In the current economy, businesses are looking for as many ways as possible to save money. One area where costs can be cut without losing out on quality is communications. There are many Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for business services that offer close to carrier-grade calls at a fraction of the cost by taking advantage of MPLS network services. The big cost savings for VoIP for business are apparent for any business that makes a large number of international calls. Generally, international calling rates for VoIP are far lower than rates for standard telephone networks. The quality of the calls offered on VoIP has improved greatly in recent years thanks to MPLS network upgrades, which mean that VoIP packets can be prioritised over less time-sensitive packets such as email or web browsing related packets. Another VoIP for business use is for internal collaboration. There are many services that allow free VoIP to VoIP calls amongst users of that particular service. This can be a massive benefit to companies that have a lot of remote workers, or that have offices in several different areas.
What is an MPLS network?
MPLS stands for Multi Protocol Label Switching. VoIP providers that have an MPLS capable network are able to provide efficient, high quality calls with minimal lag and high voice quality. MPLS capable switches, routers, and other network appliances are becoming increasingly common, and the MPLS standards are improving each year.
If telephony costs are a big expense for your company, then joining a VoIP for business service is a good way to save on those costs. Many of the better VoIP providers offer extra features especially for business, including text chat, file sharing, video chat, and remote collaboration tools including calendars, whiteboards, and other business centric features.
The ability to host remote meetings, share screens, and engage in remote collaboration is a useful feature for IT workers, and is becoming increasingly useful for many other industries too. Customer service, tech support, and even sales people can benefit from team features. 
The cost of getting started with VoIP for business is minimal. Many companies already have the basic equipment that is required, as you can make use of the core VoIP features with just a PC and a headset. In fact, smaller companies have an advantage when it comes to getting started, as they do not have to worry about legacy telephony systems that have a lot of money invested in them, and that are incompatible with VoIP.
For companies that are able to take advantage of VoIP, it is well worth doing some research to find a provider that offers a strong MPLS network. This is especially true of companies in the UK, where the Internet infrastructure is not yet capable of supporting all of the services that are being crammed onto it. MPLS ensures that your VoIP traffic does not have to play second fiddle to other bandwidth intensive, but not time sensitive, activities such as file sharing and large file downloads.
This post was written by James Harper on behalf of Maintel. James writes on many topics including how businesses can save money using new technologies such as VoIP.
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