Your first thought upon reading the title might have been: “What is IP technology?” Here, “IP” stands for “Internet Protocol”, but you could be easily excused for not knowing exactly what IP is, despite its appearance in such technological terms as “IP address” and “VoIP”.
Reassuringly, for many workers, IP technology largely works like magic, sparing them the need to thoroughly understand exactly how all of the cogs of this technology are quietly whirring under the hood. Still, you might not quite have mined all of the potential of IP for corporate use.
An easy-to-follow introduction to IP
IP becomes easier to understand when you heed that it is a protocol – that is, a set of rules that pertains to how a given technology works and so allows for standardization in this respect.
Naturally, communication is crucial to your business, whether you are handling routine concerns of your customers or reaching out to staff members who are out “in the field”. However, when attempting to interact online, your efforts could veer off-course if it weren’t for IP.
That’s because IP ensures that all machines on a particular network, such as your company’s, use the same “language” and so can communicate hitch-free. To this end, IP will encapsulate communication data into packets to be transmitted online, as Lifewire explains.
Those packets will be sent to their intended destination, another machine identified in the process by its IP address. That machine could be a PC, smartphone, server or router, to cite some examples.
Even voice data can be transmitted via IP
Now that you know what IP constitutes, you should also know that you are accustomed to regularly sending emails and instant messages through using IP technology. However, even vocal communication is possible through IP, thanks to technology known as VoIP.
With VoIP, which stands for “Voice over IP”, it is voice data packets that are being disseminated between machines. ITProPortal describes VoIP succinctly as “the system of making a phone call over the Internet rather than using a landline or mobile network.”
Therefore, in using VoIP, you can sidestep using a traditional analogue phone line and, hence, incurring the potentially hefty costs of such. In some instances, VoIP can even let you make phone calls for free, though crucial factors here would include the distance and the country you’re calling.
Don’t overlook the wealth of possibilities with a VoIP system
Despite all of the benefits of VoIP technology, there’s always the danger that you don’t realize the full extent of the functionality available once your own firm’s VoIP system is up and running in the workplace. This situation could see you ultimately squander opportunities to enhance productivity.
Fortunately, your VoIP system’s provider could familiarize you with many of the more obscure features. Opting for a hosted phone system from Gamma, for example, could see you quickly learn how to use auto-attendants, pick-up groups and other provided features. Ideally, your chosen system should also have an intuitive interface with which you can quickly get to grips.
