How to select a VoIP solution

Selecting a VoIP solution for an organization encompasses an array of decision making regarding cost and serviceability.

Cost Considerations
Small businesses often don’t have the same options in adopting new technologies as large businesses do. Funds and resources restrict decision making for small businesses. VoIP can offer significant cost reduction and a number of other features that are otherwise unaffordable. Traditional phone services cost a small business around three times more per employee. VoIP service providers recognize this emerging market in SMB and now offer packages tailored to SMBs. The initial investment in VoIP remains the most important challenge.

There are four cost sources:
• IP phone terminals
• Core infrastructure for call handling
• Service
• License fees (ongoing)

IP phones today are the most expensive element of the overall solution. However, many vendors are emerging with cheaper alternatives that fit the bill for small business.

Hybrid PBX & VoIP Gateway: Enables your office to communicate through both telephone and VoIP lines.

The core infrastructure for today’s VoIP is heading towards a bundle offering, where one box contains multiple call-handling elements plus inherited features from a traditional PBX. An IP PBX, such as ours, could provide an optimal solution that is cost effective and efficient.

Making the case for IP PBX Systems

The small-to-medium business communications market is changing considerably because of major ongoing development in core networking technology. Voice communications have been migrating from time-based to packet-based switching. An IP PBX is likely to be the standard design platform of the future for enterprise communications systems. The benefits to customers who select an IP PBX exceed the drawbacks.

Performance Value of an IP PBX:
Converged network
Packet-switched LANs today carry telephone-generated voice communications in addition to computer system data traffic. From the perspective of a data communications network designer, the telephone is viewed as just another client, and voice features and functions are just other applications supported by a LAN-based server. LAN bandwidth capacity continues to increase. This means more point-to-point video communications traffic will be carried between desktops, and there is a decreasing dependence on larger, more expensive, room-based videoconferencing systems.

University of the transport protocol
Internet Protocol (IP) control and transmission is the standard for data communications networks. The concept of a LAN and WAN is a fact of network operation across all industry sectors. The client-server communication model is a dominant mechanism. For a customer searching for an IP PBX system solution, the current data networking infrastructure is favorable.

Hybrid PBX & VoIP Gateway

Network bandwidth
Now that IP has become the transport mechanism to carry both voice and data, using the same communications network for both traffic types reduces overall bandwidth requirements. The two traffic streams could be interleaved, and QoS levels can be engineered and programmed to satisfy real-time voice communications requirements. As customers migrate from circuit-switched to packet-switched communications, there will be cost savings and increased network efficiency from economies of scale. Cost savings are attributed to off-premises communications because PSTN trunk carrier facility requirements are reduced with the introduction of IP.

Webinar: Today’s VoIP networks and how to get started

What: Webinar about the benefits of VoIP for small and mid-size businesses

Date: Thursday, August 9, 2012
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET
Moderator: Mike McCurry, Global Product Manager
Register now!

Voice over IP (VoIP) means using your Local Area Network (LAN) to make phone calls. VoIP technology delivers telephone calls and other voice communications over the Internet by converting analog voice signals to digital signals.Switching from an analog voice system to VoIP saves money, gives your organization more bandwidth, enables mobility, and offers you easy integration with on-line applications.

Along with some VoIP basics, we’ll take a look at the newest voice communications products on the market to help SMBs migrate to VoIP easily and affordably, including SIP phones and hybrid PBX VoIP gateways.

Five reasons to switch to a PBX VoIP gateway for deploying VoIP:

1. It’s much easier to install and configure than a traditional phone system.
2. The Web-based interface makes it much easier to manage.
3. You get significant cost savings using VoIP providers.
4. It’s a scalable system that makes roaming easy and cost-effective.
5. SIP phones are easier to use, whether person-to-person calling, conferencing, or using voice mail.

6 Things to consider before investing in VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is a great cost-saving alternative to traditional telephone service that enables voice data to be transported over IP networks, like the Internet, instead of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a cellular network.

Because VoIP is inexpensive, has a worldwide reach, and operates on a few simple principles, it’s exploded in popularity in recent years—especially among both small and large businesses that incur significant long-distance telephone expenses. However, it’s not all fun and free calls. Below are six things to consider when you’re deciding whether or not to invest in VoIP.

1. Regulation vagaries
Much of the government regulation of VoIP is still being worked out. The U.S. government hasn’t decided whether VoIP is going to be regulated as phone service or whether to tax it. VoIP isn’t available worldwide because some governments fear the loss of tax revenue or control.

2. Compatibility
Although older VoIP equipment may still have some compatibility issues, current VoIP products from different vendors generally work together.

3. Cost
For all the popular talk about VoIP being free, it isn’t truly free. Any VoIP system has costs associated with its implementation—equipment, high-speed Internet access, and gateway service. So, although it’s inexpensive, it’s a long way from being free. For organizations with a high volume of long-distance calls, especially to international locations, VoIP almost always pays for itself quickly. However, private users or organizations with a low volume of long-distance calls primarily within the U.S., may find that a standard service is actually more economical in the short- to mid-term.

We explain…What is SIP?

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is used for controlling multimedia communication sessions over an IP network. Common applications include voice over IP (VoIP), videoconferencing, streaming multimedia, on-line gaming, and instant messaging. SIP is the protocol of choice for VoIP, and is used to create, modify, and terminate VoIP sessions, including functions such as call transfer, conference calls, and call hold.

This very high-level protocol operates primarily in the Application Layer (Layer 7) of the OSI model. Because SIP runs independently of the Transport Layer (Layer 4), it works with most transport protocols, including TCP and UDP.

Much like HTTP, SIP is a text-based protocol. SIP messages contain only as much information as is needed for each session, so it’s very efficient and can expand and contract to meet each application’s specific requirements. This extensibility makes SIP incredibly versatile, enabling it to cover functions ranging from simple VoIP calls to complex multi-user videoconferencing.