situation has changed: digital telephony can now provide unsurpassed sound quality and link stability at a much lower cost. Thus, the use of IP-telephony will reduce the cost of long-distance calls by 30-40%, as well as save 10% on local calls (when compared with the prices for analog communications).
Moreover:
- when moving your office, the existing number can be kept;
- call forwarding feature Cell Phones increases the mobility of company employees;
- it is possible to organize audio and video conferences, call centers, hotlines;
- connected services for recording and listening to conversations help improve the quality of service;
- it is possible to create a complex voice menu;
- you can easily and quickly manage communication services and change settings within the virtual PBX;
- an existing analog number can be saved by converting it to the IP telephony format.
Eventually, office IP-telephony has significant advantages over the classic, so every year the number of its users is steadily growing.
Connecting IP-telephony is possible both simultaneously with the Internet connection to the office, and later. For large organizations or those who need a call center, it is advisable to allocate a separate Internet channel for voice data transmission, this will make the work more stable and make it possible to organize up to 30 telephone lines at the same time.
According to statistics, the most popular area for using IP-telephony is trade (slightly more than 30% of the total number of companies). If we add to this firms providing services (25%), engaged in the creation of websites (more than 8%) and Internet marketing (almost 7%), the total comes out to about 70% of organizations. In terms of the number of rooms per company, the Central Federal District is the leader: there are 1.4 rooms per office.
Equipment for organization of communication in the office
With classic analog telephones, the situation is more or less clear: when organizing a traditional type of communication, you need to buy regular phones and, if necessary, a mini-PBX. These types of equipment differ both in cost (from the most inexpensive models at a price of hundreds of rubles, to system stations for several tens of thousands), and in the number of supported functions (DECT phone, conference phone, etc.).
If you have settled on IP-communication services, then you will need the appropriate IP phones. In Russia, the most popular devices are manufacturers Gigaset, Cisco, AudioСodes. An alternative to buying special equipment - connecting classic telephones to an IP gateway - an adapter that converts an analog signal into a digital one. You can connect several phones to such a device at once, thus reducing equipment costs. It is possible to use ordinary cell phones and smartphones, using special software or setting up call forwarding. In this case, no additional expenses for the purchase of equipment will be required at all. And finally, the organization of telephony through office computers and laptops- the necessary software package is installed on them, and in the future, to make calls, it remains only to purchase a headset.
Connecting analog telephony, including the purchase of a PBX and other equipment, will cost approximately 50,000 rubles. The organization of a virtual PBX will cost much less - from 2000-2500 rubles.
There are situations when the company's offices are located in a remote area from large cities (for example, in the Arctic), where the possibility of organizing analog and Internet communications is basically absent. In such cases, you can purchase satellite phones and connect the appropriate services. The rates for this type of connection are very high, and the quality is much worse than other options. However, in the absence of alternatives, satellite telephony becomes the only possible solution.
Stages of connecting and configuring office telephony
To install a phone in an office, you first need to decide what type of connection will be used. As a rule, large organizations preliminarily draw up a technical task, in which they determine the number and types of telephone sets and lines, the need to install a mini-PBX, and also choose a provider company, focusing on conditions and tariffs.
If the analog type of communication is selected, then the algorithm of actions will be as follows:
- Submission of an application for connection to the operator.
- Cable laying.
- Installation of telephone sets.
- Checking system performance and communication quality.
- Staff training.
Additionally, a service contract is concluded. The whole process may take a long time - it will depend on the number of free lines and employees of the operator, as well as on the technical complexity of the connection.
For those companies that have chosen IP-telephony, the connection of the service is much faster - 10-15 minutes - and is carried out in the "Personal Account" on the provider's website. At the same time, the capabilities of the tool are impressive:
- connection of an almost unlimited number of telephones (this is especially important for organizing call centers or hotlines);
- detailed statistics on communication costs;
- connection of the "virtual secretary" function;
- opportunity quick setup forwarding and other parameters;
- call recording;
- blacklisting;
- providing reports on any parameter of interest and much more.
Rates Submit your application
Digital PBX is a full range of reliable fixed communication services using modern switching equipment and 24/7 monitoring. MGTS guarantees the prompt connection of an office phone, offers modern digital fax machines and tariffs that take into account the specifics of a business of any size.
