Hosted telephony options offer a number of advantages over PTSN. But given the obvious benefits, wide spread adoption of IP communications in the SMB market has been slower than one might expect.

While it is difficult for SMBs to compete against the advantages large enterprises have in terms of scale, they can compete by being more agile and responsive with customers. Adopting advanced communications solutions such as VoIP helps SMBs do this. Communications service providers have recognized the opportunity to help SMB customers better deploy hosted and cloud services by evolving their networks considerably to support these new solutions.

In the service provider track at this year’s ITEXPO (News - Alert) West, It was not uncommon for speakers to address the challenges of VoIP adoptions amongst SMB’s, but at “A Competitive Edge: Hosted and Cloud Services Solutions for SMBs,” it was the primary topic of discussion.

Moderated by Alon Cohen of Phone.com (News - Alert), the panel featured Infradapt’s Corey McFadden and Chris Carabello of Metaswitch Networks. At first, the two set out to define what an SMB was, and while the consensus was that SMBs were really any corporation with up to 500 workers, there was a common differentiator in the point at which they choose to adopt IP communications solutions.

“The 75 member mark is really where we begin to see wider adoption, that’s when they get rid of that person who wants to manage everything on site, and start to develop that inclination to cloud based services,” said Carabello.

Another key indicator of adoption rate is industry. Obviously, when you deal with an industry like contact centers which tend to be enterprise, sales leaning, and familiar with telephony solutions, the tendency is to go upstream for more effective solutions.

So what are the real barriers to adoption then? And how do SMBs benefit over legacy telephony solutions and make sure that they’re demanding the right things when they go to find a VoIP SP?

Carabello asked, “There are a whole lot of SMBS that have an Avaya (News - Alert) partner system that’s been kicking for 15 years, what you can actually give them if you’re not offering hosted?” Since hosted options give SMBs the ability to compete with enterprise at least in terms of technology, they really are a critical business edge to the development of the company. Selling them on the benefits is simply a matter of outlining them in plan black and white.

With the proliferation of cloud technologies SMBs have the option and right to want more and SPs are going to have to give it to them if they want to remain competitive.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place NOW, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.

Chris DiMarco is a Managing Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter (News - Alert) @cpdimarco.

Edited by Rich Steeves