Experts and observers are not surprised to see the VoIP industry picking up momentum at a rapid pace in the business world.
Industry insider Logan Abbott recently spoke out about the exponential expansion of the VoIP market, indicating that this type of telecoms service is striving to become more prevalent and widely available than ever before in order to meet increasing enterprise demand.
Mr Abbott pointed out that while not everyone has encountered the term ‘VoIP’ in the past, or is even aware of its meaning if they have, most will have harnessed some kind of digital telecoms service, often without realising it. Remaining unaware of VoIP’s growing dominance is becoming unlikely because of an increase in availability and services.
There are emerging and independent VoIP services which are out to challenge the existing order and create a new offering, but increasingly you will find that major, established players in the traditional market are moving into the digital arena in order to remain competitive and meet the needs of modern businesses.
The benefits of using VoIP over an analogue landline service are regularly outlined by its supporters, including lower call and running costs, potential improvements to employee productivity and enhancing business flexibility.
One of the features of VoIP increasingly touted as its biggest plus point is the mobile nature of digital services, according to Mr Abbott. Modern smartphones with VoIP apps and services onboard can allow users to make voice calls direct from their handsets over available Wi-Fi hotspots and high speed mobile network connections.
This takes the cost of a mobile call out of the hands of network providers and elevates the importance of Wi-Fi, because VoIP to VoIP calls between two mobile users will never incur charges per minute or require a tariff with inclusive features on hand.
This could be seen as bad news from a provider point of view, but for businesses that want to save money and improve communication between agents who are out in the field or simply away from their desks, it can make for sizable savings.
The increased availability of network connectivity is another contributing factor to the rise of VoIP, in the opinion of Mr Abbott and many others. Because data services permeate most public places and are now increasingly available on transport services, there is no reason to rely on outdated analogue connections when business users can chat to one another via the medium of VoIP.
VoIP is an essential component of the growing importance of remote and mobile working within the world of business. And it is an area that is constantly changing.
By 2015 it is predicted that 40 per cent of people will work from mobile platforms away from the office, according to the International Data Corporation. This level of saturation can only be reached if mobile VoIP and associated in-house services are implemented with this predicted deadline in mind. This could leave some businesses lagging if they aren’t quick to recognise the demands of an increasingly mobile workforce and the way it does business.
VoIP ultimately aims to be seamlessly integrated into existing systems, eventually usurping their features without causing any major change for employees and users in general.
Lower costs, improved efficiency and the crucial mobile factor will continue to be seen as the draw cards of VoIP, making it difficult to conceive of a future in which it does not play a significant role. The momentum is unlikely to subside until a point of saturation is reached and most calls are made digitally. Reaching this point does not appear to be too far off.
Daisy Group plc. are a leading provider of business telephone systems including Hosted VoIP and IP telephony phone systems to UK SME, corporate and enterprise customers. Hosted VoIP systems from Daisy allow companies to take advantage of the many advanced features provided by IP Telephony.
