Appia Communications has reported significant growth in its unique IP-PBX (News - Alert) services. The greatest demand has been driven by the ability these services provide to enable companies and organizations to gain the benefits of hosted VoIP services, even if they have a contract with local telephony service providers.
Managed VoIP offers organizations a full range of business-class phone services without the investment and high monthly costs associated with owning a PBX or key system. However, existing contracts with local phone companies are preventing companies from moving to make the implementation as soon as they would like.
With such contracts in place, it is difficult for companies to realize the full cost savings of VoIP as the company would need to pay both the phone company and the VoIP provider. It can also be a challenge to find a VoIP provider that is capable of accommodating existing contracts.
According to Appia, phone contracts don’t have to be a barrier to VoIP. "The savings from managed services sometimes justify buying out the contracts," said Jason Ulm, Appia's vice president of sales, in a statement. "But when they don't, our IP-PBX solution allows companies to start saving with VoIP while honoring their current contracts. When those contracts expire, it's easy to transition to the added savings that a full VoIP solution provides."
As IP-PBX seamlessly interfaces with local phone connections, a single connection to Appia handles everything else. As a result, companies can enjoy call control, long distance and inbound toll-free calling as well as Internet access.
Beyond the significant up-front savings, Appia’s IP-PBX customers also enjoy lower monthly costs, easy scalability and advanced IP features such as a company-wide voicemail system, free calling between offices, fax-to-email, and video communication.
"With today's technology, no organization should have to buy and operate its own phone system, and no contract should stand in the way of moving to VoIP," Ulm said. "You can save right now."
To keep up with the growing demand for its services, Appia introduced a new unified communications solution in June. Dubbed “Applause”, this solution makes business-quality voice, video and desktop sharing accessible to companies and organizations of all sizes. The company also announced in June that it had crossed the $1 million mark in revenue sharing.
Whether a company opts to go around their current phone company contracts or not, hosted VoIP continues to demonstrate strong benefits that can far exceed those delivered by landline options. As a result, companies such as Appia are likely to continue to enjoy strong growth, even if growth slows over time.