Increasing adoption of Voice over IP drives purchases of state-of-the-art phone sets.
A phone is a phone is a phone, right? Not necessarily. Organizations that implement Voice over IP (VoIP) technology can take advantage of IP phone sets that offer a host of productivity-enhancing features. And besides — they’re cool.
Don’t worry, bean counters: The transition to VoIP doesn’t mean that you have to replace all of your phone sets. Many IP telephony systems enable organizations to utilize existing digital and even analog phone equipment.
In fact, the market for IP phones has lagged the overall market IP telephony, according to high-tech market research firm In-Stat, simply because many deployments of hybrid PBXs don’t include an upgrade to new phones. As VoIP gains traction, however, organizations are realizing that merging voice and data in a single network provides an enhanced communication experience.
“In order to benefit from the advanced applications delivered by next-generation telephony platforms, enterprises are choosing to upgrade their legacy endpoints with high-tech IP ones,” saidLaura Devoto, research analyst for global growth consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
Features Galore
Increasing adoption of IP telephony systems is already starting to spur sales of IP phones, In-Stat reports. The research firm predicts that 93 million IP phones will ship to businesses and consumers by 2011, up from 24.3 million in 2007. Businesses will predominate deployments of desktop IP phones through the forecast period.
IP phone features vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but there are some commonalities. Most include a graphical interface that supports CallerID, directory features and a menu-driven interface that removes much of the mystery from advanced calling options. Some desktop IP phones even have a high-resolution color display for videoconferencing and Web browsing.
IP phones include common business phone functions such as call transfer, park and pickup, as well as buttons that can be customized to handle the most frequently used features. However, IP phones also enable point-and-click call management and provide reports of placed, received and missed calls. A key benefit of IP phones is their ability to create a platform for unified communications with a seamless user experience.
IP phones also deliver, manage and support more advanced communications options, including audio, Web and video conferencing, e-mail and instant messaging. These features reduce costs, enhance efficiency and improve customer service — bottom-line benefits that are propelling the uptake of IP phone equipment.
Wi-Fi VoIP technology enables cell phones, PDAs and other handheld devices to be connected through the IP telephony system. Organizations needing cost-effective wireless voice connectivity can also take advantage of IP-DECT phones.
Advanced Applications
To address the growing demand for IP phones, vendors have been developing technology that provides customers with productivity-enhancing applications and easy-to-use-and-deploy devices. IP phones that support extensible markup language (XML) and telephony application programming interface (TAPI) applications enable independent software developers as well as organizations themselves to develop customized applications that add value to business processes.
"Presence" — which refers to an individual’s availability at any point in time and his preferred mode of communication — is one of the most attractive features of these solutions. With presence, users can decide how to communicate at any time and anywhere, according to the situation, and achieve seamless communication.
Over the next few years, IP phone sales will grow quickly as the benefits of IP phones resonate more strongly with end-users. Although IP-DECT and Wi-Fi VoIP phones will be deployed primarily by specific vertical industries, businesses of all types can benefit from the integration of multiple communications applications in a single interface or device.
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