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September 07, 2007
Hosted VoIP the Best Solution for Small Businesses
By Rich Tehrani, President and Editor-in-Chief
Mae Kasten, Marketing Communications Program Specialist for Speakeasy ( News - Alert), recently sat down with me to discuss the future of the VoIP  market and the impact of wireless technology.
Speakeasy is one of the nation’s leading broadband voice (VoIP), data, and IT service providers. Read more about the company here.
Please outline your new corporate initiatives.
1) Create solutions, such as EasyVoice, for small and medium businesses that allow them to enjoy a host of superior communications services that allow their companies to run smarter and faster while saving money.
2) Partner with leading hardware companies, such as Cisco, Linksys ( News - Alert), and Polycom, to offer a wide range of equipment to support voice and broadband services. 3) Continue to innovate by listening to customer needs and adapting and improving technology and services accordingly.
4) Discover and pursue synergy and opportunities with Best Buy and its BBFB operating group
How is IP communications changing your company’s strategy?
We are moving from a broadband focused company (primary use of connecting being e-mail and Internet access) to a full IP-communications entity wrapping IP services around the core connectivity piece, inluding VoIP, PWAN, and Managed Services (co-location and dedicated hosting).
How has SIP changed communications?
It has generated an increased awareness of VoIP in the general public, largely due to Vonage’s spend and adoption of SIP. SIP is acknowledged as the largest sea-change technology change to hit the telephony industry in 100 years. SIP brings several benefits to the entire communications community:
- Devices — More vendors, more choice, better prices;
- Services — Easier interoperability, easier porting across service providers;
- Vendor support — More confidence from vendors, better support from large OEMs.
The one caveat, however, is that SIP is only a framework, with lots of recommendations — service providers still are responsible for overall interoperability.
What is the biggest request coming from your customer base?
We encourage our customers to provide us with feedback in various ways. Whether it’s through phone calls or emails, or as part of our annual satisfaction survey, we closely review input received from our customers to remain on top of their needs. Our goal is to simplify small business communications so we continually look at our roadmap to see how we can better serve their business. Here are a few requests:
- Integrate both data and voice services;
- Provide predictable pricing;
- Single point for support;
- Integrated Voice/ Data T1 (which is to come soon).
How are you answering their demands?
For one, Easy Voice Office addresses the predictable pricing issue, and Speakeasy Support individual is the single interface point with the customer for any data, voice, and billing issue, creating a single point of contact for all customer concerns.
What do you think the future of the market is?
We believe there will be greater adoption of Hosted VoIP in the future, but realize that there are still legacy PBX infrastructure challenges to address. We also think larger companies will adopt Hosted VoIP in the future due to the flexibility it offers (virtual teams, decentralized call centers, etc.).
How does the U.S. growth rate compare to the rest of the world?
Hosted VoIP’s growth in the U.S. is generally higher than in other countries due to the fact that the unified market allows for services providers to develop on a larger scale. In contrast, there are many start-up initiatives in other countries, so the industry is in continual development. Additionally, there are still a lot of regulations that have affected the growth rate.
What do you think of Google and Apple (News - Alert) entering the telecom market?
We feel Google and Apple will really drive service and device competition to the wireless carriers, but better integration between “wired” VoIP carriers and mobile carriers remains to be seen.
Microsoft brings credibility to Hosted VoIP and SIP, in general. It also offers great potential with greater integration across Exchange, Live Communications, Speech Server, and Sharepoint. Microsoft may also bring presence truly in the hands of the user, bridging IM and VoIP. This is not yet a major driver for the SMB space, but needs to be considered within any service provider’s roadmap.
How will wireless technologies change our market?
WiFi handsets will create issues based on lack of Quality of Service and power consumption. There will also be third generation issues with using VoIP as the bearer channel. However, short of carrier integration, many avenues exist for VoIP service providers to bridge and integrate wireless as part of the overall company communications strategy (IM, call routing, intelligent call hand off, etc.).
How will communications evolve over the next five years?
We will see better presence features and mobility management in the future. The “desk” phone will still be wired, but it will be much more portable. There will also be better integration with 3rd party applications, like Salesforce.com, MS Exchange, and CRM.
What sorts of things will we be hearing about during your presentation at ITEXPO?
The main message of my presentation will be why Hosted VoIP is uniquely suited to meet the needs of small businesses. I will be highlighting the advantages of Hosted VoIP and how it can allow small businesses to work smarter while lowering operating costs.
What do you want the industry to know about your company?
Speakeasy’s products and services have constantly adapted to marketplace demands since the company’s launch in 1994. We will continue this approach as we develop more solutions that address the needs of small and medium businesses. Additionally, Speakeasy will ensure that its superior customer service, network reliability and innovative features surpass customer expectations.
Please make one surprising prediction we will see in 5 years
Any small business owner will be able to go to a retail electronics store such as Best Buy, get all PC and telecom service needs taken care of, with retail distribution of business-grade equipment. More importantly, you’ll be able to get the level of integration and support all the way from retail purchase to on-site support and installation.
Green is the new black. At least, that’s the case in the communications industry where companies are finding that using green technology is not only good for the planet but good for business as well. Want to learn more about how being green can make money? Mark your calendar now for TMC’s first annual Green Technology World Conference, Sept. 11-12, 2007 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California. Preview the show schedule, speakers and exhibitors—then register to attend.
Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) | X | | The IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standard is usually referred to as Wi-Fi-Wireless Fidelity or RLAN-Radio Local Area Network. The 802.11 standard has evolved into a number of sub-standards 802.11a/b/g/n....more |
Transmission Level 1 (T1) | X | | A T-1 is connected between a Class 5 Central Office and Customer Premise Equipment switching system such as a PBX or ACD or data communications system such as a router, Frame Relay Access Device, etc....more |
Private Branch Exchange (PBX) | X | | Originally, telephone features were provided by telephone central office switching systems, often called CENTREX.�PBX systems emerged as customers wanted to have more calling features and control over...more |
Voice over IP (VoIP) | X | | A real-time communications system that converts voice into digital packets containing media and signaling data that travel over networks using Internet Protocol....more |
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) | X | | SIP is the real-time communication protocol for VoIP. SIP is a signaling protocol for Internet conferencing, telephony, presence, events notification (emergency calling) and instant messaging.
SIP...more |
(source: http://businessvoip.tmcnet.com//topics/trends/articles/10498-hosted-voip-best-solution-small-businesses.htm)
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