Business VoIP Featured Article

Are You Ready for a Business VoIP Transition?

October 21, 2015

By Susan J. Campbell, Business VoIP Contributing Editor

Introducing new technologies into your working environment is both exciting and challenging. You know the promised benefits, but you also know that change can spark resistance among employees. Even solutions designed to appeal to the user can fall short when transitions are handled poorly. If business VoIP is one of the next changes in your strategy, do a little planning first to ensure success.


Like a number of other companies, you’re likely considering the business VoIP transition to eliminate the problems caused by legacy phone services and to meet the needs of a workforce that continues to change. Mobility is growing in demand and heavy infrastructure limitations are making it more difficult to meet collaboration needs. At the same time, you made a significant investment in the legacy system and as frustrated as your users may be, they know how to use what they already have.

A recent Tech Target piece explored this topic, citing a recent industry report showing that the challenges businesses face when transitioning to business VoIP have a lot to do with the size of the organization. When employee numbers stay below 50, challenges with the traditional phone system tend to include difficult system management, a lack of mobile integration and issues related to call quality. In a VoIP transition, local exchange carriers and over-the-top (OTT) providers tend to win their business.

Larger organizations, or those that fall into the midsize range, tend to encounter problems such as a lack of advanced features to meet calling demands, a lack of capacity to add users as the company grows and difficulty in managing the system overall. These organizations tend to have experienced IT professionals on staff and will often turn to traditional providers and telecom equipment companies for the transition to VoIP to meet their more complex needs.

In both scenarios, the biggest driver towards the business VoIP transition was cost. Companies are constantly searching for ways to streamline operations and that often means implementing new technology and changing internal processes. VoIP offers significant benefits on both fronts, but the transition must be well-planned and executed to ensure success. Providing a user with enhanced capabilities won’t mean anything other than frustration if they don’t know how to use them or make a simple phone call.

Before launching a business VoIP transition, the best approach is to understand the needs of your users and how this move can improve workflows. Engage a proven provider to help in the process. You’ll gain the knowledge you need to do a deep dive and better plan for a successful transition. 




Edited by Maurice Nagle

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