It is a commonly discussed question, but is there a universal answer? It appears not. With a huge range of free VoIP services available, many wonder why any business would knowingly pay for something that they can get for free.
“You get what you pay for,” he says. “With high-end solutions you get a much better support package and the knowledge that your CEO can walk into a meeting room and have a 30-minute discussion with anyone, anywhere. That’s better than relying on a service you have not paid for.”
The above quotes have been attributed to Andreas Wienold, VP of EMEA at Lifesize (which is a division of Logitech). He makes it quite clear that he wouldn’t touch a free VoIP service for business purposes with a 50ft barge pole. The biggest reason for this is the perceived higher up time of the premium services, although no service has an up time of 100%. He also states the superior clarity as another major factor.
This isn’t a view that is shared by everyone though. Steve Blood – VP of research at Gartner – understands and accepts what a free service has to offer.
“Skype and other free services can sometimes go wrong, but it’s good enough for most of the time,” he says. “And it’s a significant saving over using other ways of communicating. It’s difficult to complain about free.”
As with the majority of business scenarios, the best solution is situation dependent. Free VoIP certainly do have their merits, but is it right for your company? only you can answer that
The full article and more quotes can be found at computerweekly
A recent article on Telappliant examined the installation and maintenance costs of running a VoIP system.
The cost benefits of VoIP are fairly well known among British businesses, but there is a common misconception regarding how easy it is to install and maintain.
The capital outlay to install such a system is minimal, and even particularly old phone systems can be converted to VoIP with relative ease.
VoIP maintenance is also easy and cheap. As long as your software and internet connection are functional, you will have a working VoIP phone system.
Another point that was made is that there is a wealth of VoIP hardware available should you desire it, but very little of it is actually required for functionality. Meaning your system can be as complex and expensive (or not) as desired.
For more information, the original article can be found here
With over a billion users worldwide, Facebook could stand a strong chance of establishing VoIP calling in the mainstream consumer market. But the enterprise is a different matter entirely
The Facebook Messenger app has recently been updated to grant UK users access to free VoIP calls.
The update – previously only available in the US and Canada – has been rolled out to UK users over the past 2 weeks.
The service operates over both WiFi and mobile data connections and has been tipped by some to rival Skype and other VoIP providers.
While industry experts recognize the emergence of Facebook into the VoIP market, they doubt their capabilities of successfully providing VoIP for business.
Russel Lux – commercial director at teliqo – believes that the needs of business users would be too complex for the social giant to handle:
they need a single service that integrates mobile devices and desk-based phones with a single number, and that enables their employees to present a consistent and professional corporate image. A social network simply doesn’t fit the bill.
Whether this is the case remains to be seen. One thing’s for sure though, traditional and mobile telecoms providers are going to have to up their game to ensure users continue to spend their hard earned cash on voice calls.
With just 4 days to go until the Scheduled MSN Messenger merge, VP of Marketing at Skype – Elisa Steele – has revealed some truly astronomical figures.
Two billion minutes a day is a lot, but we’re on track to see this adoption grow even more in the future
That’s right. Daily Skype usage has reached and even exceeded 2 billion collective minutes per day. To put that into perspective, 2 billion minutes is:
-120,000,000,000 seconds
-33,333,333.333 hours
-13,88,888.88 days
-198,412.69 weeks
-45630 months
-3805 years
-380.5 decades
-38 centuries
-3.8 millenniums
That enough? If not, Skype provided a further level of clarification.
That’s enough time to travel to the moon and back over 225 thousand times, walk around Earth more than 845 times or travel to Mars more than 5,400 times. 2 billion minutes is more than 33 million hours of people singing, laughing, joking and staying in touch. That means 1,388,000 days of togetherness which make up more than 3,805 years of sharing or nearly 38 centuries of time spent on Skype in one day.
The above figures comprise usage of all Skype services including, VoIP calls, video calls, group chats and instant messages.
These figures show that worldwide VoIP adoption is growing – in both business and individual usage – and with these figures predicted to grow further, the future is looking bright the VoIP industry.
Follow this link for the original article
Rather than throwing around threats and lawsuits, governments should look to see how best they can use the new world order to increase their economy’s innovation and output.
News emanated last week that Skype is being investigated by french telecommunications regulator – ARCEP – for failure to register as a telecommunications operator, as per French law.
Registered operators are legally obligated to provide emergency calling services and allow legal interception of communications.
It’s not the PC-to-PC VoIP service that is under scrutiny, but the Skype Out service. This service allows users to communicate with numbers on the public switch network from their PC or smartphone.
Andreas Bernstrom – speaking for Techweekeurope – suggests that if regulators were to push too hard, it could cause Skpye to cease operations within France. He goes on to state that were this to happen, it would be a major blow for french business, economy and their reputation as a whole.
