How to Choose the Right VoIP & Phone Service Business phone service may look stodgy to some business tech buyers when compared with sexier technologies like video conferencing or team collaboration platforms. But while many technologies come and go, voice is one of those staples most every business needs to address, especially now that so many corporate work forces are being redistributed to home offices. Fortunately, modern cloud-managed voice over IP (VoIP) phone services can be easily reconfigured to support remote users and often they also offer integrated solutions for more modern communication capabilities, including both web meetings and team chat.Still, today's business phone systems have a tough job. They have to provide voice communications with employees at their desks; they have to support a call center for sales, customer service, and support; and they need to connect with and through a host of other communications channels, such as fax machines, video conferencing, conference calling, mobile communications, wireless handsets, and text messaging. On top of that, they're often expected to provide more advanced functionality through software, like shared meeting collaboration, voicemail to email transcription, and call recording. And lest we forget, many businesses still need a service that will connect to public switched telephone network (PSTN).  Because they're working across such a multitude of channels, many of today's phone systems are adopting the moniker of Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS). These are generally cloud-based, virtual PBXes (private branch exchanges) that include at least one, usually multiple, software clients to enhance their functionality on the web, desktop, and a variety of mobile devices. UCaaS systems have a wide variety of feature sets based on the tried and true VoIP.A key attraction of VoIP is that it gives these systems the flexibility to work in a wide variety of environments ranging from analog desk phones to softphones piggy-backing on a cell phone. These systems can often also integrate all or part of their softphone clients into other back-office applications, like your customer relationship management (CRM) or help desk platforms. Simply picture the standard interface of such an app that suddenly sports a dial pad and some function buttons as a pop-up screen and you'll have a very basic idea of how some of this works. In addition, these cloud based systems can have a variety of phone numbers in global locations, so that your customers can have free access to your phone at little or no charge.   Beginning Your Selection ProcessBefore you can start considering a phone system, you need to figure out what it's going to be used for, and how much of your business will be involved. You also need to look at your existing phone system and decide whether you're going to simply keep all of it and bolt some VoIP functionality on top, retain only part of it, or replace the whole thing. Frequently, a total replacement isn't in the cards if only because some parts of your existing phone system can't be easily changed over to softphones or even desktop VoIP phones. For example, if you have a heavy manufacturing environment with outdoor activities, such as a steel fabrication yard or even a landscaping company, your old outdoor phones may be exactly what you need. You also need to decide what features of the existing phone system are required, and what features of a future phone system you feel are necessary to carry into the future.When you're considering a new VoIP phone system for your business, it's important to include stakeholders from all of the key parts of your business in the planning and decision making process. Yes, this especially includes the IT staff and the data security folks since your voice communications will now be data. But it also needs to include folks who will be using the system to get work done, especially the work that drives revenue and engages customers. These people have invaluable insights into what's really needed versus what's simply cool and new. Plus, you'll need their input to select a phone system that will actually move your business forward as well as fit into your IT environment.A critical part of the discussion with your IT staff will be whether your existing data network can handle the extra load that will be placed on it by the new phone system. You'll need a network that can handle more advanced network management capabilities, including tools to fight jitter and latency as well as to provide Quality of Service (QoS) and different kinds of network segmentation, especially virtual LANs (VLANs). Only tools like these can help free up your network from too much congestion, which can cause your call quality to decrease or even crash the VoIP system entirely.  On the physical side, you'll also need to plan for providing Ethernet drops to any new desktop phones you'll be placing on user desks, or even adding capacity to your Wi-Fi network should you decide to use wireless calling. For many organizations a separate network is often winds up being the preferred solution. If that's what happens in your case, you'll need a separate VoIP gateway. You'll also need security that understands voice protocols, and you'll need to have switches and routers that understand VoIP, too. By the time you've covered all those bases, a separate network is often the more effective solution rather than attempting to not only install but also integrate that much new equipment into an existing LAN.Your IT staff will understand the basics of what needs to be done before a VoIP system can be selected and installed. That will include capacity testing on your current pipes and a thorough audit of your organization's network management capabilities to make sure they can support and secure the new flow of VoIP data. But for business-level users, selecting a phone system that will help them keep their various processes moving forward, especially the customer-facing ones, starts with understanding what VoIP really is. Image credit: Green.ch What is VoIP?VoIP is a method of digitizing voice signals, and then sending the digital voice information over an IP network. To accomplish this, the analog voice information is encoded using software called a codec. When it comes time to change the digital signal back to analog so that it's understandable, another codec does the job.  