VoIP Phone Systems are much, much more scalable than traditional phone systems. It’s a fact.
So when your business grows and you need to add users, you can. Why are VoIP phone systems more scalable?
The basic answer is twofold:
- VoIP phone systems rely on internet technologies for connectivity. VoIP phones are also known as internet phones for a reason.
- Cloud phone services offer contemporary subscription models for on-boarding users.
Because VoIP phone systems use internet technologies, they don’t require hardwired connections using dedicated cabling like old phone systems. You’re not limited by hardware capacity.
In fact, they don’t require cabling at all. You can use a Wi-Fi desk phone or a cell phone or a softphone on a computer — all of these can be integrated into a VoIP phone system.
The same flexibility goes for users.
We’ll get into it.
How do you setup a scalable VoIP phone system that grows with your company?
In this blog, we examine why VoIP phone systems are scalable and how to ensure your communications can grow with your business.
Let’s get into it!
Upgradable VoIP Phone Systems
What does it mean for a VoIP phone system to be scalable?
When it comes to VoIP phone systems, “scalable” means that you can add or subtract users without requiring massive investments in new hardware. You might need to buy physical VoIP phones or headsets, but you don’t need all the back-end infrastructure like the giant PBXes that used to handle all the phone calls in office buildings. There are no hardware limitations beyond service compatibility.
Scalable also means that you’re not locked into a specific number of users. As your business grows, your phone system grows with you. It’s not capped at 100 users when you now need 1,000. (Congratulations on your success, by the way.)
What kind of VoIP phone systems are the most scalable?
VoIP phone systems come in two basic varieties: cloud-based and premise-based. In a nutshell, cloud phone systems (often called hosted VoIP systems) are communications subscription services controlled by another company and on-premise phone systems (often called IP PBXs) are controlled by you.
If you’d like to know more about this topic, check out our comprehensive VoIP Phone Systems Buyer’s Guide.
To maximize scalability, you’ll probably want to go with a cloud-based internet phone service. There are many options. Some of the most popular cloud phone services include Microsoft Teams, RingCentral, Zoom, Google Voice, Vonage, OnSIP, 8x8, Nextiva, Dialpad, and Ooma.
Premise-based phone systems (mostly) require that you own and operate physical devices — IP PBXs — that have a hard-cap on how many devices and users they can support.
They can be scalable, but they’re not nearly as flexible as cloud-based systems. Frankly, unless you’re representing a multinational corporation, the cloud phone services will have better computing infrastructure than you. It’s their whole business. It’s a bit like comparing your old cassette tape collection to Spotify or Apple Music or YouTube.
While their specific feature offerings and subscription terms differ, cloud phone services generally accommodate adding and subtracting users. You might, however, need to change subscription levels as you add users.
Establishing a scalable phone system for business also lets you adapt your needs according to temporary increases or decreases in demand. You can hire seasonal workers on demand.
An added benefit is that most cloud phone services are actually unified communications services. They integrate video conferencing, corporate chat, digital whiteboarding, and all those other awesome collaboration tools. Microsoft Teams can integrate with the whole Microsoft 365 suite.
VoIP phone systems also support a wide range of devices, so that you can use your same account on a VoIP desk phone, smartphone, tablet, and so on. (On-premise systems might offer this, but cloud systems are generally better at device integration.)
You can even think of that as a type of scalability: device scalability, if you will. You’re not stuck with only a hardwired telephone. You can have a VoIP phone, smartphone, and softphone (software phone application) with the same account.
The devices only need to be securely connected to the internet to access the VoIP phone system.
This fact reveals another advantage of scalable VoIP phone systems. They’re great for integrating home office workers into your business communications system. As more and more workers prefer working from home or hybrid working — a few days in the office, a few days at home per week — VoIP phone systems make it, frankly, trivial to let workers keep their work accounts, wherever work takes them.
If you’re having trouble figuring out which cloud phone service best fits your company’s requirements, get in touch! Leverage the expertise and connections of our unbiased experts.
Finally, in this blog we’ve ignored the big problem of device compatibility — which is a problem for both types of VoIP phone system. Not every VoIP phone works with every VoIP phone service, which does limit scalability. So, you need to doublecheck compatibility before buying any VoIP device or subscribing to a cloud phone service.