Chapter 6 Q2: Describe the business benefits associated with VoIP.

Voice over IP (VoIP) is a rapidly growing technology that uses a company's local area network (LAN) and the Internet for phone calls, instead of traditional phone lines. As a systems integrator (SI), you can save your clients money and gain services revenue as you help them deploy and maintain their VoIP systems.


The most obvious and significant benefit from using VOIP is reduced telephony costs. More than 80% of the companies planning to deploy VOIP expect payback within the first three years. In reality, companies that have deployed the technology are experiencing complete return on investment within the first year.



If the cost savings wasn’t enough, businesses that deployed VOIP are experiencing other long-term benefits such as:


Improved individual productivity


Improved team collaboration


Faster responsiveness to customers


Better quality of service to customers


Better support for globalization efforts


But the more advanced customers -- and the more lucrative ones -- are those that look to use some of the additional benefits of VoIP such as the fact that it goes through the data network and is run on a server, VoIP can integrate with other applications. For example, in call centers, the benefits of VoIP include integrating the phones to customer relationship management (CRM) applications or providing a "click here to talk to a representative" button on your client's Web page.


VoIP can also connect with other communications media -- a combination known as unified communications. For instance, some cell phones can work in a voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) mode, saving airtime minutes. You can also combine email and VoIP, so that users can access voicemail through their email clients. Each of those additional integrations is another potential project for you.
Even without toll bypassing, larger offices may save money from VoIP every time an employee changes desks, Dewing said. With a traditional phone system, each move would mean reconfiguring the PBX -- and sometimes even having to rewire the phone closet. Dewing said that some companies reported a cost as high as $300 or $400 per move. With a VoIP system, each phone registers itself using its MAC address when it first connects to the server, so the changeover is automatic.

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