How to Break Down Hosted VoIP Providers Like Run DMC

I’ve noticed that you IT Directors and Systems Admins need a little help before going into combat with Hosted VoIP Providers. So I’m going to start giving you tips every now and then to help you prepare.  Sooner or later, I know you’ll experience enlightenment and just call us, but until then, here are some freebies.

Here was a conversation I recently had with a client:

Client:  “Hi Mike, Our PBX is dying and we’d like for you to get us some quotes for different providers for hosted VoIP.”

Me:  “No problem.  Tell me a little about what you need?”

Client:  “We have about 100 users and we need an auto attendant and voicemail. I think that’s all you need to know, right?”

We represent approximately 70 of the top hosted VoIP providers (plug plug), and that narrowed the field to around… … 70.

He wasn’t alone

… not to judge that client.  He’s a brilliant systems admin and actually way smarter than I am. And he’s not saying anything different than what I hear nearly every single time we work with a client on quoting this stuff.

In fact, what makes him even more brilliant is that he knew he was a fish out of water and he was doing a smart thing by throwing in the towel having us lead the charge.  I proceeded to ask him around 50 more questions and by the end of the conversation, I knew which 3-5 providers to approach first.  BUT, if you don’t use our company to help you on quoting hosted VoIP…

1)    You’re a masochist for not taking our free help. 😉

2)    You need some love so I’m going to give you a few tips to get you
closer to having a halfway chance of finding the best providers.

Here are the first 3

It helps to know which questions to ask yourself about your company in order to start narrowing the field.  Here are the first three that will at least cut the field to maybe 20-30 providers.

1.  How many employees do you have on-site or at each site?

If you have 10+ employees onsite at any of your sites and you feel that your employees (i.e. salespeople, management, etc), will not tolerate occasional voice quality issues, I highly advise that you only speak with providers that can offer you a dedicated circuit and guarantee voice quality.  The more employees onsite, the higher the likelihood that this will even be a daily complaint and the more adamant my advice.  Otherwise, as the head of IT, your department will take a beating with angry people, consistently telling you “This new phone system stinks!  I got static on another call today!”

Only a select amount of providers offer this so this is a big one to get a straight answer on, right away!  Be careful, the providers that do not offer it will try to play “who’s on first” with you and other Jedi mind tricks to never answer the question directly.

2.  Do you need any type of call center-ish features?

Do you have a lot of people calling into or out of your company? Will you benefit from real-time reporting?  Do you want your inbound calls to sometimes go into a “queue” where the call is distributed to a select group of people and the client here’s hold music while they wait?  Or do you have a legit call center?

If so, only some providers offer these call-center-like features and you need to figure this out on conversation #1.

3.  Do you want to rent your handsets and switch, or own them?

Does your company have zero budget for upfront costs on this purchase?  If so, no big deal – because there are definitely a lot of providers that will offer free equipment and zero installation charges.  BUT there are also providers that do not offer this option and they have large upfront equipment costs that cannot be eliminated.

Provider representatives are not going to want to talk pricing on the first appointment, but this is an aspect of pricing that is a MUST KNOW, right away if you have budget limitations and you do not want to waste hours of your precious time hearing the boring demo of a provider that should have been axed within 5 minutes.

Those were just a few good tips to get you started.  Of course, I won’t leave you hangin’ since you’ve taken the time to follow my stuff… I’ll write more blogs soon and get you one step closer.

Did you know that it costs you nothing to have an AeroCom expert tell you which 3 hosted VoIP systems are the best fit for your company? Click below!

MY TOP 3

About the Author
Mike Smith is the Founder and President of AeroCom and has been immersed in the business telecom and cloud industry since 1999. He has been the recipient of numerous industry awards and in 2011, he was honored as one of the top 40 business people in Orange County, CA., under 40 years old. Mike is passionate about simplifying the way IT buyers shop and select telecom and cloud solutions for their company. Follow Mike on LinkedIn, Twitter or SpiceWorks.