Making the Business Case for VOIP
By Tim Hebert
Opinion: The industry tends to focus on equipment and reduced costs when selling VOIP, but that is the wrong approach.
Common sense tells us that the value of voice over IP is simple: reduced cost. Unfortunately, common sense is also what tells us that the world is flat, and, in this case, common sense is just as wrong.
First of all, PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) services are depreciating. Long-distance pricing has dropped dramatically in recent years. Initial capital outlays on new infrastructure to support VOIP means that you won't see a return on investment right away.
The cost of deploying VOIP gearâincluding gateways, softswitches and IP phonesâmeans that you have to spend money now to save money later.
As a service provider, Atrion Networking, in Warwick, R.I., offers VOIP as one of its key technology offerings. We've found that 80 percent of our installed customer base will achieve ROI in five years, while the remaining 20 percent do even better, reaching ROI in less than three years.
A recent study by Deloitte & Touche found that while cost remains the single biggest factor driving businesses to VOIP, that soon should change.
Deloitte predicts that better productivity and improved collaborative features soon will trump cost. However, for those benefits to win out, the market must first realize exactly what those benefits are, and, to date, there is a lot of confusion swirling around VOIP.
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