- Jason Greenberg
Switching to VoIP can be especially worthwhile if your company spends a lot on long-distance calls to far-flung employees, partners, and contacts. If you're already connected to some of these people via a local or wide area network (LAN/WAN), you might as well be making phone calls to them over the pipe that you're already paying for.
Sending your voice calls through an IP pipe along with your data communications has another set of beneficial side effects. For one thing, your company can use "unified messaging," which lets you manage your voice mail and e-mail in the same place. You can also employ so-called "presence" features to see the status--on cell, busy, and so on--of coworkers and contacts.
The first step is buying a voice and data connection (or trunk) that's big enough to handle both your voice telephony and data traffic. This pipe (usually a T1 line) will be dynamic, meaning that it automatically allocates more or less bandwidth to telephony or to Internet access as you need it.
Once connected with a voice and data pipe, you'll decide what sort of VoIP PBX (private branch exchange) is right for your business, and where it should reside. The VoIP PBX--the modern-day progeny of the old analog PBX--is the software brain that manages your VoIP calling traffic, based on your commands. You have three major options here, according to John Macario, president of Boston-based business VoIP consultancy Savatar.
Some businesses--especially those in need of advanced calling features--prefer to own their VoIP PBX and house it on-site. Products such as Adtran's NetVanta, Avaya's Quick Edition, Cisco's UC500, and TalkSwitch's 24-CA are popular low-priced systems that small organizations can set up and operate in-house without much trouble. An on-site PBX gives you more administrative control over the system--that is, if you have the time and the know-how (or an IT person) to make changes to it. The downside to owning your PBX is that when your business outgrows it, you will have to buy more hardware, Macario says.
Outsourced Options
Alternatively, a hosted service lets you junk the old analog PBX hiding in your closet and instead pay a service provider--such as 8X8, Aptela, M5, or Speakeasy--to manage your company's calls on its IP PBX servers. Since those servers are commercial grade, they give you a lot of VoIP PBX features, including old standards like "hold" and "transfer," as well as new IP-driven features like "find me/follow me." When your business grows, you just buy some additional seat licenses from your VoIP provider, rather than investing in new hardware.
"Hosted VoIP service has come of age over the past few years," says Yankee Group senior analyst Patrick Monaghan. He adds that the technology has improved to the point where value-added resellers (VARs) can sell the service and guarantee a reasonable level of quality and reliability.
VARs usually sell a bundle that includes the hosted IP PBX service, the data pipe, a long-distance plan (for calling non-VoIP phones), and any other hardware adapters or routers needed.
What About the Phones?
Cisco's 7970 Series IP phones start as low as $200.
Small businesses usually buy new IP phones (such as those made by Cisco or Polycom) to take full advantage of all the features modern IP PBX systems offer. IP phones typically have better sound quality than their old-line predecessors and have a large display screen that can accommodate contact lists and other information. The good news is that the price of these phones has dropped over the past few years, Savatar's Macario says. Cisco IP office phones now start in the $200 to $250 range, while Polycom phones start in the $140 to $175 range. 
The Hybrid Alternative
You have a third option, as well. If you would prefer not to get rid of your existing PBX and phones, you can still take a step toward VoIP. You can purchase a trunking service--an integrated voice and data pipe that connects to your existing analog system via what's called an Integrated Access Device. "You get [fewer] features, but you can still dramatically lower your voice and data costs," Macario says. Small businesses that pay $40 to $80 for their telephony service per employee per month can reduce that cost to as little as $20 to $35 using a trunking service from a company such as Bandwidth.com or Cbeyond, Macario says.
Getting at the Bottom Line
When deciding on an investment in new VoIP technologies or services, think in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO). No matter which path you choose--on-premises, hosted, or trunking--you should expect to pay some combination of up-front costs (equipment, networking, and setup charges), monthly costs (service and out-of-network long-distance charges), and yearly costs (training and support). Add together all the costs you'll pay for the length of the contract that your provider offers you. Divide the total by the number of months in the contract, then by the number of employees in your small business.
Once you have that number, compare it with the amount you now pay for voice and data services per employee every month. If you see a savings, converting to VoIP telephony might be a good move for you. Just take the time to do your research, pick the type of solution that best fits your business, and make sure the numbers add up.
