Voice over IP (VoIP) was developed in order to provide access to voice communication in any place around the world. It offers a lot of benefits, such as cost savings, conferencing and efficiency. Since VoIP uses the Internet as backbone, the only cost you have when using it is the monthly Internet bill to your ISP.

A recent report from Infonetics Research (News - Alert) found that managed service providers (MSPs) can expect the number of seats for hosted VoIP and unified communications services to more than double between 2012 and 2016. The report found that global service provider revenue from business and residential VoIP services totaled nearly $58 billion in 2011, up 16 percent from the previous year.

While VoIP utilization continues to grow, end users won’t accept any downtime for their businesses critical phone systems. The reason VoIP monitoring is key is because now VoIP downtime and poor VoIP performance directly impacts business performance, profitability, and revenues. The challenge of keeping VoIP systems performing to such high standards falls on IT professionals who are reliant on VoIP vendors and their service level agreements (SLAs). MSPs can capitalize on this trend by offering VoIP monitoring as a standard IT service as part of a client’s ongoing monthly retainer.

By monitoring VoIP systems, MSPs have an opportunity to deliver a value-added service and boost recurring revenue.

VoIP system advantages such as sound quality and system functionality depend on the bandwidth resources within an organization. MSPs routinely use remote monitoring tools that can help them ensure that their clients’ VoIP systems are performing well and the network bandwidth utilization is optimized. Remote management tools can also monitor traffic in real time and provide customizable alert systems so administrators can see potentially impactful peaks in traffic.

VoIP monitoring services offer features that allow for efficiency for clients and MSPs, including VoIP quality metric monitoring, reporting/alert systems, remote monitoring and network traffic analysis. These features allow MSPs to understand, troubleshoot and plan the capacity of VoIP and network infrastructure. MSPs can deliver support for servers and networks and can offer VoIP support in a reseller and service management role. MSPs should look to expand their IT service offerings by including VoIP monitoring.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) 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. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.

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