An Introduction to Business IP

Here we are in 2007 and VoIP is fast becoming a necessity, and not just for the long distance savings! When first discussing IP Telepony with a prospective client, I usually revert to talking about the Vonages, the "long distance savings technology" as I like to call it. The Vonages of the world, that offer Residential VoIP services, are still doing great and yes, offer great features beyond normal analog residential telephone service. What they have tried to do is take this philosophy and move into the business market. When this happens we have many more things to worry about now: 1. Security 2. Voice Quality 3. Reliability and Uptime. This is where I sit down with the client and explain that VoIP has been dubbed so because the voice travels over IP or your data network, not necessarily the Internet. Voice gets converted into packets, just like your data information, it doesn't travel over the public Internet "mess" unless there is an application for it in your business. With a truly converged network, properly installed equipment and software increases security, reliability and uptime and ensures perfect voice quality. But I will save this for another post. I like to divide VoIP in two classes: 1. VoIP in the Residential world = VoIP / 2. VoIP in the business world = an application specific telephone system, meaning, if all you want is utility-grade dial-tone, you can get that. If your business requires a true integration of your current data netowrk (call centre software, Microsoft Outlook integration, etc.), that can be done as well. You see, the dividing line will not be who has IP and who doesn't. It will eventually be who will use IP Telephony for regular telephone use or who will use it to streamline their business processes.