Hosted SMB VoIP, however, has proven a reliable service for a number of years. There are several advantages for support associated with SMB VoIP and given the growing managed-voice market, the value for such a solution is more plausible. In order to obtain every opportunity of the latest SMB VoIP trends, channel partners need to be take notice of the evolving markets and the move to the cloud.

An SMB VoIP channel must acknowledge the companies that are identifying with cloud-based or hosted communications and the necessity it provides. Channels may very well provide more support to customers that are transitioning to Web hosted services from on-premise technology.

There are three categories within the Aberdeen report: small, medium and large enterprises. The smaller organizations, with 50 or fewer employees were interested in hosted SMB VoIP. Roughly 32 percent of those surveyed contended that they were already taking steps to implement SMB VoIP technology with an additional 35 percent in the planning stages for the next 24 months.

Those same organizations saw budget restraints as their first priority and looked to SMB VoIP as the cheapest solution. With that comes the need for vendor support and the cheapest version is often times lacking in that area. There is also the need for improved external communications between partners and customers. Small businesses tend to have limited IT resources, making a solution to reduce IT overhead is an attractive offering.

 Another big proponent for SMB VoIP  is the cost effectiveness of reducing face-to-face meetings including event-driven and travel-based functions. A hosted SMB VoIP ecosystem can also result in 99 percent up time when it comes to support, making it a viable option for any organization.