UK businesses slow to adopt VoIP

According to research commissioned by IT services company Dimension Data, UK companies are slower to adopt VoIP communications systems than their counterparts in Europe and America and are therefore missing out on the financial benefits of IP telephony.

The survey included 390 IT managers and 524 end users in 13 different countries. While 60% of the US firms surveyed used VoIP, only 33% of British companies used the technology.

UK companies are also less likely to adopt technologies which integrate data sharing and transfers into the network.

The study found that 50% of the VoIP systems used by American companies were integrated into the same network as the firm’s electronic data, while 28% of the UK companies’ systems were combined.

According to the research, Germany has the same rate of VoIP use as the UK, while Switzerland was the only company to fall behind the UK on VoIP use.

The survey, which was carried out by Datamonitor on behalf of Dimension Data, also identified a low rate of mobile VoIP adoption across all of the countries included in the study.