A softphone is basically a desk phone minus the hardware. There are innovative softphone applications out there that can offer more features and flexibly meet your business needs.
Yes, desk phones have been an integral part of businesses, especially when you’re in the business of making calls regularly. But, with the changing times and with the high demand for remote work, investing in softphones was seen as a big advantage.
Aside from desk phones being a piece of outdated equipment, there are a lot of good reasons why you should opt to use softphones with virtual phone numbers as part of your system in the office. And here are six of them to convince you why need to shift:
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It’s less expensive to use – In a small business with 50 employees, you’ll be needing roughly 50 desk phones; so that would mean you also need to install 50 phone outlets, cables, and a whole lot more wires to buy to make sure all phones will work altogether. That’s on top of the team plan that you have to pay for your desk phones to go live.
But with a softphone, you only need to purchase the app and the plan itself. You only need to worry about what great softphone provider to choose. You can strike out the procurement of boxes full of desk phones from your budget plans and can even allocate that budget instead to something more relevant such as a bigger business internet subscription or better headphones for better call qualities.
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Quicker and easier to set up and install – With softphones, you won’t need thousands of meters of phone cables to wire out within the office floors. Softphones are just internet-based applications that you will need to install on your computers or other office gadgets such as tablets and smartphones. Others are even browser-based, which means you won’t need to install anything. You would just need to log in online using the credentials that your provider has given you.
Also, it’s faster to have it ready to use as you won’t need the lengthy process of dialing in or other heavy configurations to assure all 50 cubicles, for instance, have working desk phones. So long as you have a strong and steady internet connection, you are as good to go.
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One less office equipment to set up – Aside from not having to procure phone hardware, opting for softphones would mean there’s one less piece of equipment to set up in the office. Considering setting up a desk phone is not as easy as assembling a swivel chair, the amount of labor cost and time that you can save from setting up desk phones is aggregately a decent amount of money saved for your business.
Not to mention the maintenance costs of desk phones when it becomes defective or broken. There’s the issue of the warranty and the costs for a replacement if needed. With softphones, most of the issues will likely be addressed by the app provider.
Also, it’s less of a hassle for those employed in offices with BYOD (bring your own device) policies. With the cloud app system in place, they won’t need to bring their personal devices to work, which would also be beneficial for the company, in terms of keeping clients’ information private and confidential. Not to mention, a preventive measure for possible fraud.
With softphones, you can just have your IT personnel install the application (if it’s app-based) when they set-up the already existing computers on your operation floor.
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Bring your business with you anywhere – Working remotely has been the trend lately as it offers quite the flexibility in the comforts of wherever you are—may it be at home or while you are on a trip. With a softphone, you can take work with you. You won’t be hindered by the fact that you are far away from your desk phone, so you can’t do any work outside of the office.
So long as you have a stable internet connection, you will be able to access your phone service account and continue with your regular operations. This is best for those who are managing their business and teams from home or remotely. With the recent trend of delayed return to offices because of the global pandemic, having a desk phone won’t do so as much as investing in a great softphone provider would.
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Has more to offer in terms of video and call conferencing – With softphones, you can incorporate video call and phone conferences in one application or with one provider. You can handle multi-party conferences without additional costs.
You can opt-out on throwing in a separate conferencing system for your business as your very own softphone application already has that feature for you. Conferences will no longer be a hassle, in terms of preparing the whole set-up—dialing in, connecting, synching calls to the videos, and whatnot. It can be done with a few taps on the screen or mouse clicks.
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Undisclosed private phone numbers – Softphones are connected to a cloud phone system and it makes sure that actual phone numbers of the devices used for the calls won’t be revealed. This is definitely a big advantage to those working remotely or those that are on travel.
They can mask their personal numbers and display the company’s business phone number instead when making official business calls. Many, if not all, VoIP service providers like Telnum offer virtual phone numbers that your business can use to forward calls and for your clients to call toll-free.
This is an important factor especially for those who impose a BYOD policy. As much as companies value client information confidentiality, it also needs to protect their employees’ personal information as well. Most especially when these employees handle customer calls on a regular basis. And since the calls made are done online, they won’t incur added charges to their phone plans.
Final words
The Desk phone is a piece of outdated equipment considering the flexible work arrangements being implemented across the globe. Businesses and work set-ups are becoming more mobile and you have to take that into great consideration to assure continued and uninterrupted operations. The massive move to a work-from-home setup in 2020 made the importance of investing in softphones more salient. It has more to offer such as a wider range of business possibilities.
Some may opt to maintain the remote set-up considering the costs saved from office rental and the utility bills that come with it. So desk phones won’t be quite as useful in that type of set-up considering it is only good for when staff and executives are in the office and at their desks most of the time.