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| Hugo Harber |
Hugo Harber, Director of Convergence and Network Strategy at ISP Star says the worldwide recession has resulted in an overall decreased growth rate in the IT sector, but a recent survey revealed VoIP services to be among the top IT technologies indicating an increased expansion of 20.1%.
This is perhaps not surprising, when one considers that VoIP can offer significant cost savings when compared to traditional PBX fixed line systems.
VoIP has long been heralded as poised for mass market penetration, and we are now starting to see that this is the case not just for larger enterprises with 1000 plus staff but also for companies with as few as 20 employees. This rise in demand with SMEs was borne out by a recent survey carried out by Star which revealed that, amongst those businesses with 100 employees or less, 41% have already deployed VoIP technology since it was first introduced in the late 1990s. A further 20% of SME respondents are looking at deploying VoIP within their business over the coming year, showing a 50% increase in the penetration of IP telephony over the next twelve months.
Beyond traditional convergence
So what are the factors driving this upwards trend amongst SMEs? Increasingly, organisations require telephony systems which are not only cost-effective but can help to deliver better customer services and enhance productivity. This is where VoIP can really deliver over traditional PBX systems. Beyond what is perhaps the most compelling reason, cheaper calls, there are a number of factors driving the demand.
As VoIP is based on software rather than hardware, it can be easier to maintain, upgrade and scale up or down. With IP telephony, SMEs can also add functionality and flexibility to their communications to deliver an enhanced level of customer service, such as directly connecting web users with customer support staff and using automated functions such as call forwarding and three-way calling, all of which are rapidly becoming essential tools in our 24/7/365 world. VoIP is also the route to more advanced applications that converge together, much like the usually touted Unified Communications philosophy. What this actually means is that we are seeing facilities like ‘presence’, mobility solutions and rich-media conferencing converging voice, data, application and video technologies and services.
Does reducing costs reduce call quality?
Whilst there are clear business benefits, as with any emerging technology there are a number of factors that businesses should be aware of before making any commitments. The central and over-riding issue with VoIP is ensuring that call quality and reliability are of a sufficient level so that there are no issues such as jitter and latency, which can result in a poor user experience. There are a number of factors that can impact a high quality of service and these can range from IP networks not being ready for real-time communications to organisations employing VoIP technology from more than one vendor.
Real-time applications such as VoIP are more sensitive to network imperfections and high quality VoIP relies upon consistent, stable and low-latency network connections. However, most existing networks are built upon technologies that were not originally designed to provide these. As with any complex environment, VoIP requires telephony experts as well as network specialists which, for an SME, could mean further investment in training or recruiting personnel with these specialist skills. In fact, respondents in our recent survey with SMEs also revealed that the leading barrier to adopting this technology is a lack of in-house expertise.
Hosted VoIP Services
So, does that mean if you don’t have the inhouse expertise required to manage a VoIP system then this technology is not for you? No. Hosted and managed IP telephony can free organisations from the management distraction of overseeing the network, hardware and software and return a consistent, reliable and guaranteed high level of service. With this option, SMEs use a hosted phone system in a secure location accessed via a VPN which also offers resilience and security and allows them to move away from investment in depreciating PBX hardware which can lead to a costly hardware refresh cycle. Demand for hosted VoIP is certainly gaining ground as SMBs look to embrace the cost and performance benefits of IP telephony, not having to manage it themselves just makes the proposition all the more compelling. In fact, Illumine Consulting now estimates that the hosted VoIP segment of the market is growing 11% quarter on quarter.
We have found that many SMBs are taking the lead when it comes to investing in IT infrastructure and services, as they are more and more partnering with managed service providers. Businesses like Star can help free SMBs from the management distraction of overseeing the network, hardware and software and return a consistent, reliable and guaranteed high level of service delivery.