Is VoIP Viable For Business?
Is VoIP Viable For Business?
June 20th, 2006:VoIP (Voice over IP) looks and feels intuitively like the way to go for businesses wishing to integrate their data and telecommunications systems. It would appear to lower cost and increase flexibility. So, why does it still appear not to make sense? IDM spoke to AAPT’s CIO, Bob Hennessy to get some answers.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is indeed a viable business proposition, but we need to get past the idea that this is some kind of new product from the perspective of those who use it. VoIP is voice calling. Engineered properly you can re-use your data infrastructure to carry voice traffic. Some sophisticated services required by larger business are still not mature and fully integrated into VoIP offerings. Skills based call routing and queuing for example for a large (over 30 seat) call centre group is still something I would choose to do with traditional applications.
PABX vendors are delivering IP PBX options now which work well as a replacement for that traditional form of telephony. Whilst we in AAPT are prepared to sell and service these solutions, we think that for many businesses a Hosted Voice offering (hosted VoIP) can be a great option.
PABX vendors are delivering IP PBX options now which work well as a replacement for that traditional form of telephony. Whilst we in AAPT are prepared to sell and service these solutions, we think that for many businesses a Hosted Voice offering (hosted VoIP) can be a great option.At the level of sophistication required by these companies, there is nothing revolutionary about the nature of the service being offered. PABX and hosted voice options have long been available in a non IP world. What is different is that more companies are attracted to the pricing options being offered – particularly "pay by the seat" pricing models.
So What’s All The Fuss About?
At a technology level, we are delivering a familiar product in a very different way. New investment in telephony products will virtually all be around IP centric voice services. New products developed to be integrated with telephony services will be designed to work with IP based voice. So, if it’s time for your business to re-invest in voice technology, it’s time to make the move to IP based voice services. Increasingly it is also time to have a proper look at the capabilities that can be delivered with IP based voice services. Until you know, for example, that the basic service easily enables staff to work from home using their office number and the full capability of the office voice system, how can you think about the possibilities that IP presents for your business?
Some think it’s the availability of internet based calling that’s responsible for the massive pricing improvements now available to customers in Australia. There is no doubt that this is something of a catalyst, but it isn’t the reason. For service providers, the cost of providing IP based voice is higher than the cost of providing traditional services. It is capped calling plans and a fight for the business market by Telstra and Optus that has driven prices down at the pace they have moved.
The fact that voice is moving to work on IP based infrastructures will make the integration of voice and other applications easier to do. More "do it yourselfers" will be able to do meaningful things in the same way that Microsoft made many computing capabilities, previously the domain of specialist technology experts, accessible to hobbyists.
So, more people will play with the technology, more businesses will end up with voice systems as flaky as their LANs, built by part timers – but cheap – and good enough for their businesses. But for those for whom high-availability, high-quality and highly-functional voice systems are a necessity, VoIP remains the option of choice when the time for re-investment is upon you. The technology can be engineered to successfully fulfil high end business requirements.
Look at the capabilities offered by the service providers so that you can make sure you maximise the value your business can get from today’s VoIP related applications. You may be pleasantly surprised at the possibilities!
Bob Hennessy is AAPT’s Chief Information Officer. AAPT use its own HostedVoice service across multiple sites in multiple states servicingaround 1,600 staff. It has 18 enterprises using its Hosted Voice offering, totalling1,200 seats. Since April 2006, AAPT has brought more than thirty newsmall enterprises on to a simplified version of the hosted voice product.
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