As convergence continues to drive communications onto the IP stack, voice over IP (VOIP) is increasingly being considered for use not only by enterprise customers but also small to medium businesses.
Most organisations are attracted to the promise of cost savings and consolidation of infrastructure. While it is true that VOIP offers potential value to adopters, that value must be clearly understood, and might not be found in the most predictable of places.
When it comes to maximising the value derived from VOIP, it is important to note the role of the vendor. Through strong partnerships, certifications and holistic network offerings, vendors are able to unlock value for customers outside of the actual technology implementation. But before analysing vendors, it is first important to debunk some of the myths being spread in the market in terms of the value offered by VOIP.
Secondary cost savings
The first perceived area of value for VOIP is in potential cost savings. However, this is something that is seldom realised, especially by small and medium companies, and can only be considered as a secondary advantage of using VOIP.
In order to truly experience cost savings from VOIP, economies of scale must be in place. Least-cost routing is a technical exercise and relies on a competent vendor that is able to provide the required interconnect agreements in the backhaul to enable network-intersections at a reasonable price. Even with progressive routing strategies in place, cost savings should not be a primary reason for adopting VOIP.
It must be said, however, that for large enterprises and corporations operating call centres, for example, the economies of scale may be in place to enable significant cost savings from VOIP. But since many companies will not have large enough call volumes to truly experience cost savings from VOIP, let us examine other areas where VOIP is able to deliver value.
One of the key value areas for VOIP is in enabling ease of new user provisioning within the organisation. Whereas before businesses were reliant on a third party to install the required telephone lines and handsets for new employees or in new offices, with an effective VOIP environment in place it is able to rapidly provision new users on the system and provide them with handsets that connect to the IP stack, either via Ethernet ports or wireless networking. This can also usually be done by in-house personnel or the users themselves and does not require a third party.
The open advantage
In order to truly experience cost savings from VOIP, economies of scale must be in place.
Clayton Hayward is CTO of openVOICE.
The ease of user provisioning allows organisations to gain a level of agility from the use of VOIP. If users have to move desks or the business moves premises, it is possible to have telephony up and running again as soon as handset devices are able to connect to the network.
With converged and unified communications, VOIP also drives down complexity in infrastructure providing business with an easier environment to manage and control.
VOIP as part of a unified communications stack has a huge role to play in terms of value. Here it is possible, through the use of VOIP, to integrate voice with other communications frameworks, such as delivering voicemail to desktop computers.
Extra functionality is also more easily added to the voice communication stack with VOIP than what it is with conventional telephony. For example, the ability to add voice recording or make changes to routing plans are easily achieved with effective VOIP systems.
An added layer of value is offered through the use of open source VOIP solutions specifically. Given the nature of projects such as Asterisk, that provides a powerful and flexible open source PBX system, it is possible to customise and implement additional modules for specific needs, without incurring huge additional costs. Additional licensing costs can also be reduced through the use of open source technologies.
These areas of value are available to small and medium businesses and enterprise customers alike, with agility, scalability, complexity and management being significant areas of concern for both.
By placing VOIP in context and understanding the real benefits offered by the technology, it is possible to manage expectations realistically for management and prepare business for deriving real value from the implementation of VOIP infrastructure. It is also important to take the claims of vendors promising cost savings, and little else, with a pinch of salt.
* Clayton Hayward is CTO of openVOICE.
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