It is clear that there are many merits to VoIP for a company and reasons to use it, but it is important to know that just choosing your provider isn’t where it ends.

You need to be sure that you know what kind of telephony equipment is right for you and your company in order to truly benefit from Voice over Internet Protocol.

This article will give you an idea of what hardware devices you can use for calls over an IP network and which ones suit your needs better.

Soft phones (USB phones)

There are some VoIP equipment solutions that simply need a computer and an internet connection to work. The computer will obviously need decent audio equipment like a sound card, speakers or earphones and a microphone.

The software needed is simply installed onto the computer and then IP calls can be made. This is usually charged at a monthly rate or per call and only tends to work PC to PC. The best known software based VoIP telephony equipment is Skype.

A USB headset or soft phone can be plugged in directly to your PC USB port enabling you to either talk via a phone or a headset – depending upon what you prefer.

There are many different styles of handsets, desksets with speaker phones as well as some cordless models.

Hard phones (IP phones)

A hard phone is typically more expensive than a soft phone. It looks like a conventional phone and plugs into an Ethernet port on a router. The hard phone then communicates directly with the VoIP server and doesn’t need to go through a computer – which means that you don’t need any software.

A Wi-Fi phone is another variation on the hard phone and has a built in wireless transceiver in addition or instead of an Ethernet port. The VoIP system then connects wirelessly to a Wi-Fi base station. Again, it doesn’t have to connect to a PC.

Other options to hard phones, are ATAs (analogue telephone adapters), which allow you to make VoIP calls using your regular analogue phone. Another are DTAs (digital telephone adapters), allows businesses with PBX to use their existing infrastructure for VoIP calls, and integrates with any handsets already used by the company. VoIP interface cards go into a computer’s PCI slot and add VoIP capabilities, whereby you can plug several phones into one single card and VoIP gateways connect VoIP networks to their PSTN system, which enables calls to be made between VoIP phones, PSTN and mobile phones. The final system that you could use is a VoIP PBX which is the same as a traditional PBX, but uses a live operator to route the calls.

Whatever system you use, make sure that it is right for your company. If you are a small organisation, then a soft phone would probably work for your needs, but if you are a large company, then getting a fully integrated system will probably be the best bet to save you money and improve your communications.