“Part of this misconception is coming from free internet telephony systems such as Skype. As a consumer offering, and one provided by Ebay, Skype manages to grab the majority of the headlines; yet it is not a professional or corporate VoIP system, and the business community must take care to make the distinction. Indeed, there is a wealth of difference between a unified communications system and free internet telephony and, by ignoring this difference companies are in danger of putting their professional image on the line.
This misunderstanding and misuse of corporate VoIP is rife, for instance, organisations are getting ready for VoIP internally by deploying virtual telephone exchanges and upgrading network infrastructure. The problem is, despite this ostensible foresight, there are currently no significant benefits. The only thing businesses have to show for their investment are fancier handsets and voicemails being delivered into email inboxes.
Also, what is often not considered, when moving to VoIP internally, is that the management of the telephone systems is swiftly moved into the remit of the often overstretched IT department. The result being that security for both voice and data systems can become compromised.
Despite all this, there are real benefits behind VoIP, and these are only starting to emerge now; what is needed to make a multi-branch deployment of corporate VoIP a success is for organisations to already have existing WAN infrastructure in place. If this is the case then VoIP becomes another secure application that flows across the network, taking advantage of any available bandwidth on existing WAN links, and it is ultimately here where VoIP can offer organisations significant ROI.”