Already Using VoIP? Give Productivity a Boost by Going Wireless

If you’re serious about lowering business expenses and increasing efficiency, you may already be among the growing number of SMBs using Voice over IP (VoIP) technology to offset telecommunications expenses.

But did you know that by blending VoIP technology with your existing wireless LAN, you can make another leap in productivity — through a new technology called wireless VoIP?

The idea may not be so strange.

In recent months, more and more businesses with 10- to 50-person networks are realizing Voice over Wi-Fi technology is within their grasp. By using it, these SMBs are leveraging the power of converged wireless communications to transport telephone traffic to and from mobile users.

How It Works
If you have an existing wireless LAN, that network already lets employees stay connected to the network as they move from place to place while on campus — between conference rooms, during lunch or at meetings. This helps them boost productivity since their work can be accomplished virtually anywhere.

By adding VoIP technology to your existing wireless LAN — in the form of 802.11-enabled Wi-Fi phones — you can transmit voice communications over your wireless infrastructure and tap into newfound benefits.

With wireless VoIP, employees can still access e-mail while in a conference room or cafeteria — but now, they can also pick up calls from their phone extensions through their wireless phones. This decreases the frustration of phone tag, the wasted time checking voice mail, and the risk of missing important calls from customers. Plus, it delivers increased communication, accessibility and productivity, thus sharpening your company’s competitive edge.

By mixing telephone traffic with WLAN data, your company not only nets better employee mobility, it can lower network costs. After all, supporting a single infrastructure that handles both data and voice traffic is generally simpler and less expensive than two separate ones.

Wireless VoIP in Action
Say you’re a manufacturing company whose single building houses its manufacturing, warehouse and corporate offices. You may use a wireless LAN to provide wireless data collection in inventory and shipping/receiving functions — but you also use two-way radios to enable communications between supervisors and warehouse employees scattered throughout the building.

By using Wi-Fi phones designed to interface with the WLAN, you can now avoid the need for two-way radios and their associated operational management functions. Instead, everyone’s office becomes virtual, with each person’s extension ringing to a personal handset that’s with them wherever they go.

Some manufacturers also provide wireless phones that switch easily between the company network and a cellular network to give users even more freedom to roam off campus.

The Makings of a Wireless VoIP Solution

To create a wireless VoIP network, you’ll need four components:

• A basic IP network
• A WLAN backbone, consisting of access points and a distribution system
• Telephone handsets equipped with 802.11 wireless technology
• A gateway or access point enhanced to handle the special bandwidth control requirements of voice traffic

A Win-win for Mobility-centric Verticals
Employee accessibility and productivity are the main drivers behind wireless VoIP technology’s surge in popularity. After all, not missing phone calls or waiting for callbacks can greatly increase productivity, and give employees the freedom to stray from their desks without losing access to their phones.

While these benefits can help companies in virtually any industry, wireless VoIP holds special appeal for companies with diversified environments and in mobility-centric verticals, such as healthcare, retail, manufacturing, education, hospitality and transportation. More specifically, this solution is ideal in any location where:

• Employees may not have permanent desks.
• It’s impractical or expensive to install wired desksets.
• There are too many people for wireless phones.
• People often wander beyond a wireless phone’s range.
• Cell phones aren’t allowed or service can’t reach.

Vertical markets like these can easily cost-justify the technology, because they can tie ROI to the resulting reduced head count, increased sales and other tangibles.

If you’re sold on maximizing your business productivity, wireless VoIP could be the right solution for you. Call us today to discuss your individual needs and schedule a network assessment.