Just because you have Apple Macs powering your business does not mean VOIP (Voice/Video Over Internet Protocol) based business phone systems cannot work for you like any other business. Understanding how a business VOIP telephone system works will better help us understand why being on Apple does not really have much to do with these systems. In actual fact, because of the popularity of the iPhone, many of these phone systems are very adapted to everything that is Apple. This article explains the reasons for all this.

- Managed Systems: Most business use systems on the market are actually what are known as managed systems. This means the vendor is supplying the service direct from their own dedicated servers. We connect to their system via an account and our Internet connection. Some vendors supply specific handsets. These handsets actually can communicate with the VOIP application like a personal computer does with any other application. We can also use laptops, tablets and smartphones to communicate directly with the application when the system uses browser-based software.

- Additional Applications: Although you can probably access the services of your vendor through browser-based applications, many vendors have developed separate software for when we want to use our calling services directly on a personal computer or other communications device. Naturally, an iPhone application will be a part of that package. Whatever smartphone you are using, the vendor will have had to make an application for that operating system. In this sense, and iPhone is no different than any other phone on the market. With several operating systems dominating the market, a vendor of any application, VOIP or not, that wants to allow smartphone use, will have to develop several smartphone applications to accommodate the variety of operating systems on the market. For example, there is Symbian, iOS, Blackberry, and Android. All these applications must also be made for Windows and Apple if they are to run on those personal computers. Windows is another matter now Windows 8 has been released. If there is no application available, which is highly unlikely, browser-based applications are always available.

- In Office Systems: Some companies require extensive and sophisticated calling measures. In this case, we are not talking about general managed systems. The options in these cases become varied and depend on the needs of that specific company. This may even entail modifying or developing software and hardware components. These types of systems are only normally used by the biggest of companies, and in that case, we rarely see those companies running entirely on Apple either.

As you can see, in most cases, what type of operating system your company uses will not be an issue. Even in the rarest of cases, where a very large company is running on Apple’s operating system, an option will be available. Even the biggest international companies do not necessarily only run on a single operating system. There may be all kinds of hurdles to overcome, such as incorporating older and more outdated mainframe and terminal style communications. All are possible with VOIP. It just takes the know-how of getting it done.