Why VoIP For SMBs Is Hot

Reason No. 1: Unifying Voice And Data Applications

For businesses ranging from five to 500 employees, one of the most compelling aspects of VoIP is its ability to integrate voice and data applications, which isn't an option with circuit-based phone systems.

"One of the key things we're seeing is the whole unified communication thing," says Sanjay Kalra, director of product management at Juniper Networks in Sunnyvale, Calif. "The key reason for upgrading to Voice over IP used to be voice, but now the cost of making any phone call is almost zero. So now it's more about advanced and unified applications."

Such applications include the ability to forward voicemails as .wav files in an e-mail; the ability to scroll through voicemail messages, which lets the customer hear the messages in the preferred order; a "follow-me" feature in which a call is automatically forwarded to a user's cellphone or second desk phone; and a "click-to-call" capability, which integrates phone functions with a variety of office applications.

"Connectivity to Salesforce.com--which lets you just click on somebody's information within the application and dial out--was an innovation that we brought out for our small-business customers first," says Richard McCloud, director of unified communications solutions for the worldwide channels group at Cisco Systems in San Jose, Calif., which offers myriad applications for its CallManager unified-communication products. In November, Cisco launched a new program aimed at educating VARs about its unified communications offerings and how best to sell them. "Master Specialization, Master Unified Communications" is only the second of Cisco's highly advanced education programs for VARs. The first, introduced in March, focused on security.

"The real end-user value is around productivity," says Mike Segura, executive director of SMB and data programs at Nortel Networks in Brampton, Ontario. "We definitely see customers harvesting the value of not just unified messaging and voicemail, but leveraging a partnership we have with Microsoft to allow users to make phone calls from their desktops and laptops, as well as their mobile phones."

Integrating VoIP with video services also is a common customer request.

"I'm seeing more and more questions about that and also more development come out of Cisco," Advanced Technical Solutions' Sims says. "Everyone wants to see each other when they talk to each other."

"There's an awful lot of small and midsize businesses out there that have two or sometimes three locations," Cisco's McCloud says. "With desktop systems that connect into the voice systems, every call is literally a video call, and being here is equivalent to being there."

NEXT: Reason #2