For a VoIP system to work, it needs a means of routing calls between users or to the outside world. In a cloud based system, a virtual PBX does that job. What that means to you is that the provider is running a large PBX operation in a data center somewhere, and slicing off a little of it to dedicate to your organization in exchange for your money. You're essentially sharing a large PBX with that provider's other customers, but because these companies use multi-tenant segmentation, your PBX will appear dedicated to you. This engine will take care of routing calls on your VoIP network.However, for many businesses there's a need to route calls to the PSTN and other analog phones that might remain in use, too. This may mean a PSTN gateway, or even a hybrid PBX, where there's at least a small telephone switch located on-site. Note that these days, a PBX looks exactly like the other servers in your data center, except with an attached means of handling local and analog phones. Many small businesses, however, are avoiding on-premises PBXes partially due to cost savings and partially because the capabilities offered by all-cloud systems are more than advanced enough for their needs. Some virtual cloud PBXes can handle PSTN connectivity without on-site hardware requirements.If that all is starting to sound more complex than it's worth, remember that turning your PBX into a software solution means significant opportunity for flexibility and integration that you simply can't get any other way. After all, programmers can now treat your phone like an app. Where that's taken us is to the fast-changing UCaaS paradigm (more on that below). Here, traditional VoIP providers, like the ones we review as part of this review roundup, provide additional software capabilities that are all implemented and managed from a single, unified console.While the exact features offered in any particular UCaaS solution can change radically from vendor to vendor, most include options for video conferencing, shared meeting and document collaboration tools, integrated faxing, mobile VoIP integration, and device-independent softphone clients. All of these options let customers look at communications in a whole new way, namely, in an a menu-style manner where they can implement only those features their business needs and then access them any time they want and in any combination. This new approach to business communications has been growing steadily among customers over the past few years as recent research from Statista bears out.   UCaaS Projected Market Growth in US Through 2024 What is SIP?The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a text-based protocol similar to HTML. It's the most commonly used standard for setting up and controlling phone calls in most VoIP systems. You'll run across references to SIP in most anything you do with these kinds of phone systems, especially when you're selecting the handset hardware you want to use.While there are still a few other legacy protocols around, and a few non-SIP standards, such as H.232, SIP is what's used for the vast majority of modern VoIP phone systems. The most common use I've seen for H.232 has been in dedicated video conferencing systems. SIP, meanwhile, handles phone service, video conferencing, and several other tasks just fine, which is why its use is so widespread. Where it has trouble is with data security, but more on that in a bit.  What makes SIP so popular is not only that it's deep and flexible, but also because it was purpose-built to engage in multimedia (meaning not just audio but also video and even text) communications over TCP/IP networks. For VoIP calls, SIP can set up calls using a number of IP-related protocols, including the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), among others. But it can also handle other functions, including session setup (initiating a call at the target endpoint—the phone you're calling), presence management (giving an indicator of whether a user is "available," "away," etc.), location management (target registration), call monitoring, and more. Despite all that capability, SIP is simple compared to other VoIP protocols primarily because it's text-based and built on a simple request/response model that's similar in many ways to both HTTP and SMTP. Yet, it's still capable of handling the most complex operations of business-grade PBXes.  SIP is built to work on a peer-to-peer (meaning endpoint to endpoint) basis. Those two points are called the "user-agent client" and the "user-agent server." Remember that those points can be swapped, so that in SIP, the endpoint making the call is the user-agent client initiating the traffic and endpoint receiving the call is the user-agent server receiving the call.SIP networks usually have a proxy server and a SIP gateway. The proxy sever helps lighten the functional requirements of SIP endpoints. It also acts as both client and server, but it adds functionality around call routing and policy-based management. SIP gateways handle the routing and connectivity requirements for connecting SIP calls to other networks. Typically, the advanced features of the VoIP vendors we review here are largely based on the proprietary management technology they build into their proxy servers and gateways. By offering VoIP solutions where these elements of a SIP solution are hosted in the cloud, the providers reviewed here have more flexibility in building advanced features since they have more control over deployment and reliability.Understanding VoIP BasicsWhile understanding the basics of VoIP and SIP is important, setting one of these systems up will require some general network knowledge, too. For the best quality, you will need to meet a minimum upstream and downstream data throughput requirement. In addition, you'll also need to meet a minimum latency number (that is, the time between when a signal leaves a remote computer and when your system receives it), typically measured in milliseconds. It is possible to test your network connection to see if it will support a VoIP service. RingCentral offers this service from their website, other vendors like to have their service engineers do it for you.  