Businesses Catch the VoIP Unified Communications Wave

Having worked with and attempted to install one of the earliest versions of a Voice over IP (VoIP) system back in the mid-1990s, I know how much the technology has matured; it has gotten to the point where it is a reliable replacement for landlines. However, in the days when it was first emerging, while it was good on the consumer side, it was not a reliable option for businesses.

In its early versions, it was a convenient, inexpensive way to make Internet phone calls. Unfortunately, it was not reliable enough nor had enough capabilities for the business world to consider it as a viable alternative to the PBX system. Many things have changed over the years that have now made VoIP suitable for the business world.

While it is true that VoIP caught hold in the consumer market, there are several reports out noting that consumer growth rates for VoIP are the lowest that they have ever been. Smartphones and tablets have made it possible for everyone to stay connected through a combination of cell and Wi-Fi services.

On the other hand, the way that companies have been conducting business has been subtly changing. Affordable smartphones that offer a variety of features and functionality have made it easy to conduct a lot of business outside the office. 

In the past, an employee could work from home, but if a conference call needed to take place, it could only be accomplished at the office. Due to the many advances made in VoIP technology, many obstacles have been removed. There are a growing number of reasons why businesses, regardless of their size have been turning to VoIP as their communications solution.

Possibly one of the biggest reasons for having VoIP services is increased flexibility and mobility. The use of Internet telephony enables users to easily integrate software programs. The integration of email, e-fax and remote conferencing over the Internet provides the flexibility of being able to accomplish more making it more efficient.

These are the type of improvements that were not available in early VoIP technology. Part of the problem was all of the hype that was being generated about VoIP technology allowing you to make telephone calls using the Internet, or an IP network. About 10 years later the technology was more reliable, but the hype about VoIP for business was still being generated.

You had equipment vendors that were encouraging customers to upgrade to a technology which, in reality, still needed a lot of work. Fast-forward 20 years from my first attempts at VoIP and you will find that it has matured enough so that it is a reliable replacement for landlines and in-house PBX systems. In addition, by using cloud-based hosted services, companies do not need in-house technicians or the space required for PBX systems.

As we watch VoIP technologies continue to mature and evolve, the result is that the global business VoIP services market will also grow at a substantial rate. A recent analysis conducted by Future Market Insights (FMI) found that the corporate consumer segment was close to 100 billion subscribers. The analysis found that over the course of the next five years we can expect to see this market triple in size.

We are seeing Over-the-Top (OTT) startup companies competing with the major service providers to offer VoIP. In addition, as wireless networks continue to be deployed in all regions of the world, wireless will offer multiple ways to make a voice call including VoIP app services over Wi-Fi connections. Some of the new wireless carriers will be focusing on this new way to use the wireless network to offer a VoIP connection.

Today’s businesses and entrepreneurs are moving faster and communicating over a much wider range than ever before. In addition to flexibility and scalability, companies will find that VoIP is disrupting the telecom market for small businesses with cloud-based solutions for hosted PBX telephony, unified communications and videoconferencing.

Edited by Dominick Sorrentino