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Best VoIP Solutions For The Remote Office: Page 10 of 11

Beyond the specific costs, lower maintenance is another big motivator. With TDM sets, technicians are needed to change the paper labels on phones or physically move the handsets. An engineer at a banking-related company estimated that this added another $100 per user move, not to mention the cost associated with fixing any additional problems created by the technician. With VoIP, the phones automatically reconfigure themselves once plugged into the network, so users can move their own phones.

VoIP also allows companies to consolidate certain services. "VoIP has allowed us to centralize our live receptionists into a call center across regions, producing a net savings of $100,000 annually," says Ryan Colbert, director of IT at Rissman, Weisberg, Barrett, Hurt, Donahue & McLain, a law firm based in Orlando, FL. Instead of calls coming into each office, calls are now answered out of one office and then transferred as necessary either within the office or across the Internet to the firm's other offices. Colbert could have eliminated those positions using an auto-attendant at each office, but that would have meant missing the personal touch that the firm's customers require.


Risk Assessment: Voip for Remote Offices

Branch office VoIP technology has gone through the early trial, early adopter phase. The phones are stable, and the gateways are deployable. However, many phone systems still lose some functionality when operating in backup mode. In addition, presence technology and integration with other media--the raison d'etre of VoIP--is still spotty.