Business phones are a necessary part of running a modern enterprise. From startups to world-spanning corporations, every employee needs to be connected by phone and many operations require you to be on the same phone network as your team. Call management, call centers, conference meetings, and team intercoms all rely on a unified business phone system, overreaching the use of individual cellphones.

Whether you are starting a new business, opening a new location, or making your post-COVID comeback, the question of choosing the right business phone system is an important one. Should you choose traditional business phone installation or go for the latest in VOIP business phone plan?

Let’s dive into this question with an in-depth comparison between what VoIP has to offer versus the traditional business phone package.

Handsets: Choose Your Phone Interface

For most professionals, workflow is the biggest concern for work phones. If your team is used to traditional handsets or has trained on handsets to do their job, both traditional phones and VoIP offer access to the handset workflow. With traditional phones, handsets are your only option as the phone line cable plugs directly into the back of the handset base.

With VoIP, however, handsets are one of many options. You can choose the handset design you like best for your administration and call center teams, but not everyone needs a desk phone. In addition to handset plug-in, everyone else can rely on the headset, microphone, or even webcam arrangement they prefer instead of a traditional desktop handset.

Installation: Running Cable vs Software Install

Installation also poses an extreme difference between traditional phones and VoIP lines. With traditional phones, phone line must be run to every single desk and location where you need a phone to be located. Handsets are tethered by these lines, and the lines themselves must be threaded through floors, ceilings, columns, and cable runners to keep the workplace tidy.

Digital phones like VoIP require none of this hassle. Instead, the installation process is one of software. Once the VoIP program is installed onto a team member’s computer or mobile device, they will be connected to the shared company phone network and all the features available.

Audio Clarity: Lines and High-Speed Internet

Audio clarity in phone calls has always been determined by the quality of your connection. Traditional phones have a more guaranteed baseline quality because the sound is coming through a wire. VoIP audio quality is based on the speed of your internet and the efficiency of the software you choose. Decades ago, internet was slower, and so were internet phones. Now that information travels down fiber-optic cables at the speed of light, clarity on your business network is never an issue. For most businesses already situated with necessary high-speed internet, audio quality with VoIP is pristine and crisp, sometimes at higher quality than you could achieve running the sound through physical copper wires.

Business Phone Features: More is Better

Often, the biggest concern when transitioning to VoIP from traditional phones is the feature list. Businesses have no reason to be worried, as VoIP software aptly emulates every line-management, conference line, and phone center feature that businesses have come to rely on from their phone systems over the decades of traditional phone use.

In addition to the usual multi-line and pool features of business phones, VoIP offers a new variety of features that could only be available through software. These include transcription like voicemail-to-email and call transcription, whisper calls,  click-to-dial, on-screen dashboards, and multi-site unified networks are all exclusive to VoIP.  Not to mention advanced video conferencing platforms that go above and beyond anything a simple phone line can accomplish.