While home VoIP systems are fairly straightforward to set up and use, a VoIP system for all but the smallest of businesses can be quite complex, In addition to have multiple users, business VoIP systems have complex feature sets that are necessary to conduct business in today's world. In addition, a business VoIP implementation must take into account the existence of the data network, even though in most cases it won't share the same infrastructure. This will mean switches and routers optimized for voice traffic, and security that's suitable for both business and VoIP. Image credit: Zendesk Upgrading to Business-Class VoIPThe products and services in this review roundup are focused on business use and because of this either provide some PBX features or serve as full-on virtual PBXes. This may mean, among other things, that they provide service to telephone sets on your employees' desks. Most also support electronic faxing in some fashion, either directly (which can be a significant challenge for some VoIP services) or by simply integrating an incoming fax with your email system. Other popular features are video conferencing and shared meeting software (so meeting attendees not only hear each other but can present presentations or documents in a shared work space).Some form of call center capability is often available, though many times either as a different product version or simply a higher pricing tier, so be careful before you assume you'll be getting those features. These capabilities are meant to support large sales or service desk staff and their need to route and process a relatively large number of incoming customer or user calls. That means complex menu trees, an auto-attendant for routing, and service queues. You'll probably find you need interactive voice response (IVR) capabilities, and that should be backed up by support for a live operator or some other type of human intervention.On the higher end of this space, hosted PBX providers, such as RingCentral Office, will generally offer (sometimes even require) on-premises handset hardware, like desk or cordless VoIP phones that get sent to you pre-configured to work with their service. Plug the phones in, make sure they see an internet connection, and after some self-configuration time, your VoIP service goes live auto-magically.That situation is for fairly pristine network and business conditions, however. Companies with legacy equipment or unique business needs may need a hybrid PBX, in which a portion of the voice network remains in the analog world, while the rest is converted to cloud-based VoIP. This could happen if you occupy an older building without the necessary Ethernet infrastructure to support VoIP or if you had custom software built a long time ago that simply isn't compatible with newer phone technologies.For SMBs, the most commonly important features you should be considering include:Voicemail to email transcriptionOne of the most exciting and clear differences between a cloud PBX provider and a standard telephone system is software. Your IT staff will find a host of new software tools to help monitor and manage the system. But what catches most business operators' eyes are two key capabilities that software provides: back-end integration and softphones. The latter is exactly what the name implies, a phone that's rendered entirely in software allowing any compatible device to become a phone as long as it has an internet connection, a speaker, and a microphone. More on that below.Back-end integration with custom and third-party apps, like CRM systems, also open a whole new world for your calling data because now it can extend the phone system beyond just basic voice communication. Such integrations allows users to transfer calls to and from their mobile phone, place and receive calls from their personal phone (that appear to be coming from the business), and interact with colleagues and customers via voice and text -- all from a variety of devices. But it also allows recording and analysis of call data to measure things like customer satisfaction, understand your sales audience at a new level, and even handle customer requests and problems automatically without the customer ever being aware they never spoke to a human. Image credit: CommWorld The Right Internet ConnectionMost of these VoIP solutions will require stable and consistent internet connectivity at every location where wired phones are to be used. At the very least, your business phone system must have access to a business class internet link to the cloud. This should be a dedicated link through a dedicated router if you expect your phone calls to sound as if they were coming from a business and not someone's home Skype connection. But it's important to know that you will also need a router that can create a virtual LAN (VLAN), and one that has the ability to encrypt voice traffic, and only your voice traffic. VoIP security from end to end for all calls is now a business necessity.For larger systems, and for systems where security is critical, the old internet connection is no longer adequate. The internet doesn't do quality of service (QoS), and bandwidth can be unpredictable. Network congestion can ruin a business phone call, and activities such as DNS hijacking can put your business at risk. While we all love the internet, it's not necessarily the safe place for your business voice communications. If you fall into this category, remember that while the internet runs using the IP protocol and VoIP runs over the IP protocol, that doesn't mean that VoIP must run over the internet. You can get the same software benefits of VoIP by running your voice network over dedicated lines. Sure, it will cost more, but it will also ensure crystal clear voice quality as well as the ability to implement much-improved data security.Optimize Your NetworkIn addition to making sure your internet service can handle your VoIP traffic, you also need to make sure your local area network (LAN) can handle it. What makes optimizing your local network tricky is that if you simply drop