Voice Over IP

Director, Information Technology

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, will change how you look at telephones forever. So many REALTORS® have a different e-mail, pager and telephone accounts. It can be a challenge trying to keep them all straight, let alone checking them on a timely basis. The benefits of this technology are huge.

VoIP, in its simplest term, is taking analog audio signals, like the kind you currently hear on the phone, and converting these signals into digital data that can be transmitted over the Internet. Once that data has been converted, the possibilities are endless. Consider this for an organizational boost, once all of your data is digital, you can send everything to your e-mail software, Microsoft Outlook for an example.

Your e-mails will go there, as they do now. All of your voicemails will be routed to you in e-mail form, with an attached wav file. You would just double click on the e-mail to hear the voicemail message. You can even create an Instant Messenger account, from one of the readily available providers, and have those messages sent to your e-mail software as well.

One location, multiple accounts pointing to it, and every communication you receive easily viewed from any computer in the world with Internet access. This feature alone would make VoIP an excellent value. Add potential cost savings for home or your office as well. Now that the data is digital, service providers such as Vonage, Verizon and others, may be able to offer you greatly reduced pricing for telephone usage, by routing your telephone calls through the Internet. One set fee each month for unlimited calls.

VoIP, for mobile professionals, makes sense for so many reasons.