Advantages of MGTS digital telephony
- Easy and fast installation. To install a telephone in an office, it is necessary to organize an access line through which a landline will be connected. telephone number. Depending on how many phone numbers you need, we create the appropriate number of lines. You can start receiving calls from customers on the day the PBX is connected by setting the necessary additional functions: answering machine, caller ID, call recording, etc.
- Digital telephony from MGTS is a full range of reliable fixed-line services using modern switching equipment and round-the-clock monitoring. This means that you will always be available to customers and partners - regardless of the workload of telephone lines.
- Digital phone services for your company include a phone number with the ability to make local, intra-zone, long distance and international calls. If you need to handle several calls at the same time on one number, we provide a multichannel (serial) number.
- You can connect a Virtual PBX or Corporate PBX and enjoy all the benefits of digital telephony: organize audio conferences, make mass calls to customers, transfer calls between employees, connect an answering machine and beautiful short numbers ...
How to connect a digital PBX
Connection of office automatic telephone exchanges to the public network is carried out via a high-speed channel. Depending on your needs in the number of simultaneously supported telephone conversations the required number of connecting lines is allocated.
The use of a PBX makes business customer-oriented, flexible and economical. The presence of a landline number indicates the reliability of the company, provides your partners and customers with the ability to quickly and efficiently communicate with the head office or representative offices, and increases the loyalty of your own employees.
The experience and resource capabilities of MGTS make it possible to implement and operate a PBX of any scale.
Submit your application
For all of us, the usual landline telephones are becoming a thing of the past today. They are being replaced by IP-telephony in offices and enterprises - the ability to communicate by phone via the Internet. In our material, we will consider the rules for organizing telephony in the office, choosing suitable system connection, provider and telephone sets.
Analog and IP telephony
Analog telephony is a method familiar to all of us for receiving and transmitting a telephone signal, which consists in encoding audio messages, converting them into an electrical signal, which is then transmitted through communication channels through an ordinary telephone cable. Before getting to the second subscriber, the encoded information is decrypted, and only then transmitted to the addressee.
IP telephony- this is a method of receiving and transmitting voice data over the Internet from one server to another server, while encoding occurs according to protocols, the signal is transmitted digitally over the communication channel, and the amount of data is compressed. Also, IP-telephony today, in addition to the exchange of voice data, includes video communication.
Today, IP-telephony is actively "crowding out" analog telephony from the services market - making calls via the Internet is convenient, fashionable, and cheap. But when choosing a suitable type of telephony for equipping a company's office, it is worth considering both options, since each has a number of advantages and disadvantages.
Telephony by means of computer networks became popular in the world at the beginning of the 21st century. Today, IP-telephony is used by both ordinary users of the worldwide network and corporate clients- firms, offices, corporations. Due to the peculiarities of the system, IP-telephony is much cheaper than traditional, analog telephony - the cost of calls, especially long-distance and international calls, is much lower here.
IP telephony has a number of functionality. The speed of the telephone connection of IP-telephony is really high, which means that when using it, it is possible to transfer more than one phone call. That is, an additional telephone line, one or several at once, can be easily and simply added to the office. Since with IP telephony calls are made through computers, there is immediately the possibility of making conference calls, call forwarding, automatic dialing if the subscriber was unavailable, caller numbers are determined automatically and all this without charging an additional fee. In analog telephony, these features can also be enabled, but additional charges will apply for all listed options.
Also, using IP-telephony, the subscriber can thereby immediately protect himself - the telephone signal will initially be digitized and encrypted. Also, the convenience of IP telephony lies in the fact that to make a call you only need an Internet connection and a connection to an IP telephony provider. The Internet is almost everywhere today. By means of IP telephony, subscribers can activate video call functions, exchange messages while the call is in progress, create audio conferences, their address books, find out online whether other subscribers are available for calls, and the quality of IP telephony is really high.
Awareness of all the possibilities of IP-telephony forces the owners of firms to equip their offices with this particular type of telephony. But do not forget about the advantages of analog telephony.
First of all, it must be said that this way telephony is simple, proven, traditional, reliable. The level of communication quality of analog telephony today is quite high, and the equipment - fixed phones - are quite cheap. A simple landline phone today can be installed in any office, in any room, this does not require serious time and money, and the Internet and computers are not required to make calls.
