If you manage to do all of these things well, it can be better than a traditional phone system, cost much less and offer previously unimagined productivity increases through features like unified communications (chat, screen and file sharing, presence management and excellent support for remote workers). But, as the old adage about ‘the weakest link’ says, if any one of these elements is not robust, the entire system will usually fail, and who can manage all this without a degree in IT?
Enter the managed service provider. Recently you would almost certainly have heard the chatter about ‘managed services’ or ‘cloud PBX’ and the CFO and accountant’s friend, operational expenditure (op-ex) modelling. The thinking is straight forward: Why buy an already depreciating phone system as a painful up-front capital expenditure only to wear the costs of installation, configuration, support and upgrade, the majority of such services needing to be outsourced in any case?
A good managed service can relieve you of up-front costs, capital equipment depreciation, and the need to get a degree in IT&T to set up the system.
Did you say ‘security risk’?
Your VoIP can only be as good as its network infrastructure, but many service providers have started to offer VoIP services like hosted PBX using the same network infrastructure you already have currently. If you run VoIP on the public internet – as all the small players offering to business do – then you are probably guaranteed absolutely nothing. If you read through their service level agreements, no matter how cleverly written, at the end you are left with a guarantee of little, because no one can guarantee the public internet will always be able to carry VoIP calls. The public internet, which goes from your building, can be accessed by anyone. Once it gets busy, your calls suffer. If it gets busy enough – say at 3.30pm when most of Gen-Y logs on to Facebook – your calls fail. That’s not to mention that the public internet is probably not the place where one wants their sensitive calls being transmitted for all and sundry to intercept.
Built to withstand attack
It’s even more critical that the hardware and software used by the chosen provider is robust. Many open source players are throwing a PC in a data centre and calling it a phone switch, but it is still a computer with all the vulnerabilities this brings with it. If their PBX gets hacked, you could be looking at thousands of dollars, for which you will be responsible to pay. If the fault is that of the provider, they may be forced to pay amounts even they cannot afford, putting your service at risk.
Get the right system
So, while there are huge savings to be made as well as significant productivity gains by the uptake of VoIP, you should now understand large business have been getting perfect VoIP, while smaller organisations have been in the dark as to all the required elements for a successful implementation.
When choosing a service provider, make sure they have network engineers who are asking you questions around making your network infrastructure VoIP ready, instead of telling you that your current infrastructure will be ‘fine’. Chances are if they are not asking these questions, they are not concerned with your calls once they leave the building, and your VoIP experience will be fraught with issues.
As certainty is the dominant factor in business outlooks at the moment, the saving and productivity benefits are becoming compelling, and the low (or non-existent) entry cost of an op-ex model makes looking at the right VoIP/unified communications solution a must when looking to replace or upgrade phone systems.
