SME’s expected to take to VoIP in 2007

VOIP can change the way a company does business – especially a small business. For most SME’s, VOIP will be a priority for the upcoming year. It only lags behind laptop and handheld computers when it comes to monies that will be invested by small businesses.

VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the technology that lies at the heart of convergence. In the past, there has been a divergence between voice and data. VOIP allows voice to be carried over data networks.

Small businesses are helped by VOIP in two vital ways. The first area is internet telephony, where phone calls are delivered over the internet. The second is IP telephony, which is the replacement of the legacy PBX within a corporation.

Up to now, internet telephony has attracted the techie community – in the consumer market as well as the business market. With the development of IP PBX technology for SME’s, more markets are being opened up to VOIP.

The major undertaking of IP telephony can be broken down into three phases. The first phase is IP trunking – connecting SME sites together and effectively eliminating inter-site calls. The second phase is to link remote or home workers into the office network using VPN over broadband connections. The third phase is to spread IP telephony throughout the organization with IP phones on the employee’s desktop.