A little upfront planning helps maximize the VoIP ROI.

Organizations continue to adopt voice over IP (VoIP) technologies at a rapid pace. VoIP is currently used by 20 percent of U.S. businesses, and In-Stat predicts that two-thirds of U.S. businesses will have some form of VoIP service by 2011. The number of business IP phones sold will grow from 9.9 million in 2006 to 45.8 million in 2010, the high-tech market research firm says.

Many organizations are moving to VoIP as their old phone systems go off lease or near end of life. Others make the switch to gain needed scalability and functionality to support business growth. Of course, a primary motivation for adopting VoIP is cost savings: VoIP can reduce or eliminate long-distance charges as well as cut phone system administration and maintenance costs.

“VoIP is particularly attractive to businesses with dispersed workforces, where long-distance savings can be easily achieved,” said In-Stat analyst David Lemelin.

The key to maximizing these benefits, experts say, is to plan carefully before deploying a VoIP system. It’s also important to gain a clear understanding of current costs and business requirements in order to compare solutions and calculate ROI.

Prepare Your Network

Any organization considering a move to VoIP should perform a thorough analysis of its data network. VoIP experts will check for things like “latency” and “jitter” — in effect, minute network delays that can make a voice call unintelligible.

Unless the network is new or recently upgraded, odds are good that some sort of upgrade will be required. That adds to the implementation costs and delays the return on the VoIP system. However, it’s better to know up front than to have a nasty surprise later on. Plus, other areas of the business are likely to benefit from the network upgrade as well.

Technology providers who specialize in both voice and data systems can be invaluable during the network assessment phase. Their engineers can test the network’s ability to handle voice calls, take care of needed upgrades, and advise on things like redundancy and branch office connections.

Remember Security

Because VoIP systems run over the data network, they require security just like any other application. Denial-of-service attacks, eavesdropping and theft of services are among the threats to unsecured VoIP systems.

Unfortunately, few organizations are prepared for the security challenges inherent in the technology. Most of the respondents to a recent In-Stat survey rated their understanding of VoIP security as “somewhat knowledgeable,” the lowest rating provided on the survey. More than 40 percent of the respondents did not have specific plans for securing VoIP deployments, although the majority did have budgets in place to do so.

“To secure VoIP, businesses need to move away from traditional point solutions and evolve towards security platforms to realize the efficiencies of converged networks,” said In-Stat analyst Victoria Fodale. “Business decision makers will need to evolve toward a unified security approach that works for converged networks and devices.”

Choose Your Endpoints

Once an organization makes the leap into VoIP, the choice of the physical phone set might seem trivial. However, the latest IP endpoints are easy to use and deploy and offer many productivity-enhancing features. In addition, endpoints that support extensible markup language (XML) and telephony application programming interface (TAPI) applications can take on multiple roles by integrating with customized applications.

“In order to benefit from the advanced applications delivered by next-generation telephony platforms, enterprises are choosing to upgrade their legacy endpoints with high-tech IP ones,” said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Laura Devoto.

The research firm notes that Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), an industry standard for multimedia applications, only supports basic telephony functions, so many feature-rich phones use proprietary protocols. Consequently, most customers deploying a VoIP system choose to deploy the same vendors’ endpoints. However, as the standard matures, it will support more advanced telephony features and SIP endpoints will become more functional in third-party platforms.

Consider the Big Picture

With VoIP gaining traction in recent years, organizations are realizing that its benefits exceed mere cost reductions: Merging voice and data in a single network provides a better communication experience. Therefore, they are increasingly interested in the convergence that IP communication grants and the integration of multiple applications in a single interface or device.

Unified messaging boosts productivity and improves collaboration by giving employees one in-box for all types of messages — voice, e-mail and fax. VoIP systems can also be combined with business applications to streamline workflows and enhance customer service. These benefits up the ante of the VoIP system and ideally should be considered in the initial planning stages.

VoIP can revolutionize an organization’s communications and, more importantly, provide real bottom-line benefits in terms of cost savings, productivity gains, customer satisfaction and more. With upfront planning and foresight, organizations can gain a rapid return on their VoIP investment.

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