In the last year or so a brand new term has entered the scene of the VoIP market, and this is business grade VoIP. How is business grade VoIP different to other VoIP provision and how can I make use of business grade VoIP? Keep reading and I will break it down so that even the least VoIP savvy person will understand what business grade VoIP is and how it differs from residential grade VoIP.

Firstly we will look at what seperates business grade VoIP from other VoIP. There is no distinct definition of business grade VoIP per say, but more of a loose grouping of features that are usually not present in the residential VoIP provider market. The first and most important of the differences of business grade VoIP is the service level agreements that come with business grade VoIP. Residential VoIP providers usually give no guarantee of service up time with their service but for a business VoIP provider this is absolutely imperitive. If they cannot give assurances that the VoIP service will be up then it is not business grade VoIP. An uptime of around 99.9 % over a year is standard for an SLA with a business grade VoIP provider.

This is accomplished by the business grade VoIP provider having a system of high availability and redundant servers with which they provide the VoIP calls. Resonance Networks has such a system in place.

Another way to differentiate between a business grade VoIP provider is the other peripheral services they provide to compliment their VoIP provision. They will almost have as a rule the ability to port numbers from the original tier one PSTN provider that the business was originally with. Not being able to keep a phone number or range of phone numbers is not an issue for a home user but the implications of this for a business user would be massive. It would mean changing signage, business cards , stationery not to mention contacting all the standing customers they have to tell them that they are changing their number. This is a headeache no business will want and this is why most business grade VoIP providers will have the ability to port numbers. Another tell tale sign is the ability to provide 1300 and 1800 numbers to their clients. Many business users will wish to have this facility if not now then in the near future, so any business grade VoIP provider worth its salt will provide them this service. Resonance Networks does.

Most business grade VoIP poviders will also have seperate support packages for their clients. So if the client needs that peace of mind in knowing if all hell was to break loose then the cavalry is on it's way, or just being able to call on an Asterisk expert to configure an extension round the clock is something that is in the best interest of a business grade VoIP provider to have in it's arsenal. After all if the client is not making calls then the business grade VoIP provider is not making money.