For businesses of every size, the pandemic accelerated the shift toward hybrid information technology solutions that facilitate both remote and inoffice communication and collaboration for customers and employees. In the marketplace today, this has increasingly involved mobile and office phones with integrated software that offers sophisticated voice, video, messaging and workforce management capabilities. This has augmented the complexity of the phone system requirements and presented businesses with a plethora of options. Users usually operate from office phones and mobile devices and are working more in and out of the office, so there is a greater demand for forwarding messages to avoid missing calls. Also, a host of new services beyond calling are often expected such as short message service (SMS)/multimedia messaging service (MMS), video conferencing, visual voicemail and call recording. On top of all this, the phone system increasingly is connected through APIs to existing company systems such as contact centers, workforce management and CRM systems, so important data can be monitored and evaluated in various ways. The challenge for businesses, however, has been dealing with issues of quality and integration, along with constantly escalating provider prices and add-on fees that can end up costing more than $70 per user each month. When managers need the services to stay operational but do not have the time or inclination to sort through complex billing, they can feel like a captive of their technology provider. “Today, business owners feel besieged with all the software-asa-service fees, which constantly creep upward, never downward, in cost. They are enticed with low offers to start, and then the price doubles or triples on renewal or any changes,” said Eric Brackett, president of BTI Communications Group, a technology convergence provider serving the business and logistics sectors. The company acts as a single-source provider of complex phone (VoIP), network and physical security systems. “Bait-and-switch phone system pricing is a huge burden on businesses when it becomes overhead and an operating expense,” he added. “Instead, managers want to capitalize the full cost over a few INTELLIGENCE Business VOIP Simplified By Del Williams A new fixed cost option eliminates high licensing and add-on fees while integrating voice, video, text, web, contact center, CRM and workforce management tools 21 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
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