Small businesses unsure about switching to a VoIP telephone infrastructure should consider three key benefits, according to industry expert Chris Moody.

A marketing executive with a small business phone system provider, Moody said in a recent contribution to Mashable that small businesses should implement VoIP phone systems for their user-friendly setup, as well as the improvements they can bring to customer support.

However, above all else, the potential to reduce costs on the phone switch required to support traditional phone systems should be a key motivator. With VoIP, small businesses can pocket the money that would have otherwise been needed to set up a phone switch, Moody said.

“Not only are phone switches and their maintenance expensive, but they are also slow and difficult to fix. Your system could be down for a significant amount of time before a technician arrives to diagnose and fix the problem – all the while losing productivity,” Moody wrote for Mashable. “With VoIP, the system is the phone switch. The provider’s network transmits voice data over the internet – like email and web data – and replaces the switch entirely.”

Interest in VoIP among small businesses may be driving overall growth, as the market is expected to reach $74 billion by 2014, according to Infonetics Research.

For smaller businesses that offer internet access to their customers, immediate steps should be taken to avoid allegations of online piracy, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.
Although not all customers or employees are looking to steal content, smaller companies must be prepared to deal with potential issues if users aren’t so virtuous.

“Many times, if you aren’t offering Wi-Fi, you are at a disadvantage to your competitors,” Farrell Quinlan, director of the Arizona NFIB office, told the Phoenix Business Journal. “But it’s important that small business owners realize the legal issues that they may be subject to.”

Record labels, entertainment industry groups and movie studios reportedly have reached an agreement with internet service providers to issue warnings if the internet services are being used to download illegal content.

Smaller telecommunications companies and small businesses offering Wi-Fi access to customers alike may find themselves engulfed in unwanted legal action if their customers are using their internet illegally. The internet is the lifeblood of many businesses as it provides a connection with their employees and customers. As long as an organization uses precaution with their internet service, problems such as these shouldn’t be a hindrance to their future success.

Even the most advanced technologies are subject to failure without warning. Since you can’t control nature or predict man-made tragedies, you must ensure that your business is as prepared as possible to recover from data loss.

Data loss can be as simple as an employee accidentally deleting a file or as major as a hurricane causing power loss to servers and making accessibility to your office impossible.

In these types of situations what will you do? How can you ensure your business stays operational following disaster?

The first step is to ensure all of your data is backed up. There are several options to back up your data, and the “best” option is really the one that meets your specific needs.

Small businesses often rely on online backup, as it’s easier to implement than local backup and, most importantly, the data is stored safely away from the business’ location. With online backup you send your files through the Internet to the backup service provider. Every time a file is changed on your computers or servers, the file is remotely backed up to the online backup service.

The challenge with online backup is that it can take anywhere from several hours to several days to send your files to the backup service, depending on the size of the files. Your Internet connection speeds also determine how long backup will take.

In addition to backing up data files, it is also necessary to back up programs and operating system files. Recovering user files is important, but you must also be able to use programs such as Microsoft Office, your accounting program, financial program and other critical tools that you use to create these files.

Another important strategy to consider is ensuring that all servers have an image of their hard drive backed up. An image, unlike just a few backed up files, is an exact replica or snapshot of a hard disk. If the original hard disk is damaged or inaccessible, you can place the image on another hard disk. You will then have your user files and the hard disk back, including your programs and operating system, just like it was never damaged.

Backup is only one part of business continuity. It’s also important to ensure that you have tested plans and strategies in the event disaster strikes.

Telephone - With a managed or virtual phone system, you can still have remote telephone service if you can’t get to your office telephone system. Also, make sure you have the telephone numbers of all employees and their family members.

Website – In the event your website goes down, consider having a backup website ready to which you can easily move from your primary site.

Hosted applications make disaster recovery much easier, as you can still operate and access data without physical hardware. For example, your payroll operations can still flow smoothly if your payroll is being serviced by a service provider and managed online.

In the event of an emergency, the employee who usually handles various aspects of your business might not be available. Make sure your staff and service providers know who is authorized to access and make changes to relevant accounts such as telephone and internet service.

There are many important non-technical issues that must be in order for complete business continuity, but if you can secure the technical issues, you’ll be one step ahead of the game at a time when preparation will help most.

Ramon Ray is a technology evangelist, writer and editor for Smallbiztechnology.com.

Unforeseen disasters can bring a business of any size to a halt. In many cases, it takes longer for a small business to recover from catastrophe than a large business. It is crucial for small businesses to have contingency plans in place so they can weather a disaster. Cbeyond’s cloud-based phone and file storage services ensure your business can maintain productivity in times of emergency.

Cbeyond security expert Bill Thomson explains how Cbeyond’s cloud-based services can ensure a small business is prepared for the unexpected.

Learn more about Cbeyond’s cloud-based phone and backup services.

While small businesses have become increasingly wary of spam and its negative effects on productivity, spam is inevitable. Consequently, small businesses should focus on teaching employees how to properly address the spam that enters their inbox. Determining whether an e-mail is unwanted correspondence from a legitimate business or just spam is the first step in accomplishing this.

In this video, Jon Harmer details tips for handling spam.

With the more and more business conducted through smart phones, many business owners are concerned about the security of their employees’ smart phones. Oftentimes, the information stored on the smart phone is more valuable than the device. But fear not, many corporate e-mail solutions can retrieve data and delete any confidential data from a lost device.

In this video, Melanie Kreh explains how a corporate e-mail solution can offer reliable smart phone security in today’s mobile business world.

While we all complain about spam, many businesses fail to employ simple measures that can reduce the amount of spam we receive. Managing spam employees receive each day can kill productivity. By following a few simple steps, you can reduce the amount of spam you and your employees receive.

In this video, Jon Harmer offers some basic tenets to reduce the amount of spam that floods your inbox.

All business owners have been faced with the employee who admits they allowed their PC security subscription to lapse. This common occurrence can be detrimental to a small business. To adequately secure employee PCs, small businesses should invest in hosted security solutions that automatically update PC protection from viruses, spyware and Internet-borne attacks.

In this video, Tom Collins highlights the importance of a comprehensive security strategy and details the benefits a hosted solution can provide small businesses.

Small businesses seeking to remain competitive need to provide their employees with around-the-clock connectivity. Broadband access cards – which plug directly into a PC – enable employees to check email, access files and load documents anywhere they have mobile service. This service provides a huge advantage to businesses with a mobile workforce and allows them to deliver more value to their customers.

In this video, Rich Klepacz highlights the importance of broadband access cards and the multiple benefits they provide small businesses.

Cbeyond’s SMB storage expert discusses the importance of data backup and online data storage solutions for small businesses, and the industry-leading reliability Cbeyond’s Secure Backup solution provides. In partnership with industry leader Mozy, a subsidiary of EMC Corporation, Cbeyond, a small business communication and IT services provider to more than 52,000 small businesses across the country, provides cloud-based online data storage and data backup services for both  PCs and servers. With Cbeyond’s new Secure Backup service, small businesses can now get data backup and protection services using some of the most advanced technology available in the world.