As for the disadvantages of analog telephony, this includes the high cost of long-distance and international calls, the difficulty in connecting an additional number - this will require a separate line.
The disadvantages of IP-telephony experts include the need for a stable Internet signal and a sufficient data transfer rate of 512 Kbps. But in general, all companies and offices that have switched to IP telephony after analog telephony note a significant reduction in call costs, and time savings for company employees also occur - calls are made quickly and conveniently.
So, if the activity of your small company does not involve making calls to other subscribers and receiving numerous incoming calls, then it is better to organize an office PBX using traditional analog telephones using analog mini-PBXs. If the company's activities will be directly related to the work of employees "on the phone", or receiving calls from all regions of the country, then the best option is to organize IP telephony in the office.
How to connect telephony for the office
In order to connect telephony in the office, it is necessary to purchase additional equipment, the choice of which is quite large today.
First of all, for an office where several telephone subscribers are expected to work at once, it is necessary to install a mini-PBX. The installation of a Mini-PBX is necessary in companies with more than five employees who sit in different rooms. If the company is small, located in one office and the specifics of the work are not related to the implementation of outgoing and processing incoming calls, then the organization of office communications will not be needed. Mini-PBXs are analog (for making calls through regular landlines in the office) and virtual. A virtual mini-PBX is a local telephone exchange required to make calls within a company. If an analog mini-PBX is installed directly in the office, then a virtual mini-PBX is physically located at the provider, and the client pays only for connection to it and pays a monthly fee. subscription fee. Mini-PBX is configured by the provider.
Virtual mini-PBX services are provided today by almost all major Internet providers, telecom operators, as well as firms offering IP telephony services. A virtual mini-PBX can be installed in the office, regardless of how many employees in it will make phone calls. With the help of a virtual mini-PBX, you can organize wireless communication within the office, configure the necessary functions depending on the need for a particular enterprise or employee. Install virtual PBX today it is low-cost and quite simple - the virtual PBX market in our country today has more than 80 thousand companies, and among the huge number of telecom operators providing these services, each office owner will be able to choose the most successful option.
Note
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To make calls using IP-telephony to the office, you will need to install IP-telephones. An IP telephone is a telecommunications device for providing communication between two subscribers using IP telephony for voice communication. Externally, the IP-phone looks like a normal, familiar to all of us "home" phone. It has keys for dialing, a display that shows the phone number of the called party, a handset, and a connector for connecting to an IP network. Connect such an IP phone to a computer or directly to an Internet line. The familiar IP phone is chosen by users who are "used" to a regular handset. But for greater convenience, IP phones are now being replaced everywhere by so-called softphones.
Softphone- it software for personal computer, which allows you to make telephone and video calls over the Internet without using a telephone, thanks to the use of a special headset. Softphone can be installed today on any computer or mobile device- as an example, we can cite the well-known Skype, which operates on its own specialized protocols. Through the use of softphones, users can also exchange instant messages, carry out voice conferencing, and get many other opportunities. Softphones are also called "free softphones". They are convenient in terms of use and beneficial in terms of economy. Money You don't need to buy a separate phone. To run the program on a computer and make a voice call, you only need a headset - headphones with a microphone that connects to the computer, and a pre-installed program.
The disadvantage of using softphones is the dependence on the quality of the Internet connection - if the Internet speed is low, then calls will “freeze” or be completely interrupted due to low traffic. Also, another "minus" is that the use of a softphone is possible only if you have a computer - if the subscriber is not near the computer, he will be able to miss an important incoming call.
Choose a number for IP-telephony
The phone number for any organization is its "face" and "visiting card". First of all, the head of the office needs to decide which number is needed for the work of his company - a multi-channel or the simplest city one. Depending on the needs - the need to create a call center or provide communication within the office between employees - he will have to make his choice.
Multichannel phone number today it is a business development tool. By setting such a number, you can receive several calls at once, and incoming calls to such a number are forwarded to employees of the company who are not currently busy talking on another channel. The connection of such multichannel numbers is ideal for call centers and firms specializing in the promotion of their services by telephone, receiving numerous calls from customers. Thanks to such a multi-channel phone number, the client will no longer hear the characteristic “busy” beeps in the handset, and the connection will occur in the shortest possible time.
