Voice over IP (VoIP) is just a phone call over the internet, right?

Some describe VoIP as nothing more than an application that rides the data network. True, it is voice data sent over IP traffic, a digitized phone call that rides the internet, but it becomes so much more complex than that, especially in regards to one question – who controls it?
As more companies are moving toward IP telephony, they are experiencing a greater need for control over their voice and video calls. It isn’t just about administration control, but control over the quality of service, control over identifying inaudible voice or stuttering video; control over knowing if the problem is the phone, the server, bandwidth, or the software. Companies need to be able to respond quickly, triage, and resolve the problem in the least amount of time possible. But even with absolute control, who manages each aspect? You’ve got your telecommunications group, your IT network engineering team, maybe even a third-party vendor managing your voice and video calls. So who is controlling it all, and where do you turn when you have an issue?

The problem is that between each end of a call, a lot of factors come into play. Even with everything hosted in-house or by a single third-party vendor, there are numerous potential points of failure between a customer placing a call and you answering it, many of which you can’t control.  What you can do is prepare for the complexities of VoIP so that when the time comes, you know where to start.

Companies are seeking help and are looking for a managed services partner that specializes not only in voice, but in data and the complexities of converging the two. They want to be able to gain control of their voice and video network. Uptime and performance are critical, especially when a customer is on the line.

Altura Sentinel Edge Cloud offers a cloud-based managed services solution, which helps companies gain greater control, reliability and efficiency from their voice communication assets. With several service modules providing critical functions for proactively managing communications applications and infrastructure, Altura Edge Sentinel Cloud provides the flexibility to mix and match these modules to meet your specific needs. You can be up and running quickly and without the need for servers, licenses and other overhead. Altura Sentinel Edge Cloud is specifically designed to address unified communications systems, contact centers, VoIP QoS monitoring, and complex, multi-vendor communications infrastructures.

Image courtesy of Renjith Krishnan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net