After crunching the numbers and analyzing the benefits and risks, more
and more companies are deploying Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Now
the difficult issues must be faced. Is VoIP
the right solution? Is it reliable?
There are numerous and important strategic questions facing system migration.
Before business owners can answer yes
decisively to the question, due diligence is
required to analyze, test and evaluate what
will work best within the company’s existing telecommunications infrastructure,
according to John Curry, founder and president of Curry IP Solutions.
Smart Business spoke with Curry about
VoIP deployment concerns and how businesses can minimize problems in transitioning from an analog to a VoIP telephone
system.
What are some of the problems with converting to VoIP?
For businesses, the prospect of merging
VoIP onto a network established for traditional analog communications can be challenging. Good quality conversations
require low latency and jitter, low packet
loss and sufficient bandwidth.
Allowing a deviation from those requirements can result in the quality of voice
service not being acceptable to customers
and other end-users.
Ensuring that the system is VoIP-ready is
a sizable undertaking. Professional advice
and guidance is highly recommended.
It is important to understand all of the
implications and proactively confront the
issues that are likely to emerge.
How can problems be overcome?
VoIP networks have been designed and
built with data applications in mind. As
companies evolve into increasingly mission-critical usage of data, the importance
of VoIP as the foundation of the telecommunications infrastructure becomes clear.
But business owners also need to know
that it is possible to keep a traditional analog phone service and incorporate digital,
or VoIP, over it.
It does not have to be an all-or-nothing
proposition. The current analog phone system can be used with analog adapters. We
have found that few businesses are comfortable with moving to VoIP with no questions asked. Some have already experienced issues with a voice service provider
who did not provide a quality service. In
addition, other individuals have come out
of a negative residential use experience. It
is understandable that there would then be
resistance to starting an enterprise VoIP
service for business.
Businesses can have the best of both
worlds.
What types of connections are most efficient?
A very important consideration is the
existing broadband connection. If the
‘pipe’ coming into the business is reliable
and sized right, the transition to VoIP will
be easier. If the business is currently experiencing Internet problems with its
provider, I would not recommend deploying VoIP until those issues are successfully
resolved.
T1 connections, for example, were
expensive at one time. They have now
come down in price, making them attractive for VoIP service. A T1 connection provides a guaranteed service level and it will
remain up and running with consistently
high bandwidth 99.99 percent of the time.
We also seek out the fiberoptic user, or
businesses with fiberoptic service (FiOS)
access. They are ideal candicates for VoIP.
FiOS is being rapidly deployed, while existing copper for telecommunications and
data usage are being left behind to degrade
over time.
FiOS is competitively priced and can be
cheaper than a T1. This type of connectivity is becoming more common and it is now
widely available.
Some businesses also have an imbedded
Ethernet service provider available to them
in which you purchase bandwidth in
megabytes. Ethernet specifically relates to
connectivity and speed. If the Ethernet is
currently in the building where the business is located, VoIP would be a cost-effective solution. If no one else in the building
has fiberoptic, then it’s probably not.
Why, in the end, choose VoIP?
VoIP systems with digital voice communications provide inherent benefits to businesses. Voice messages can be stored,
retrieved, forwarded and organized in the
most efficient manner possible for optimum business efficiency. In addition,
inbound calls to the VoIP system can ‘follow’ you anywhere and can be forwarded
to any phone at any location. Remote
offices can be set up as extensions from
the main campus, making disaster recovery quick.
There are many telecommunication
providers to choose from. Yours should
work hard to stand out with an intensely
dedicated approach to customer service
and determining what will work best for
the customer. It should analyze what the
issues are and proactively resolve them.
JOHN CURRY is founder and president of Curry IP Solutions.
He has been providing telecommunications expertise to businesses and individuals for more than 30 years. Reach him at
(412) 307-3600, ext. 9007 or [email protected].