VOIP. What is it all about?

Feature from: The independent- APRIL 2009

During such economic times, business owners are looking at implementing technologies that can make real and immediate savings to existing cost structures.

Understandably the most popular of these right now is VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). VOIP is basically the utilisation of the internet for your telephony needs. This means when you pick up the phone to call someone, it goes through the internet rather than the existing copper.

This can be done without the replacement of your current phone systems and also by continuing to utilise the same phone numbers you currently use. The financial benefit is usually around 20-30% off your current telco costs per month. Added to this is the fact the local calling can often be free which for some businesses would make more than 30% savings alone. Add to this the availability and price of value add services such as call waiting and it quickly becomes a very attractive and viable business case.

What are the risks?

• Quality of service is a huge issue. Business owners expect that when they or their staff pick up the phone, they will get a dial tone, however many still accept, although begrudgingly and especially if you are using ADSL that there are occasionally outages with internet services and the dreaded restart of routers. Every restart of a router will essentially mean that your phones would be down. Utilisation of failover copper circuits can mitigate this risk but will reduce your savings. Obviously, for those using fibre based connectivity this is less of an issue, but of equal importance is good routing equipment and a supplier who takes responsibility for them.
• Soon to be released higher grade copper internet services could make a difference but until tried and tested, this is still a pipedream.
• Eftpos and fax can be tricky to make work well, and there are a few suppliers in the market now with technologies to mitigate this. Power supply in general also becomes a consideration which is largely not the case with many smaller business telecommunication setups currently.
• Your businesses reliance on emergency calling also needs to be considered carefully in view of the inherent risks outlined. Industries such as healthcare need to complete their due diligence in detail before undertaking such a project.

On a more positive note, as with technology in general, no problem is unconquerable and really is more to do with the size of your cheque book. With VOIP, it is more a case of how much in overall savings you are prepared to sacrifice against the overall quality and performance of the service supplied.

What should you look for in a supplier?

Ideally a supplier should have a significant support network – not one that is making you relaint or two people for your telephony. That goes for your technology supply as a whole -  though this seems to be the scourge of the New Zealand SME technology support market and, as is often shown, reliance on a one or two man band will inevitably end in tears. I would suggest not risking handing over management and supply of your telecommunications needs to any supplier that is not nationally recognised and supported.

But couldn’t I just use Skype?

You could, in exactly the same way you could use gmail or hotmail for your commercial email supply. However as many of these ‘cloud’ suppliers have their servers based in the United States and are free, they ‘own’ all your data and phone calls and this means they are also open to be viewed and scrutinised under the United States Patriot Act. There is also a lack of security around many of these services.

I believe having your data and phone calls owned offshore is a risk too great to take. I feel time will show that it will only take one or two small leaks of confidential information to sink a couple of companies before it is viewed as far from an ideal solution. Do not kid yourself that this will not occur in New Zealand.

Technically Skype is VOIP, however keep in mind, there are no free lunches in technology. As with any free services you will either get peppered with advertising, not have ownership of your information; get an inferior service or a combination of the three.

In general look for a supplier that is national, well supported, professional and can offer varying packages to maximise your saving whilst keeping your risks at a manageable and acceptable level.

Patrick Kershaw is a Business Partner for Horizon Pacific, a nationwide technology support provider specialising in assisting SME’s with all their technology requirements. For further information, go to www.horizonpacific.com