Don't throw away the PABX

With cheaper, higher quality bandwidth likely to be the order of 2011, more and more South African companies are considering a shift to VOIP-based telephony. The good news is that making the change is not as costly or complicated as you might think.

It's getting cheaper and cheaper to route company communications through the Internet, via VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol). Indeed, 2011 could well be the year when South African companies move decisively towards VOIP solutions, driven by the steadily falling cost of bandwidth.

An immediate concern for decision-makers, however, is the complexity and cost of integrating VOIP with existing systems.

“Regardless of whether you're running a from-home business or a major corporation, the basic questions are the same,” says George Smalberger, MD of specialist telephony company, SS Telecoms. “How much will we save and how much will it cost - in capital and lost productivity - to switch to a VOIP system?”

The VOIP savings on offer are well documented, but, according to Smalberger, integration is a particularly strong point of corporate concern, given the extent of existing investments in infrastructure such as PABX systems.

“There's a common perception that one would have to 'start again' to move to VOIP, and lose the value of existing investments in the process, but this isn't accurate,” he says. “There are a lot of cost-effective gateway solutions out there that allow companies to utilise existing telephony systems via their DSL connection, without having to replace or change what's already in place.”

SS Telecoms has been designing and manufacturing telephony solutions in the South African market for over 21 years, and distributes the global Media 5 range of VOIP products, in addition to other telecommunications products and services.

“Gateways exist to attach to all the standard PBX interfaces, whether analogue or BRI/PRI,” says Smalberger. “Providing you're dealing with the right service provider and technology, integration with your existing architecture should be straightforward.”

Smalberger also highlights the importance of scalability in any VOIP installation.

“Your service provider should understand your operational context and help you put a system in place that can scale according to your long-term requirements,” he says. “Even if you're a small company, your technology should allow you to grow the scope of your system as your company grows and its staff dynamics change.”

And what happens when an undersea cable breaks and Internet connectivity is lost? In other words, could a VOIP crash deal a fatal blow to operations?

“Any good solution will include a fail-over to conventional PTT circuits when there's a loss of connectivity,” explains Smalberger. “In this case the system can fall back to a conventional analogue connection until connectivity issues are resolved.”

The bottom line is making sure your organisation is operating according to an evolutionary mindset when it comes to its telecommunications set-up, Smalberger concludes.

“Decision-makers should be adjusting to shifts in the IT sector in an incremental way,” he says. “There's absolutely no need to have to start again to change with the times - but to get the incremental approach right you need to work with the right service provider and the right product. With these in place, evolving your architecture should be straightforward and cost-effective.”