Which approach is right for your IP business communications?

Most business owners realize it doesn’t make sense to do everything in-house. It is not realistic—or necessary—to maintain all the services and infrastructure needed to run the business. For example, for most small to medium-size businesses (SMB), it usually makes more sense to have the building owner handle HVAC and landscaping, a security company to watch the property, and an agency to handle PR and marketing. It just doesn’t make sense to maintain staff and facilities for those support functions when quality services are readily available from specialists.

The same is true of your company’s business communications as well. There’s no need to buy, install and maintain an on-site PBX (private branch exchange telecommunications server)—unless you want to. With cloud-based voice over IP (VoIP) service from a trusted service provider, you can get advanced IP business communications as a pay-as-you-go service from a specialist.

An affordable alternative to an on-premises business telephone system, VIPedge enables companies to pay a monthly service fee based upon system size and usage instead of purchasing a telephone system.

Here are some of the top reasons hosted VoIP offerings such as Toshiba’s VIPedge cloud service are gaining traction with SMBs.

Trade a capital expenditure for a predictable monthly operating expense.   With cloud-based VoIP, the central intelligence of the telephone system resides in a service provider’s secure data center. All you have to buy or lease are the end-user devices—such as phones and routers—and the local area network (LAN) to connect those devices to the provider’s IP network. Instead of an upfront capital acquisition for the server, you simply pay a monthly service fee based on the number of users and the selected calling plan.

Reduce the cost of business communications—without compromise.   Toshiba’s VIPedge starts at an average of a dollar per day per user. The standard business user fee includes VIPedge capabilities and unlimited free local and long-distance minutes. International calls are charged on a per-minute basis.

With VIPedge, your company can budget for communication services as a predictable monthly operating expense. There are no added costs for annual maintenance contracts, software upgrades and other system support requirements. You also do away with the cost of office space and energy to house, protect and power the phone system. You also reduce network costs by running voice and data on the same IP infrastructure and the same trunk connection to the managed IP network.

Hosted VoIP package for any size business.   Some vendors offer very limited capabilities with their hosted VoIP solutions. Toshiba’s VIPedge service delivers a comprehensive feature suite, such as advanced call processing, voicemail with unified messaging, unified communications, and the ability to use a PC or laptop as an IP soft phone. With advanced IP communications capabilities, any small business can present a big-business persona to the public and compete with much larger organizations.

Toshiba’s VIPedge service provides the award-winning benefits of an on-premises business telephone system, but without the need to buy, install or maintain your own servers.

Keep users in command of their preferences and customizations.  Using the administration application via a PC, tablet or laptop, users securely access the phone system over the Web to:

• Personalize telephone settings such as key button programming and call forwarding instructions;
• Retrieve information, such as voice mail or email messages and chat; and
• Activate or deactivate phone features.

Get better performance from your business phone system.   With the VIPedge cloud service, your telephone system is managed by IT specialists in world-class data centers that have power protection, survivability and disaster recovery resources far beyond what any small business could provide. You don’t have to worry about powering, maintaining or updating the server. Toshiba takes care of all that in the cloud, and you always benefit from the latest firmware, software and features.

Become a more agile business.   With a cloud service, you’re not locked into a long-term commitment to on-site equipment or a specific communications approach. Pay only for what you need today, and expand on demand. It’s easy to open a new location or add seats to meet short-term or unexpected requirements. New applications are efficiently deployed and managed in the cloud rather than on individual devices. With this flexibility, the business can respond rapidly to new opportunities and changing market conditions.

Advantages of the VIPedge service vs. Purchasing an On-Site telephone system

• Gain the benefits of an on-site PBX without having to buy the system.
• Reduce capital expenditure to purchase equipment.
• Get the award-winning benefits of an on-site phone system.
• Budget exact telecommunication costs with fixed monthly fees.
• Eliminate costly software upgrades.
• Avoid PBX equipment obsolescence.
• Save facility space and power by reducing telephone system equipment requirements.
• Eliminate the costs of system management.
• Easily expand VIPedge to support more users, locations and applications.
• Enjoy premium uptime with rigorous data center protections and integral survivability.
• Migrate to an on-site IPedge system at any time.

One of the most exciting things about VIPedge is the surprisingly low price for the number of powerful, enterprise-level features you get.  Larger enterprises spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide their employees with these advanced calling features that Toshiba provides for about a dollar per day per seat.

With VIPedge, there is no PBX equipment to buy, install, maintain and replace, no maintenance contracts or IT personnel to pay, and no software upgrades to install.  It’s all fully managed for you.