VOIP phones are no longer just a low cost alternative for small business and consumers. With the increase in adoption by large enterprises Business VOIP phone systems have come of age. The popularity of VOIP phone systems as a unified communications tool and its potential to transform businesses, both large and small, in the next decade is evident by the actions surrounding VOIP providers in 2009.

February 2009 saw the peer-to-peer VOIP provider Gizmo5 integrate Skype addresses with SIP calls. While talks with Skype were going through troubled waters, Google jumped in to acquire Gizmo5 for $30 million, expanding its customer base and giving Google Voice just what it lacked – PSTN links for inbound and outbound calls to real phones.

Business VOIP service providers saw double digit increase in sales in 2009 from 2008. This proves that more businesses are taking to VOIP to increase productivity while reducing costs. Industry experts predict VOIP will be the “technology and industry of this new decade” and will witness explosive growth from 2010-2020 with market penetration reaching 79% by 2013. US service providers offering hosted VOIP phones are seeing 43% year-over-year growth.

The ability to combine both the data and voice networks into a single network is a major economic driving force in the rapidly growing move to VOIP. In addition, many businesses have realized the wisdom of integrating VOIP with CRM solutions for improving customer satisfaction. They are equipping employees with VOIP phones to connect from remote locations, thereby increasing business productivity as well.

While VOIP is revolutionizing voice and data communications, it does represent some thorny security issues that need to be dealt with properly. Some of the challenges dogging VOIP are lack of high fidelity, audio quality, service failure due to network outages, security vulnerabilities such as caller hacking, Spam Over Internet Telephony (SPIT), spoofing, and Denial of Service (DoS).

Most VOIP providers are making big efforts to put adequate security measures into place. Most of them are not up to the level of reassuring customers fully, though. This is why it is important that you consider security as one of the factors when choosing VOIP for small business.

Tags: VOIP

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