VoIP onto your network, that traffic will get processed the same as any other traffic, like your shared accounting application or those 20 gigabytes worth of files your assistant just stored in the cloud. The problem there is that VoIP traffic is much more sensitive to network bumps and potholes than most general office traffic. That translates to the sound breaking up or cutting out entirely, difficulty connecting over Wi-Fi, or (worst case) dropped and lost calls. Fortunately, most of the providers reviewed here have engineering staff that will contact you as part of your setup process to help your IT staffers test and optimize your network prior to deploying their solutions. That's definitely something we recommend, but there are steps you can take now to prep your LAN for VoIP and make the deployment process that much easier.Once you've engaged with a VoIP provider, their engineers will help you determine the overall service grade of your network (look at that as your network's basic "VoIP readiness factor") and how to tweak their service to run effectively over your infrastructure.Mobile VoIP, Softphones, and UCaaSAnother area of business VoIP support covers the growing number of mobile employees using softphones for sending and receiving calls from a laptop or mobile device. With a cloud-based PBX solution, you can have employees at different physical locations, including multiple time zones. This makes it easier to support longer business hours to cover your entire customer base. Most of the business offerings offer call routing based on the time of day and time zone.It's also possible to switch a call from a mobile device to a desktop line or vice versa. Business products generally offer several pricing levels based on the number of lines needed, ranging from approximately $20 per line for large organizations to $35 per line for smaller groups. Even from an administrative perspective, you should be careful, however, when migrating to a new phone system. Whether you're an individual just buying a new land line or a business moving from an old-style PBX system, or even just switching to a different VoIP provider, the process should be approached carefully and only after thorough planning.Softphones are increasing in importance in VoIP offerings to the point that for some they're the only choice. They are a critical part of UCaaS and are as common on mobile phones and tablets as they are on desktop PCs. For workers in call centers, softphones are a common tool because of they're the front-end window of any CRM or help desk integration. So, for example, a softphone can combine a telephone conversation with text chat and screen sharing, which means a conversation between two employees can seamlessly add more participants, handle private text chats between those participants while the call is still going on, and extend to a collaboration session in which the group shares screens, documents, and data—no prep, no reserved lines, just button clicks.  That's the basics of UCaaS, but the concept is constantly evolving to include more communication and collaboration technologies. Those capabilities also get tweaked to provide new benefits, sometimes general, sometimes aimed at specific business use cases, like call centers or help desk operations, for example. The key is integration. Voice is becoming integrated with other back-end apps.Mobile clients are softphones optimized for a particular mobile OS and for being used in mobile situations. This means they're designed to switch easily between different cell and wireless connections on the fly. This means you can let your employees use whatever the cheapest wireless connection around them happens to be—and often that can be free. They also let your employees use your company's phone system on their own devices. Be aware, however, that there are significant security implications regarding the use of mobile softphones on employee-owned devices. While it's possible for your employees to simply download the appropriate software from their respective app store, your IT department should be involved with allowing access while also confirming that necessary security steps are taken. Also be aware that there are important reasons not to allow soft phone installations on private devices of any type because you may not be able to remove that phone client if the employee leaves the company, and because local laws may impact how much control you have over the use of the device.Future-Proofing VoIPWith integration being at the heart of VoIP and UCaaS, you can't make a purchasing decision here without thinking about the future. On one side, think about what you'll need in 1-5 years. On the other side, consider each vendor carefully to see what they've done over the last half decade in terms of product development and keeping up with VoIP and UCaaS trends.It's also critical that you consider the impact of mergers and acquisitions on your phone system, both from your own organization's perspective as well as your VoIP provider. Because VoIP systems turn calls into data, the whole process isn't as plug-and-play standards-based as the old-fashioned analog phone system might have been. Should your company merge with or purchase another, VoIP compatibility will become another significant IT issue.On the phone providers' side, since this review roundup was first published, some of the products listed here now belong to other companies and some have merged into new products. If you're planning to depend on your phone system over the course of the next decade, then you should consider a vendor that's stable enough to still be around when it's time to up upgrade.Just about anything you can picture a business needing from a phone system can be delivered by a hosted PBX solution—and generally at a cheaper price than purchasing and maintaining your own on-premises PBX. It's just a matter of selecting the right solution for your business.Editors' note: Line2 is owned by J2 Global, the parent company of PCMag's publisher, Ziff Media Group. If you have questions you need answered about business VoIP, then remember to subscribe to PCMag's Small Business Newsletter and join the [email protected] business community on LinkedIn, and you can ask vendors, other professionals like yourself, and PCMag's editors.    