VoIP Equipment: Hardphones

As a telecommunications cost management solution, many businesses are making the switch to VoIP. Once a business has made the decision to make the move to VoIP, one of their first decisions will be whether they will use softphones or hardphones. A hardphone is a physical phone that looks much like a traditional phone. It will have a key pad, handset, LED display, and physically sits on an employee’s desk, separate from the computer. There are a few areas to consider when determining if hardphones are a good fit for your telecommunications system.

• Employee Preference: Many employees simply prefer the way a hardphone feels. They are used to having a regular phone-usually with hard buttons, speakerphone capabilities, and an LCD display-and have grown accustomed to using them in their day-to-day tasks.
• Training: Because of their physical and functional similarity to traditional phones, hardphones require little training upon implementation and hiring.
• Mobility: Businesses whose employees do little or no traveling or telecommuting may find that hardphones are the perfect fit for their business. However, businesses that contain many traveling employees may choose to consider soft phones because of their increased mobility.
• Call Quality: Though the call quality gap between softphones and hardphones is quickly narrowing, hardphones still have an edge in this area.
• Features: Typically, hardphones offer more features than free softphone versions. However, there are a few features available to softphones, such as IM integration, that are not available in hardphones. Businesses should evaluate these features to determine if they will be important to the employee’s job function.
• Other Benefits: Hardphones enjoy reliable service that is not dependent on the functioning of the employee’s computer.
• Other Possible Drawbacks: Hardphones carry a higher cost both for the cost of the phone and installation.

For more information on softphones, please see the blog post, “VoIP Equipment: Softphones.” When attempting to determine if softphones or hardphones are a better fit for your business, a telecommunications consulting firm can help. Contact the Sygnal Group by calling (310) 463-8400 for more information.