Virtual multichannel number is a service that many telecommunications companies provide today. The essence of a virtual multichannel number is that it is not tied to a specific place, but allows you to remotely connect to the company's equipment for call forwarding. By connecting such a virtual number, for example, with the Moscow code, calls can be received by a company that is actually located in another region. That is, it creates the appearance that the office is located in the city that the subscriber needs. Also, such calls can be forwarded not only to the office of the company, but also to personal numbers employees and even home phones.
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)- this is almost the same as IP-telephony.
The only difference is that voice can be transmitted not only for telephone communication, but also for another purpose: in video surveillance systems, notifications, etc.
Internet telephony.
Telephony over the Internet is the most common type of IP telephony. In this case, the Internet is used as the IP network for voice transmission. But sometimes other networks are also used for voice transmission, for example, an internal corporate IP network.
SIP telephony- This is IP telephony in which the SIP protocol is used to manage communication sessions.
Today, SIP is the most common protocol used by IP telephony service providers. Therefore, telecom operators often refer to their services as SIP telephony.
IP PBX.
This is a PBX developed on the basis of VoIP technologies. IP PBX can be an iron box hanging on the wall in the office, software running on a corporate server, or a virtual PBX
hosted PBX.
This is a PBX (usually software) operating in the service provider's data center. For business, this is almost the same as a virtual (cloud) PBX. However, the service delivery model is slightly different. There may be no virtualization and sharing computing resources, and sometimes even limited participation of the operator in the maintenance of the PBX. In practice, this can affect the cost of ownership of the PBX and scalability.
Virtual (cloud) PBX.
IP PBX provided by the operator as a service. This is the most convenient way organization of telephony for small businesses.
The most important resource is time. Especially in business. Office telephony from UIS is fast, convenient and profitable. And most importantly - useful for business. The organization of corporate telephone communication is carried out on the day of the conclusion of the contract. You can configure it yourself in the web interface of your Personal Account or with the help of our managers. When ordering the service, each client will receive a full consultation and will be able to choose the connection option that solves his business problems. UIS offers:
- multi-channel virtual numbers in the codes of more than 80 regions of the Russian Federation and the federal code 8 800, including beautiful ones;
- minute packages for different call volumes;
- powerful statistics with which it is easy to monitor the entire process of working with calls, control employees and increase their efficiency;
- advanced native and API-based integrations;
- More than 30 features that simplify the process of customer service on the phone: from call forwarding in different scenarios to a dynamic voice menu that changes depending on who is calling the company.
Telephonization of the office does not necessarily imply the presence of the office itself. For the operation of our telephony, only the Internet is required. You can set up forwarding to mobile phone or receive calls using free software on your smartphone or laptop.
Benefits of office telephony from UIS
By ordering the organization of telephone communication in UIS, you will receive a single company number to which you can receive calls according to any scenarios that take into account the specifics of your business. For example, create several queues for employees of different competencies, direct calls from subscribers of a certain region to a territorial representative, and calls from regular customers to personal managers. on business. A single communication network allows:
- significantly reduce communication costs, calls within the network are not charged;
- use a number that is never busy;
- enjoy Virtual PBX with unlimited possibilities of integration with other services;
- use a single phone number for offices located in various parts of Russia, and do not change the number when moving.
If you have internet access and a telephone in the office from UIS, then your business is on the right track.
Solving business problems using telephony
Without an Internet connection and a phone in the office, it’s not worth it to start attracting customers.
- You start using a full-fledged PBX located in the cloud. Its setup is simple and does not require additional equipment and special knowledge. Once a UIS virtual multiline number is connected, it can be managed using the web interface.
- Your office is equipped with personal telephony, and a personal manager is always in touch with you, who will help you adjust the distribution of calls to the tasks of your business. All calls are distributed with maximum efficiency.
- You call at competitive rates, activate options to reduce costs in case of large volumes of calls, and you can use additional communication channels with customers.
We provide service and round the clock support at a high level. Personal manager will help you set up phone functions for the office through Personal Area. Our specialist will provide advice and assistance in choosing a service. Request a call back or call us to contact the manager.
