WBJ Talking Tech:
VoIP: Now Ready for Your Business
August, 2006
By
As is often the case, given enough time, new technology often matures into a very useful product. This is certainly true of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Also known as IP telephony, VoIP refers to the technology that allows voice calls to be routed over the public internet, instead of the traditional phone company copper lines that we all grew up with and most of us still use today.
Now that it nearly matches traditional copper for reliability and call quality, vendors of VoIP products are touting its many cost saving benefits and wide ranging features. For instance, with VoIP, callers can reach you wherever you are by dialing a single number. If you have multiple offices, VoIP provides a single virtual phone system to enable transfers or calls between offices with simple extension dialing.
Cost Savings
Aside from the features, however, the biggest benefit for most users of VoIP is the cost savings. The amount saved varies widely depending on your phone usage patterns, but VoIP essentially eliminates the distinction between local and long distance calls, allowing for significant savings for heavy long distance users and those with geographically dispersed offices. Additionally, services that you may have paid extra to a phone company for are typically included with most VoIP packages.
One word of caution: although many businesses find a relatively quick payback period, depending on the implementation, the initial investment for VoIP can be expensive. While most vendors offer hosted services, eliminating the need for a costly central Pbx (the electronic telephone switching system that most businesses physically have in some small closet in their office), for full features, IP-enabled handsets are necessary, often at a price of $300 per phone and up. In addition, most businesses will need to at least upgrade their network switches to allow both data and voice traffic to be routed over their existing network cabling.
Features
Once implemented, the features provided by VoIP are vast. One feature that seems to be particularly popular is “find me / follow me”. You setup this feature in your phone or system, letting it know how you can be reached, for instance, at the office first, followed by home, then your mobile phone, etc. Or, in some cases, you can simply take your handset with you and plug it in wherever you have access to a broadband internet connection. You could be traveling in some faraway locale but people still need only call a local number to reach you and co-workers can still reach you with simple extension dialing.
Another popular feature is “unified messaging”. This allows all of your voice messages and faxes to be stored centrally and forwarded to one place, most likely your email. Voice messages are then just simple audio attachments to the email that can be listened to and saved like any other data file.
Perhaps one of the most useful components of VoIP features is that most are available via a friendly web-browser interface. Surveys show that most users don’t take advantage of many of the advanced features of their phones, simply because they are too complex to use. VoIP helps eliminate some of those barriers.
OptionsFor smaller businesses, a hosted solution can make a great deal of sense. Hosted solutions eliminate the cost and hassle of having a Pbx in your office, while still giving you most of the feature benefits of VoIP. There are a couple of trade-offs with a hosted solution. Over time, the amount spent on recurring service may be more than had you initially invested in a regular Pbx for your office. In addition, because you will be using the service as offered by the hosting provider, you may be locked into a narrower choice of handsets and features.
For those that are ready to take the full plunge, an IP-based Pbx may be your best option. This fully replaces the phone system you currently have and gives you the most flexibility to select the system that is right for your business. In years past, IP phone systems were designed with larger businesses in mind. Since that time, the range of systems has grown at an exponential level, with simpler systems now available even for very small offices.
Other Considerations
As good as it is, VoIP still may not make sense for your business. IP phones are still only as reliable as your internet connection. Thus, if you’re not on fiber or some other highly reliable connection, traditional copper lines will still provide you with better quality. Also, VoIP systems and handsets are dependent on power. Unlike analog phones, without redundant power, when the power goes out so do your phones. Finally, where existing infrastructure already exists, the payback period may be too long to merit the initial equipment investment and required network upgrades.
Although VoIP is now a proven technology, the range of options and requirements for use still make it a complex product. While it is nice to know that there are now viable alternatives to the “phone company”, I recommend you talk with a consultant or service provider to better understand your options. We are fortunate to have a reliable fiber network and a number of very qualified local service providers in our area who can help you decide if VoIP makes sense for your business.