Why Invest in Voip Technology?
by Jim Francisto

The answer is, as usual, it depends. Voip is evolutionary, not revolutionary, technology. If you are moving into a facility where you need to completely build out your infrastructure, then installing a voice over ip device makes sense. It can be very competitive with traditional POTS switched networks. Some companies put a Voip blade in an existing POTS switch. They feel that it gives them the best of both worlds, but I suspect that they might be hedging their bets a bit too much and not benefiting fully from either technology.

Advantage Of IP-Telephony

There are some other ways that you can take advantage of Voip technology. In a "green field" installation, you have a number of attractive choices that can give you more network flexibility. One possibility is eliminating the wires entirely. There is nothing preventing you from installing Voip over wireless 802.11x networks.

Unified Messaging

Unified messaging is another example. Unified messaging is one-stop shopping for all your voice mail, email, and fax communications (Email Fax). Unified messaging lets you retrieve all your messages with one phone call or visit to a website. While unified messaging sounds great, the technology has not entirely jelled yet. It can be costly and complicated to implement, and the services have not been perfected, including problems with voice to text translation. Unified messaging is dependent on the Voip technology so as that application matures, there will be more incentive to implement a Voip solution.

Investing in Voice over IP

It is claimed that a Voip system will save 50% over the costs of maintaining the old equipment.

Of course, it isn't clear if or not replacing an old system with a more modern switched network would result in similar savings. IT departments are real pragmatists. They will not invest in a technology unless there are demonstrated cost savings or substantial improvements in the quality of service.

Here's a checklist of things to watch for when considering if to invest in Internet Telephony or not:

If you answer Yes to most of these questions, then you should seriously consider Voip Technology as part of your IT infrastructure mix.

- Does your company have good connectivity to the Internet?
- Are you planning on implementing unified messaging or other integrated data/voice services?
- Is your traditional POTS equipment overdue?
- Does your company have enough bandwidth for all your data and voice needs?
- Does your company have a substantial international presence or communication requirements?
- Does your company have multiple locations?

Jim Francisto
has a master degree in IT and is a technical writer and business consultant
voip phones
voip providers

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