A recent report from Ovum states that the VoIP industry is set to cost telecommunications operators just short of $500,000,000,000 in lost revenues over the next 7 years leading up to 2020.
The Microsoft Lync 2013 mobile App is now available in the Windows 8 Phone Store. Microsoft Lync 2013 is an enterprise ready Unified Communications Platform.
Lync works cross operating system and cross device; on top of this, real time availability updates (including preferred method of communication) ensure that inter-business communications are made much simpler.
For true functionality, the mobile app requires you to have a lync account as well as relatively up to date lync server.
Businesses with more limited resource can also make use of this system through independently offered Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) which makes use of Microsoft Lync technology.
Communications methods include: Instant Messaging, SMS, VoIP, Video, and Voice.
A more in depth look and the new Lync 2013 App is available at WMPoweruser.
For more information on Microsoft Lync 2013 as a whole the the Microsoft site is your best bet.
Telefonica – parent company of well-known mobile operator O2 – launched their mobile VoIP app TU Go last week. This is just the latest in a gradual shift away from traditional telecommunications methods; could this be the moment the balance of power truly swings in the favor of VoIP?
The networks are losing revenue from declining voice traffic – Chris Green, Tech Analyst
There are a number of reasons that consumers are increasingly inclined to use VoIP over traditional phone networks; the free calls, the cheap international calls and the flexibility are just the tip of the iceberg. Currently the service is not available to commercial clients, however this is expected to change imminently and when it does it is likely to be widely implemented as a cost cutting measure.
It merges the best of internet telephony and old fashioned calls and and is a lesson for O2’s peers in the industry – Jeremy Green, Telecoms Analyst
Telecoms analyst Jeremy Green believes that TU Go will stand out from the crowded VoIP market while other believe that it could even rival VoIP powerhouse Skype.
The fact that competitors EE (formerly Orange and T-Mobile) are set to launch a rival service later in the year shows that mobile providers see VoIP as a true threat to the mobile talk market and while it may not have displaced the more traditional technology yet, it certainly has everyone’s attention.
Whether you’re a new business or an expanding one, the task of sorting out communications can be a daunting one. The sheer volume of options available nowadays is enough to give you a headache.
If you’re considering using a VoIP system then the following blog post at Resource Nation is a must read as it will clear up any lingering questions you may have about installing or using a VoIP system in the workplace. If you aren’t considering using a VoIP system then the post is still a must read as it will explain why you should be!
Q. All the options for VoIP, business cell phones, and hosted VoIP “soft phone” systems can seem overwhelming for the new business that is building a phone system from scratch. How should a new business begin when evaluating options for its phone system?
A. A new business looking for a phone system should make sure to first figure out what exactly they need in their office phone system. Once the business has established the criteria of what type of features they need, they can use one of the many business phone system websites such as Resource Nation or Voip-Info.org in order to find a business VoIP phone system customized to their needs.
It makes for an interesting read – the complete article is available here: http://www.resourcenation.com/blog/expert-advice-on-setting-up-a-voip-phone-service-for-your-business/36143/
“New research commissioned by Green Flag Breakdown reveals Brits have missed 51.4 million working hours in the last week as a result of the poor weather conditions. Over 8.5 million (18 per cent) British adults have been unable to work their contracted hours because of the adverse weather, costing employers an estimated £318 million.”
As all signs of the inclement weather that struck the UK in January fade, businesses have been hit with the fallout after it was revealed that UK businesses lost approximately £318m due to the snow and ice.
Green Flag recently announced that Brits lost a whopping 51.4 Million working hours as a direct result of the bad weather.
This got the staff at Telappliant wondering whether VoIP was the answer.
Firms that invest in up-to-date VoIP systems should stand to lose little to no working hours as the service would would allow employee’s to work from home. while still being connected via cheap VoIP calls.
With the UK weather becoming more and more unpredictable, who’s to say that Britain won’t be hit with another dose of the white stuff in the near future?
Is it time for your business to invest in VoIP?
The VoIP industry has been awash with rumours of Social Networking giant Facebook integrating a VoIP service into its messaging platform.
Russel Lux, commercial director at teliquo, believes that this is move that could bring VoIP into the consumer mainstream; however, he doesn’t believe that the move will infiltrate the enterprise sector.
Lux states that as Facebook boasts over 1 Billion users, it is the perfect platform to fully bring VoIP into the public spotlight but that they will struggle to break into the enterprise market due to the number and specificity of their needs.
“they need a single service that integrates mobile devices and desk-based phones with a single number, and that enables their employees to present a consistent and professional corporate image. A social network simply doesn’t fit the bill.”
More information on this story and extensive quotes can be found here
Business VoIP, Communication, Positives of VoIP, VoIP | admin | 
2013 1:27 pm | 
Comments Off 
Subscribe