Now that you’re ready to implement softphones for your users, you’re left wondering what the best way to do this is.
Once your softphones go live, you want to prove it was a worthwhile investment of resources, including your time, coordinating the rollout of the new solution. How can you show your organization’s users all the ways this new technology will help them?
You’ll want to prepare and know the best ways to implement softphones and how to advise different types of users on the new solution.
When you work with any IT consulting company, such as The KR Group, for collaboration projects, they’ll guide you through this process. To provide the best experience for everyone involved, you’ll want to understand ahead of time how to make softphones work for your organization.
What to Know When Deploying Softphones
As the administrator of the softphones, you’ve undoubtedly done some research if and how this solution works with your existing networking and infrastructure.
At the most basic level, you’ll need an internet connection and devices to turn into softphones.
However, there are a few components you can adjust or implement to make your softphone deployment go from adequate to high-quality. These include:
- Having enough bandwidth for active callers
- Using appropriate wireless access points
- Properly configuring your internet connection
- Providing users with quality headsets
When you deploy the softphones, ideally, your users will only see the benefits of this technology. Implementing these best practices will help you meet that objective.
Best Practice #1: Softphones Require Adequate Bandwidth
Softphones aren’t possible without an internet connection.
Typically, organizations deploy softphones is through laptops or smartphones wirelessly connected to the internet.
While there are always exceptions, in general, this configuration means you need to give some attention to your business’s internet bandwidth.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all number for this. Instead, consider how many users will have softphones in your office and the number of calls those users will make or receive.
Each phone call (audio only) uses around 80 Kbps of bandwidth. That’s a small fraction of how much bandwidth the typical business has, and it isn’t a problem for most businesses with typical phone use.
However, if your organization has a large, active call center using softphones, your connection speed may need adjustment. Or, at the very least, it is worth checking before you implement softphones throughout your business.
Best Practice #2: Using Appropriate Wireless Access Points
While an adequate internet connection is a standard requirement, most businesses have the existing contract to make it work.
What more commonly trips up organizations is their wireless capabilities.
If your users are no longer using hardwired desk phones, they are wirelessly connecting to the internet and taking up bandwidth. Depending on your organization’s call volume, you may need to adjust your wireless access points (AP) to meet the new demands.
You’ll want to pay special attention to details such as overlap capabilities to prevent calls from dropping if a user moves from one AP to another. It’s also critical to ensure your access point has multi-stream capacity to allow multiple users to connect to the AP at the same time.
Of course, you’ll need to calculate how many users will be connecting to the internet through a wireless access point to ensure there is adequate bandwidth.
It’s often said that wireless is more of an art than a science, but you can’t ignore science.
Best Practice #3: Prioritizing Internet Traffic for Softphones
Another important step to minimizing the potential for connection problems is prioritizing internet traffic.
As the IT manager or CIO, you should prioritize audio and video traffic over other network traffic to ensure the quality remains constant throughout the call.
This minimizes jitter (when data packets are received in the wrong order) and latency (how long it takes between sending and receiving data).
You can check your latency and jitter statistics with this free online speed test from Cisco.
Ideally, your latency should be less than 100 milliseconds. Phone calls are noticeably affected by latency speeds between 100 and 200 milliseconds. Once latency reaches 250 milliseconds and more, the phone call becomes incomprehensible.
Upgrading your internet contract to a faster speed can address this, but you shouldn’t view it as a permanent or even the best solution. By prioritizing audio and video traffic, you’ll minimize jitter and latency regardless of internet speed and the amount of competing network traffic.
Best Practice #4: Providing Softphone Users with Quality Headsets
One of the most significant appeals to switching users to softphones is the option to forego expensive desk phones.
This typically translates as significant cost savings. However, this doesn’t mean you should set your users up with a softphone on their
When you take a device that isn’t purposely built as a business phone and use it as one, you need to complement it with external hardware to provide the same quality as desk phones.
This is most notable with audio quality on cell phones and laptops. The easiest way to minimize background noise from impairing a call’s quality is to pair softphones with a quality headset.
Specifically, look for one with a microphone with built-in noise dampening as well as noise-canceling features for incoming audio.
Both wired and Bluetooth headsets will improve the quality of the call. However, if you opt for Bluetooth devices, we encourage you to pay attention to reviews and perform in-house testing to ensure the quality of the Bluetooth connection meets your users’ needs.
Helping Your Users with Their New Softphones
The above sections covered actions you should take on the IT administration side, but what about making this technology work for your users?
Depending on your organization and if you have on-site, remote, mobile, or a combination of employees, you’ll want to advise on different tips.
Best Practices for In-Office Softphone Users
This group of users is the simplest to configure softphones since you have control over the network to which they’re connected.
However, you should advise them on the following:
Internet: Ensure the device these users have for their softphones are connected to the company’s internet via wireless or Ethernet connection.
Inform them about your wireless access points capabilities and if it will affect their phone calls if they’re moving around the office.
Additionally, if they’re using a softphone connected to your office network and leave the building, there’s a chance the call will drop as they connect to mobile data.
Hardware: You can’t go wrong with providing this set of users with a headset – wired or Bluetooth. IT will help them block out background noise while on phone calls, and the person on the other end should hear them better.
Other tips: For users making and receiving phone calls from a laptop or desktop, they may need a quick demonstration since these softphone features aren’t as intuitive initially as smartphones. Make sure to cover how to make phone calls from a directory and if they need to use a dial-out extension or not.
Best Softphone Practices for Remote or Mobile Users
Administering softphones for this group of users is a bit trickier simply because you lack the same amount of control over their internet networks and configurations.
As the IT manager or CIO, you’ll want to take time to talk to these users about what to expect with their softphones and pass these tips onto them:
Internet: The same internet requirements apply to remote and mobile users. However, internet speed will vary from household to household and at other locations, such as a customer site, coffee shop, or
They also haven’t configured their home network to prioritize audio or video traffic unless they’re also part of the IT team or live with someone who is tech-savvy.
Hardware: Having quality headsets for this group of users is just as essential, if not more so, as it is for on-site users.
Other tips: Warn these users that when they use a softphone on their cell phone, they’ll have access to the same directory and contacts for their personal and business numbers. Show them how to ensure they’re making the call through the number they want to show up on the receiver’s caller ID.
The Best Way to Implement Softphones
It might sound cheesy, but ultimately, the best way to implement softphones throughout your organization is the way that makes them work best for your business.
This includes looking at the IT side of things, including bandwidth, wireless connectivity, and internet traffic configuration.
To help your users get the most of the softphones, you’ll have put so much effort into deploying. You should also consider providing quality headsets to improve call quality.
Once deployed, review with your users how these softphones work and what they need to know. This will be different for in-office users vs. remote or mobile users.
However, internet, hardware, and general practices apply to all users with softphones, regardless of where they’re making or receiving phone calls from.
Are you ready to talk about deploying softphones in your organization? Schedule a 30-minute, no-pressure phone call with our team of IT experts.
