November 19, 2005
VoIP adoption rate not impressive
The main benefit of VoIP to businesses is the cost savings resulting from using an IP connection to communicate. VoIP can also enhance business communications by enabling video conferencing, audio conferencing, unified messaging, etc. According to the report "2005 Telecommunications Report," which gathered information from over 300 businesses in the US, 91% of the businesses were familiar with VoIP but only 10% had deployed it in some measure. The report was released by Harris Interactive in October 2005.
Given the interest that VoIP has generated, the 10% adoption rate may appear to be low. One reason is the reluctance of the SMBs to embrace the new technology; these have chosen to adopt a wait-and-watch policy. However, this stance could result in a competitive disadvantage for the SMBs that do not adapt. By the year 2008, more than half the number of contact centers will be using VoIP to avail the competitive advantage that it brings.
Industry experts feel that the decision of deploying VoIP should be taken considering the capacity to implement it successfully over a period of time because the IP-based technology comes with its own set of problems such as jitter and delay. The ability of the phones to communicate with the servers, voice quality, configuration of the switch ports, etc are aspects that require careful consideration. Enterprises should consider deploying VoIP-enabling productivity tools that can result in increased employee efficiency.
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