Do you suffer from AVoIPance? Modern VoIP deserves a look

We all know somebody who loves being first with new technology. They rave about their latest find and swear it'll change everything. Then you try it, and the verdict is a resounding meh. That was the early reaction to VoIP when it first started making its way into the public eye.

Voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP for short, just didn't cut the mustard back then. Sometimes the person you were talking to sounded more like a swarm of bees than your customer. There were echoes, hiccups, dropouts and plenty of abrupt disconnects. That was a shame, because the idea behind VoIP makes it far less expensive than any other kind of phone system. Today the picture looks completely different.

Why VoIP doesn't disappoint anymore

VoIP got off to a bad start through no fault of its own. The idea was sound and promising: take the sound of your voice, convert it to compressed digital signals that translate to Internet Protocol packets, and push them over the internet. It was ahead of its time, because a few pieces of the puzzle were still missing.

What happens if the person on the other end doesn't use VoIP? That was the biggest missing piece. There were plenty of others, all hiding in a box labeled "Under Construction." The internet infrastructure of that era simply couldn't carry a real-time conversation reliably.

Years of infrastructure upgrades have since brought enormous improvement and capacity to users. Everything we hoped VoIP would do but it couldn't is a reality now. The problem is that some decision-makers still hesitate to give it a second chance. VoIP failed the first-impression test, and a bad reputation is hard to repair. If you're weighing the move, our guide on the benefits of VoIP and why your company should make the switch covers what changed.

Time to take another look

The infrastructure to support VoIP is firmly established, and the hurdles that once crippled it have been cleared. Adoption hasn't grown faster mostly because VoIP got off to a bad start, and plenty of people still suffer from "AVoIPance."

Start with the name. "VoIP" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Some argue the acronym might have been the biggest mistake of all.

You have to wonder if things might have gone differently under a name that's easier to get your head around, like "Digital Voice." Strip away the technical trappings, and that's what it boils down to anyway.

Look at everything in your world that already runs on digital technology. You don't hesitate to pick up a mobile device and check your favorite social networks. Digital devices have transformed our world, but only because the infrastructure is finally in place.

Knock, knock. It's VoIP at the door, asking for a second chance.

VoIP makes dollars and sense

Switching to a modern cloud phone system no longer costs you anything in quality. The benefits are hard to ignore:

• A switch to VoIP often costs around 30% less than traditional phone service. The cost also moves from your capital improvements spreadsheet over to operational expenditures. You can run the numbers on our pricing page to see how your own bill compares.

• Today's cloud platforms are solid. CallSprout runs on a network engineered for 99.999% uptime, which you can read more about on our reliability page.

• A good Digital Voice platform connects with the communication tools you already use, tying email, messaging and conferencing into one system.

• Your team gets more done when it can finally work from a single platform. You can share a document while you're talking or video conferencing with someone.

• Remember the first time you tried to configure a router or cable modem? Let that memory go. A cloud-based business phone system involves little or no installation, and scaling up is easy.

• Modern VoIP isn't just clearer and cheaper. With CallSprout's AI Voice Agent, it can answer every call, transcribe the conversation, and route the caller using data from your connected CRM, so nothing slips through the cracks.

Connected-system features work through your existing CRM or business system and depend on that system offering a compatible API. Availability varies by provider.

Call it VoIP if you like, but don't scoff at it anymore. The distortion, lag and dropped calls of the early systems are gone. You may have written this technology off in the past. Digital Voice is where your phones are headed.

To hear the difference yourself, book a demo and ask what a modern cloud phone system would save your business.