February 1, 2007

Is VOIP Too Much for Smaller Businesses

Computer Weekly writs Lisa Pierce, a vice president at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., said SMBs have very few IT resources. They might have one person in-house who takes care of the company's computers. Add VoIP to the equation, and many SMBs will struggle to manage the technology.

I can understand what Pierce means and it does make some sense, but I disagree.

VOIP can be difficult to implement if you do it yourself, however, there are a number of providers that provide an outsourced solution and manage it end to end.

The article continues to Recent survey research by Pierce showed that SMBs are 2.5 to three times more interested than enterprises in managed IP telephony and managed site-to-site or interoffice VoIP services.

I would encourage any small business owner who is looking to get VOIP in her office - for cost savings but more so for more efficiency in running their business to NOT do it themselves.

DON'T force their already busy IT consultant or on-site techie to do it, but to work with a firm who can manage the entire process.

VOIP, at least a robust and professional version is something best left to a professional to install and manage.

Vonage, Packet 8 and Skype or not necessarily for growing businesses. Sure, for individuals and solo-professionals to start off with yes Skype is great, for example.

But when you get to 10, 50 employees it's better to have an M5 Networks or some other company help you out.

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