LAS VEGAS. With Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) gaining momentum in a wide range of businesses, including trucking, one provider is touting the technology’s “flexibility” as a key advantage. “The ability to better manage phone calls is really getting the attention of businesses,” Jerry Cady, president & COO of McLean, VA-based VOIP provider iCore, told Fleet Owner here at the 86th annual meeting of the Associated General Contractors of America.
VOIP basically allows companies to get phone service via the Internet rather than via traditional phone lines-- and typically at a lower cost. A company with a T-1 dedicated Internet line can easily switch to a VOIP network, said Cady.
“When you get telephone service for any business, you have to purchase a private branch exchange (PBX) that is basically an extension of the phone company into your offices,” he noted.
“The servers powering the VOIP network are at our location, not our customers’. So it’s technology they don’t have to buy and maintain,” Cady said.
This adds to VOIP’s versatility. “For example, all you need is a VOIP phone in any location,” Cady said. “Then you enter your phone number and password and you get your calls as if you were in your office. That gives a firm much greater flexibility for employees that need to work at home, go on the road, or be shifted to new locations in case of office work or emergencies.”
Cady said companies looking at VOIP are far more traditional in nature than he expected. “We originally developed ‘target markets’ that we thought would be early adopters – technology firms on the cutting edge, those kinds of companies,” he said. “But really it’s been traditional businesses across a wide range of industries that have been the most interested: construction, transportation, banks, and distribution firms. The interest in VOIP is all over the map and we think the flexibility VOIP offers is why.”
