Worthwhile

March 31, 2006

By Guy Clapperton

VoIP is simpler, and works for many firms. Alan Greensall, managing director of musical instrument distributor Synergy, is among the time-poor who wouldn't normally have considered moving to a new system because of the time spent researching, but his existing installation went badly wrong, so he used the opportunity to investigate VoIP from Vonage.

"I'd paid £2,300 the previous year, and was feeling very aggrieved by the way I'd been treated." The cost saving was considerable, he believes, but the change in the way the business operated was also useful. "It saved 50% of the landline cost but also 30% of the mobile cost." The costing structure changed completely. "There was no contract, so I had nothing to lose by trying it."

The Vonage system rings multiple lines until someone picks up - an asset for small companies like Synergy, which can now answer calls wherever the employee is; at home, abroad or in the office.

Many people may argue that Vonage and its competitors don't do anything that a standard PC with a reasonably up-to-date Windows installation can't handle if you know where to look in the innards. It's the looking in the innards that makes the difference, though, with these products being easy to plug in out of the box.

Even so, VoIP isn't for everyone, believes BT. "Typically there are different sorts of VoIP. One is where you plug your headset into one computer and talk to someone on the same network, and normally there there will be no cost," says Hegarty. "If you call to an outside line there will be call costs." There are instances in which it doesn't make sense to go for the IP solution, he says. "A customer might be a Chinese restaurant, which is taking and making calls all the time but doesn't have a computer on the premises and no broadband account. If we say, 'why don't you get BT Communicator', it doesn't make sense because of the parts they'd have to buy."

It's not an easy decision, and evaluating your telecommunications shouldn't be a hasty process. Making the time for that first step can be very difficult, but as Greensall would attest, it's time well spent.