The answer is, as usual, it depends. Internet telephony is evolutionary, not revolutionary, technology. If you are moving into a facility where you need to completely build out your infrastructure, then installing voip systems makes sense. It can be very competitive with traditional POTS switched networks. Some companies put a Internet telephony blade in an existing POTS switch. They feel that it gives them the best of both worlds, but I suspect that they might be hedging their bets a bit too much and not benefiting fully from either technology.

Advantage Of Internet telephony
There are some other ways that you can take advantage of Internet telephony technology. In a “green field” installation, you have a number of attractive choices that can give you more network flexibility. One possibility is eliminating the wires entirely. There is nothing preventing you from installing Internet telephony over wireless 802.11x networks.

Unified Messaging
Unified messaging is another example. Unified messaging is one-stop shopping for all your voice mail, email, and fax communications (Email Fax). Unified messaging lets you retrieve all your messages with one phone call or visit to a website. While unified messaging sounds great, the technology has not entirely jelled yet. It can be costly and complicated to implement, and the services have not been perfected, including problems with voice to text translation. Unified messaging is dependent on the Internet telephony technology so as that application matures, there will be more incentive to implement a Internet telephony solution.

Investing in Internet telephony
It is claimed that a IP-telephony service technology will save 50% over the costs of maintaining the old equipment.
Of course, it isn’t sure if or not renewing an old system with a more modern switched network would result in similar savings. IT departments are real pragmatists. They will not invest in a technology unless there are demonstrated substantial improvements or cost savings in the quality of service..
Here’s a checklist of things to watch for when considering if to invest in Internet telephony or not:

If you answer Yes to most of these questions, then you should seriously consider Internet telephony Technology as part of your IT infrastructure mix.
- Is your existing POTS device overdue for replacement?
– Does your company have enough bandwidth for all your data and voice needs?
– Are you planning on installing unified messaging or other integrated data/voice services?
– Does your company have good connectivity to the Internet?
– Does your company have a communication requirements or substantial international presence?
– Does your company have more than one location?

Jim Francisto
Voice over IP Blog