Where To Buy AT&T Collaborate$ 17.48Pros: Mature feature list Support for desk phones and external legacy PBX hardware Provides access to legacy PSTN Equipped with softphone client and dedicated mobile clients Cons: Complex system Definitely requires IT pro on staff, might require outside consulting help to configure Bottom Line: This full-featured business phone system shows its maturity by filling every need most business customers might have, and by simply working well, though configuration isn't for the faint of heart. RingCentral Office$ 25.00Pros: Network infrastructure in Europe, the US, and Asia Very deep feature set of VoIP and business collaboration Artificial Intelligence (AI) integrations Improved user interface for ease of useCons: Hardware will cost you extra The workflow is not as intuitive as it should be No workaround to the wizardsBottom Line: A long-standing Editors' Choice pick, RingCentral Office is what most companies expect from a full-featured cloud PBX solution. The platform includes everything from artificial intelligence (AI) integration to capabilities like faxing, video conferencing, and custom application integration, too.Read Review 8x8 X Series$ 50.00Pros: Friendly, flexible pricing Plenty of standard features Solid mobile and desktop capability with easy setup Cons: Desktop app has stability issues and a non-intuitive design Meetings features are difficult to find and use Bottom Line: 8x8 X Series replaces the previous 8x8 Virtual Office platform with a new back end that allows for expanded features and unified communications (UC) management across multiple channels.Read ReviewIntermedia Unite$ 28.99Pros: Promises 99.999 percent uptime with a financially backed service-level agreement Management of Microsoft Office 365 and hosted email from improved Admin console Deep and evolving feature set Cons: Heavy focus on Microsoft for ancillary services Only allows phone numbers in the US and Canada Bottom Line: Intermedia was already a PCMag Editors' Choice pick, but its Unite platform makes it an even stronger choice for businesses seeking a reliable cloud PBX with a generous number of features.Read ReviewVonage Business Cloud$ 25.00Pros: Impressive administrative features and calling functionality Wide range of features Intuitive mobile apps Better API integration than previous version Cons: Add-on features come at a cost Conferencing isn't included Bottom Line: Vonage Business Cloud is Vonage's beefed-up Voice-over-IP (VoIP) service that targets small to midsize businesses (SMBs). Given its robust offering of features and management capabilities, you should definitely consider it, but be aware of its potential security compromises.Read ReviewDialpad$ 15.00Pros: Very easy to set up and manage Scales up or down with minimal effort Good support for both Android and Apple iOS mobile devices Cons: Default settings on mobile app typically need adjusting Some features missing and support for others is limited Bottom Line: Dialpad is a glimpse of what the future of small business communications will probably look like. Instead of worrying about hardware, this service focuses on software, mobility, and integrating with as many third-party applications as possible.Read ReviewFreshcaller$ 19.00Pros: Full featured cloud VoIP aimed at call centers or customer support Easy to set up Reasonable cost Cons: Not really a general purpose business VoIP service as it doesn't allow internal phone calls except as part of conferencing Only supports softphones on a computer or smartphone, no handset hardware support Bottom Line: If you need a call center phone package, then Freshcaller probably has what you want, as long as you can do it with a softphone.Ooma Office$ 199.00Pros: Low-cost solution Support for existing analog phones Android and iOS apps that bring key features to mobile phones Easy to set up and manage for those with limited telecommunications experience Easy to use Good online documentation 24x7 support Cons: Phones must be configured by Ooma No softphone client for Macs or PCs Bottom Line: Many small businesses will be attracted to Ooma Office because it's available without a contract and has most of the features you'll need out of a business phone system. Just be aware that you may outgrow its capabilities fairly quickly.Read ReviewCitrix Grasshopper$ 12.00Pros: Extremely fast and easy setup Competitive cost Covers the basics of a business phone system, including basic call routing/IVR, voicemail, and faxing Cons: Requires existing landlines or mobile phones Limited features beyond the basics Bottom Line: Grasshopper is aimed at small to midsize businesses (SMB). In that space, it's a solid contender with a good feature set, solid mobility support, and a decent price point, too.Read ReviewLine2$ 9.95Pros: Easy to set up Low cost for a basic business phone system that has popular features, even faxing Cons: Runs only as a web application or as an app on a smartphone or computer Bottom Line: Line2 may have begun as an app to let you access multiple lines on your cell phone, but today, this is a full-on cloud business phone service that squarely targets small business and does so at a very nice price. Still, you may not find every feature you want, so vet the service carefully before committing. More Inside PCMag.com About the Author Michael Muchmore is PC Magazine’s lead analyst for software and Web applications. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed up PC Magazine’s coverage of Web development, enterprise software, and display technologies. Michael cowrote one of the first overviews of Web Services (pretty much the progenitor of Web 2.0) for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Magazine’s Solutions section, which in those days covered programming techniques as well as tips on using popular office software. Most recently he covered Web 2.0 and other software for ExtremeTech.com. Michael got his start in computing as a lad, when he wrote a BASIC program for a Radio Shack … See Full Bio More From Michael Muchmore Please enable JavaScript to view the comments. Ad

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