The technology to deliver cost-effective and practical VoIP (voice over IP) has now arrived. Today, VoIP’s quality of service rivals traditional telephony and attractive add-on features such as the ability to integrate voice, email, fax, and other messaging services into a corporate-wide unified messaging (UM) system can make this a sellable strategy. However, the cost/benefit advantage for most companies is not significant enough for them to rip out their existing investments in telephony – especially during this period of economic slowdown.
In spite of the implementation costs (which can be significant), many companies are moving forward with this technology. In August of 2002, Cisco reported that it sold its 1 millionth IP phone, and most analysts project that number will double this year. It is important, however, to put that number in perspective. Last year’s final tally on cell phone sales hit 423 million, for instance.
For most companies, the most sensible approach will be to implement VoIP when either of the following two conditions exist:
- Replacement strategy – Implement VoIP as an alternative to initiating a major upgrade and/or total replacement of an existing telephony infrastructure.
- Alternative strategy – Implement VoIP in new office space as an alternative strategy to deploying a traditional telephony infrastructure. This decision will maximize the cost/benefit advantage of VoIP.
Computer Economics recently completed the research for our 2003 Information Systems Spending study. We queried IT management in hundreds of organizations across every major industry about the IT cost drivers and spending trends within their organizations. As part of that research, we asked IT managers to tell us the status of VoIP in their organization. The results of that question are shown in Figure 1.
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What is the Status of VoIP In Your Organization?
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Our 2003 Information System Spending study will be available June 1, 2003. This invaluable document can help you better plan your technology roadmap and build IT budgets that get approved. For more information or to order this study, please contact us by email or phone at: custserv@compecon.com
1-800-326-8100 ext. 123
April 2003