VoIP has an enormous amount to offer to large and small businesses. However, large companies are often reluctant to invest in new voice systems, only doing so when there is a trigger event such as a new office, while small companies have very little idea what VoIP can do for them.
In large businesses, IT or communications managers are likely to understand what VoIP is and what it can do. They know that VoIP is the future, but are constrained by lack of time and budget. Winning business from these organisations depends on two key factors:
- helping the CIO to make a compelling case for the investment in terms of savings and benefits to the business
- providing support, consultancy and project management services so that the overstretched IT team does not have to devote all its time to the roll-out.
Cost savings, particularly cheaper internal calls for multi-site businesses, continue to be a reason for businesses to adopt VoIP. However, not all companies will find that VoIP delivers cost savings overall. Those with many small sites and large complex networks are the most likely to save money.
In smaller businesses, it is likely that telecoms buyers have very little idea about what VoIP is or how it can benefit their businesses. There is no need to mention technology at all to these customers, but the sales team must have the ability to understand the problems the business is facing and the ways in which VoIP can offer solutions. This requires a high-touch sales approach that few service providers (SPs) are able to afford and one that may be best delivered using telecoms VARs who understand the detail of phone systems. Customers will be won over by the idea of a low-cost, flexible system that can connect their home workers as if they were in the office; can be connected to any phone number; and will allow them to make savings on their mobile phones. Some VoIP systems may offer additional benefits such as skills-based routeing, unified mail boxes and the ability to connect mobile phones to the PBX. Some telecoms buyers will be interested to know that the system is VoIP, but this does not need to be a headline marketing message.
Small businesses are often seen as the natural targets for hosted VoIP services, but they prefer to buy a ‘box’ rather than subscribe to a service, as long as the box does not require knowledgeable IT staff to make it work. Therefore, small companies will be more inclined to adopt user-owned and service-provider-managed VoIP services where the VoIP box comes with a remote management service.
Larger companies are more aware of the cost of their IT staff and, therefore, will see the monthly rental for an outsourced service as a cost saving. Willingness to outsource depends on the type of company, the skills of its IT staff, and previous experience with outsourcing contracts. For larger companies, there are three main reasons for choosing a hosted and managed VoIP solution:
- For businesses that have a large number of small sites, managing a multi-site PBX network with lots of people and many changes can be expensive and time-consuming. A centralised solution is a way of removing that problem.
- Businesses that have a large number of desk phones are attracted to hosted and managed VoIP solutions so they do not have to buy large, expensive PBXs. Typically, these businesses may be large government offices, or providers of managed office space.
- The location independence of VoIP allows businesses with employees that regularly work from temporary offices, such as construction companies or consultancy firms, to simply arrange a data connection and plug in IP phones with the same phone numbers as they used at the last site.
Figure 1: Spend on VoIP systems in Western Europe by type in 2007 and 2012 (Source: Analysys Research, 2008)
However, large companies with a skilled IT team and a substantial budget are most likely to buy their own system and manage it themselves. Figure 1 shows how Analysys Research expects the spend on different types of VoIP systems to change over the period 2007–2012. Spend on centralised and hosted solutions is expected to grow, while spend on user-owned and user-managed systems is expected to decline. The telecoms industry has begun to refer to unified communications rather than VoIP or IP telephony, but most companies deploy VoIP in order to provide a basic voice service. Unified communications are likely to appeal to creative companies that value the flexibility and collaboration opportunities offered by easy access to instant messaging and video communications. Unified communications may also be a priority for multi-national companies that are looking for solutions to the problems of managing dispersed teams. Currently, however, it is rare for an organisation to install a VoIP system purely because of these features. They may add value for customers, but are not yet something they will pay for unless they have experienced them firsthand. Service providers need to get the core pitch right first and sell the exciting new features by providing them as free tasters that the company will not want to lose when the trial period is over.
