By Steve Anderson, Contributing TMCnet Writer

For SMEs--Small and Medium-sized Enterprises--all over the world, times are frankly tough. Many small businesses already know this to be the case, as they're experiencing these tough times themselves. But for SMEs in the United Kingdom, one bit of technology in particular has made itself known, and is doing a great job for cutting costs in SMEs. That technology is none other than VoIP.

While pinning down exactly how much SMEs are saving with VoIP in play, the estimates, as provided by a recent survey by Phone (News - Alert).com. Phone.com took a survey of 175 of its services' users, and discovered that 23 percent of them were saving more than 60 percent of their annual costs with VoIP. About a third--27 percent--reported savings between 41 and 60 percent, and 33 percent got between 10 and 40 percent savings.

Additionally, while there were some significant savings--better than four out of five businesses reported some level of savings--cost savings alone weren't the sole reason many of the businesses made the switch. A variety of other reasons were also in play, like giving staff the ability to work remotely, improve call center support capability and customer service along with it, and ultimately, boost operational efficiencies in general.

With a variety of services offered by Phone.com (News - Alert), it's easy to see where businesses could see a whole lot of cost savings indeed by bringing in VoIP services. It's equally easy to see where small businesses could also bring in plenty of new features they didn't previously have available to them, and a canny business could also use these features in a bid to gain new customers in areas that were previously unavailable to them as well.

VoIP provides both savings and opportunity, two things that, for small and medium-sized enterprises the world over, are valuable in any kind of economy, especially one that's not doing well. It's only a matter of taking advantage of those opportunities that's left for companies, and given the wide array of VoIP services and providers out there, finding one may be easier than previously thought.

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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