One contract for the telephone, one for the internet and another for cable TV - that was once upon a time. Today, small companies get VoIP, internet and TV from a single source. This saves costs and enables many practical additional functions - and is easy to set up even for technical laymen.
Some will remember: not so long ago, setting up a telephone connection was as nerve-wracking as a whodunit. And when the line was finally connected, all you could do was make a call to a telephone in one place via one number, often with modest sound quality. Those days are over thanks to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). For once, this very complicated term does not stand for an even more complicated solution, but for much more comfort. When setting up Internet telephony, you do not have to struggle with technical details, everything is easy to set up and offers countless possibilities. With VoIP, telephony becomes comprehensive communication.
But - many sole proprietors in small businesses will ask themselves - why do I need comprehensive communication when the good old telephone would have sufficed easily? A critical look at the advantages of Internet telephony is therefore quite justified.
Advantage 1: More than one telephone number
With an analogue telephone line, you had one number per line that was assigned to a specific telephone set. If someone called and you were not at home - bad luck, the job was probably lost. Those days are gone: You take a trip to the mountains during the week because you had to do an urgent job over the weekend?
With VoIP, your telephone connection is always where you are: In this case, your smartphone rings with your office number. You can also take the possibly important call on the road on your well-deserved hike. The customer doesn't have to care that you are enjoying the nice weather and not sitting in the office. Conversely, the principle also works at home on your landline phone or in the office directly on your computer.
This flexibility is a godsend, especially for one-man or one-woman businesses. Last but not least, private and business calls can be easily separated - three phone numbers are assigned to one contract - and you still always have both with you in the same terminal. It is super practical to use the same smartphone to take calls from customers and the next moment to make an appointment with the babysitter - via different numbers, but from the same terminal.
Advantage 2: More possibilities
In a VoIP solution, the internet connection is always included. This is the prerequisite for the digital transmission of all data. This means that for the price of a telephone connection with three numbers, you also get a lot of additional possibilities without having to worry about an additional contract. For example, in addition to telephony, you now also have e-mail, Skype for Business and tools for collaboration with customers and partners such as Slack or Trello.
Don't need all that? That's OK, too, because Internet telephony already offers very practical comfort functions in the basic package, such as answering machines, call forwarding or telephone conferences with up to three participants. And if your one-person business grows into an SME with additional employees, the contract can be flexibly expanded with a few mouse clicks to include additional numbers - with even more functions for which telephone systems costing thousands of francs had to be purchased in the past.
Advantage 3: TV included
In one-person companies, private and business matters cannot always be clearly separated; often the office is a room in one's own flat. Those who do the math therefore get TV and Internet telephony from the same provider, because modern TV comes via the Internet, just like VoIP telephony. In a package, these functions are much cheaper. Internet, telephone and TV - experts speak of triple play - are available at manageable costs and from a single source. For SMEs, this is an all-round carefree offer: all facets of information, communication and entertainment in a low-cost contract package that can be expanded at any time without much effort. This VoIP is actually not so bad, is it?