How to switch to VoIP efficiently

Most businesses put their telephone system firmly in the ‘business critical’ category. If customers can’t get through, sales drop through the floor, and that can affect your bottom line and future client relationships. Even if your customers don’t call in, your employees need to be able speak to each other; sometimes, email just won’t do.

Downtime is a peril that can occur when switching any service, be it web hosting, telephony or email provision. Yet with VoIP, the process of transferring has been streamlined and honed to offer minimal disruption and delay.

The process

Transferring to a virtual phone system means porting your number from a traditional phone company to a VoIP provider. The benefits are clear: keep your number, and avoid changing all of the letterheads and labels you rely on day-to-day. And the process is similar to porting from mobile network to mobile network.

It’s wise to contact your telephone company and tell them you want to transfer to a VoIP provider; check their notice period, and make sure they will cease billing you on your leaving date. Next, submit the details of your numbers to us with a copy of a recent bill, and we’ll make all the arrangements to move the numbers over to our virtual phone system.

The transfer itself is a seamless process that will normally be completed within two weeks (although it does occasionally take longer). We’ll contact your existing provider and arrange to take over your number, bringing it onto our VoIP system and removing it from the PTSN network. In the meantime, we’ll help you set up the VoIP equipment, apps and softphones you’ve chosen.

On the day

On the day of the switch, you may notice a small amount of unavoidable downtime as the number is deactivated on the PTSN network and activated on the virtual phone system. We work hard to keep this downtime to a minimum, although it does partly depend on how your old telephone company operates. Rest assured that most switches complete within minutes.

Nimvelo charges a small admin fee to arrange the porting. However, note that we cap this fee when you transfer a range of numbers on the same line. That makes porting very affordable, even if you have a large number of DDIs.

Ongoing support

Nimvelo is a fair VoIP provider that doesn’t believe in tying you in to a contract. Once your phone numbers have been moved, you’re free to scale your service up or down – or cancel it completely. If you want to port your number back to the PTSN network later, we’re here to help.

We offer a live status page that shows you exactly how our systems are performing, so you can instantly see whether there’s a fault you should be aware of. And when you’re with us, you benefit from round the clock, personal support.