April 21, 2005

Consultants Is VOIP For Your Customers?

Just because a technology is available does not mean that it is for your business to use - be it hosted applications, wireless technology, blogging or something else. I'd be the first to advocate in the strongest terms that a small business leverage these and other technology tools, but it's also smart to NOT dive right in without first critically considering HOW these tools can be specifically used in YOUR business.

Your technology consultant must critically think the same.

Never purchase technology for the sake of purchasing technology but always know what are the CLEAR benefits to YOUR business by purchasing technology. Also ask what are the "side effects" - ask all the dooms day "what if" questions.

VarBusiness recently covered the issue of VOIP. It's a great technology, but again, is it for everyone.

VarBusiness writes"Pretty much anyone is a candidate for VoIP these days, and a large majority of our revenue growth is due to that," says Nexus IS CEO Jon Jensen. Since the third quarter of last year, he says a paradigm shift has taken place in the hearts and minds of customers, who now understand the benefits of VoIP and its potential to improve customer service. Many customers, he notes, are starting to make decisions to replace entire networks because they see the huge ROI they can achieve with VoIP.

But before VARs far and wide begin to scrap or expand their business models to get into technology's latest land rush, they would be wise to learn some of the hard-fought lessons of the VoIP pioneers. While there are plenty of potential customers for VoIP, not everyone is cut out to sell it.

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