Five Questions With: Carlos Fernandes

Our telecommuting, constantly mobile world means getting more and more done on the go, especially in business. Carlos Fernandes is a project specialist with Rhode Island Telephone who deals in Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, phone systems. However, he told PBN that premise-based phone systems still have their place in our communities. PBN spoke with him about the differences.

PBN: We are at a point in business where most companies allow employees to work from home at least part of the time. Is this what’s driving the demand for VoIP systems, or are there other factors?

FERNANDES: Not only are employees working from home, but with VoIP-powered technology [such as] full-featured smartphone apps, voicemail to email, and plug-and-play desk phones, employees are working from anywhere. Many of our customers have upgraded to VoIP because it allows them to work from their construction site, on the road as a salesperson or even when abroad. However, most of the businesses we serve have switched to VoIP because of its lower upfront cost and lower cost of operation.

PBN: What is the profile of a company best suited for a premise-based VoIP system?

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FERNANDES: A premise-based phone system refers to a system with a server located at a given business. There are not too many businesses in 2019 that benefit from a premise-based phone system due to the large upfront hardware cost, scalability restrictions and potential hardware liability.

However, a premise-based phone system is still very important for emergency-response organizations [such as] medical, fire and police due to the redundancy a hybrid premise-based system can offer, having the ability to use both analog and VoIP phone lines. Many of these emergency-response organizations also have some type of generator or electrical backup that will keep the phones running if the power does go out. The downside to the backup approach for many businesses is the additional cost of usage on twice as many phone lines and the potential that the business does not have an electrical backup to support them.

Also, a premise-based system is limited by its user count. If a business requires more users than the system supports, in most cases, costly hardware or even a whole new system is required to add those additional users.

PBN: What is the profile of a company best suited for a cloud-based VoIP system?

FERNANDES: Most companies today are best suited for a cloud-based VoIP phone system because of the system’s scalability, accessibility redundancy and lower cost. A cloud-based system refers to a system that is off-premise, running typically on multiple redundant servers in multiple locations that connect back to your business location, or even an employee’s smartphone.

If the internet or electricity goes out at a location, the system will still be running on those servers remotely. Using voicemail to email, call forwarding, as well as the system’s web-based admin portal, business communication will not go down just because the internet or power goes out.

Users, phones, voicemails, auto attendants and many more options can very easily be added, removed or changed by the system provider or internally by a trained employee with almost no limitation to the system’s size or scale. This cloud-based system approach typically has a much lower upfront cost as well as a much lower cost of maintain. Also, cloud-based systems can be managed and maintained remotely by the service provider or by a trained staff member internally, [which] drives down the cost of expensive on-site visits, service calls and system parts.

PBN: What if I am a small business with one location? Is a traditional, non-internet phone system a good choice?

FERNANDES: For a small business with one location, a traditional, non-internet phone system in most cases is not the best choice. All non-internet business phone systems are premise-based, thus taking on many of the problems of a premise-based system … including the additional thousands of dollars in upfront system costs, as well as potential unexpected on-site system repairs costs.

The large upfront cost, scalability issues and lack of features would not be prohibitive to most small businesses today. Many small businesses have limited personnel and often need employees to have access to business communication from the road, at home, on-site and in the office. Traditional non-internet phones do that have the type of accessibility to business communication that VoIP, especially cloud-based VoIP, provides.

PBN: Is one type of VoIP phone system generally better than the other for certain industries?  

FERNANDES: Cloud-based VoIP is generally better for most industries, with the exceptions of some emergency-response organizations using a premise-based VoIP system with backup power – a very safe place physically for the system to live and a budget for two phone services for redundancy purposes. Almost all other industries would benefit from a cloud-based VoIP phone system from a company supporting the system with a team of local service technicians.

Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributing writer.