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?
By: Jim Francisto
Posts Tagged ‘Voip System’
Why Invest in Voip Technology?
December 21st, 2009What You Should Know About VOIP Technology
November 10th, 2009
You have heard it all-everyone is talking about the VOIP technology and how it is outpacing the telephones companies and even the cellular companies. So what is all the talk about?
VOIP allows you to make your entire local, long distance and international telephone calls over your high-speed internet connection. All of this for just one low price that can be rolled up into your monthly internet cable invoice. The technology is changing rapidly and there are a lot of new features available to people savvy enough to get in on the ground floor for this new technology.
So, what should you do? How different will your VOIP technology be over your regular telephone company? If you listen to the advertisements, you will realize that they are a lot alike, but there are also some benefits that VOIP technology now offers.
For your VOIP telephone phone, you can have voice mail, 3-way calling, speed dialing, call forwarding, simultaneous ring, call waiting, caller ID, call return, caller ID block, anonymous call rejection, do not disturb feature, and last number redial. If changing to the VOIP system you can take your existing telephone number, get great international rates, make it possible for people overseas to call you with it being a local call for them (gone are the long distance rates), you get free in-calling network and can manage your account online.
Well, this sounds a lot like the other phone companies, so what really makes the VOIP technology better? It is debatable as to whether or not this is better. It is definitely different, however; recently, there was a press release on News.com that “A technical review conducted by the British government has found several security flaws in products that use VOIP and text messaging, including those from Microsoft and Cisco Systems.” So, there can be a problem with the VOIP technology.
There is also concern that the VOIP does not full support their own encryptions yet. This means that it is easy to eavesdrop on VOIP telephones and to even change what is being said. Experts are working on security options, but have not yet found one that is completely reliable to take care of this problem.
If you look at it only one way, you would say, this is a major problem and I can not deal with that. However, consider the cyper terrorists. They can and will disrupt any communications system-all it takes is the time and patience to find a single flaw and everything can come crashing down.
The choice is yours to decided whether or not the VOIP technology is advanced enough for you to use this as your primary means of communicating on the telephone. Take your time and really think about whether or not this new VOIP technology will do everything you need it to do. If not, you might want to wait a few years until the technology has advanced more before changing over to the new VOIP technology. You know that technology will only change and be improved for the better.
By: J. Lloyd
