VoIP, Finally An Affordable Option

Why are so many companies now looking at VoIP?
The technology that was once only for large corporations with fat funding is now accessible for home office and small businesses.

After ten years of development, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), the ability to transmit voice calls over the Internet and IP-based data networks, is finally a grown-up technology. The promise of lower costs and greater functionality and flexibility than conventional fixed lines positions VoIP as potentially the future of voice telephony. The challenges of reliability and quality have been largely conquered, and a majority of executives now predict that they will implement VoIP in their business. At the most basic level, moving to VoIP means companies can carry calls within their own enterprise on their own networks, bypassing traditional telecom providers and avoiding toll charges.
Within the telecom industry, question is no longer if, but when Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) will become the new standard for voice traffic. Although they still harbor a few reservations, enterprises appear convinced as well. In a survey of 254 senior executives worldwide on the future of corporate networking conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, 43% of respondents report that they are currently using, testing or planning to implement VoIP within the next two years, and another 18% believe they will implement it in the long term.

Since VoIP represents a converged Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructure for both voice and data, consolidation also means potentially big savings in network costs. But VoIP investments ultimately should not be judged on cost savings alone. Bringing voice and video applications together onto a PC desktop unleashes an array of new capabilities that can radically improve communication amongst employees.

Reduced costs are nice, but efficiency gains can be even more compelling. VoIP offers plenty of them, at least in theory. Though specific productivity gains from new applications and features are not yet quantifiable in VoIP business cases, managers are certainly thinking about them. In presenting VoIP plans, CIOs are focusing in on the business changes that are made possible by VoIP, some very obvious ones like advanced telephone features, and some others that are not so obvious, like the integration of applications in call centers. Since VoIP features can be controlled from the desktop, a user can, with the click of a button, quickly initiate services such as immediate voice conferencing, something that before had to be reserved in advance. Another service is “follow-me,” which allows a user to identify which of their telephones will ring when someone calls their office, regardless where they are or what telephone the are holding. Unified messaging – the integration of voice-mail and e-mail – is also enabled by VoIP. Users can hear e-mail messages read over the phone through speech synthesis or receive voice-mail messages as e-mail attachments.

The practical uses and now the reduced cost of implementation has made VoIP a very desirable feature to add to business packages. There are a number of options that may or may not be right for your business. That's where Velocity I.Q. comes in. We can help you weed through the choices and select a program that works for your business model. Once sure of the path, we will implement the technology and train your staff to boost productivity and speed up the return on your investment.

Installation is quoted on a case by case basis. Call today for a free on-site evaluation and quote.