HARD PHONES
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PROS:
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CONS:
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•Employees may prefer to use a “real” phone |
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•Cost |
•Reliable service |
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•More difficult to enter alphanumeric SIP.edu URI |
•Reliable voice quality |
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•Demands the costly installation of physical phones on the
desks of remote/distributed call center agents |
•Ease of dialing out in case of emergency |
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•Much more involved installation |
•Most hard phones include a real DSP for echo cancellation
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•More limited features than soft phones
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SOFT PHONES
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PROS:
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CONS:
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•Low cost; very fast installation |
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•Reliability of uptime: many factors beyond the call center’s
control can contribute to downtime |
•Ease of entering alphanumeric SIP.edu URIs via keyboard
and number pad |
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•Quality can vary depending on a number of factors |
•Allow agents to work from home without the need to
install a physical telephone in the agent’s home |
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•Dialing out in an emergency, to call 911, for example, may
first require login and several mouse clicks and keystrokes,
wasting valuable time |
•Excellent mobility/portability; may be installed on a laptop
and toted along, retaining the user’s settings/preferences |
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•Softphones usually depend on the host media processor for
echo cancellation |
•Feature sets may be broader than those of hard phones
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