Applications In Business For VOIP
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is a new concept which enables telecom operators to provide new services over the IP infrastructure by simply loading softwares on to the servers. To find the most advantageous service the operators can keep experimenting with the services as the process is easy and economical. There are many useful applications for VOIP in business. Telecom operators are encouraged to find the apt software for providing different VOIP services such as SIP-based messaging, hosted BPX and Centrex, multimedia conferencing with the help of Light Reading's directory. The International Packets Communications Consortium (IPCC), the foremost VOIP industry association is encouraging members to participate in the Light Reading's scheme and is endorsing the initiative. Many enterprises started using VOIP to direct calls through the internet instead of the normal use of traditional phone connections. This way they managed to save a lot of money. VOIP today has started a revolution by not only providing inexpensive phone calls but also enhancing some of the applications which are most commonly used in an enterprise. The IDT senior analyst, William Stofega, warned IP telephony that it must be proved that VOIP is more than an inexpensive replacement to the plain old telephone (POT) service. By 2009 there will be around 27 million subscribers to VOIP in the U.S. alone. According to the senior analyst at Instant/MDR, Keith Nissen, enterprises have begun to recognize VOIP and they have started becoming comfortable with it. They now want to know what IP telephony can achieve. Nissen says that now the focus will shift from what VOIP is to how it will benefit the user. According to Victoria Desidero, Vice President of Marketing at NetFabric, today VOIP is not seen simply as a means to save money. He says that savings in cost is not a big differentiator. Intelligent Call Directors that connect to a PBX allowing an enterprise to make calls over an IP connection or PSTN is produced by NetFabric based in Connecticut. Desidero says that although the cost saving with the help of VOIP has brought lots of customers, they will soon be interested in its applications. Efficiency, customer service and cost saving are the three broad categories that IP enabled applications fall into, according to Desidero. Although the ways in which VOIP applications may enhance an enterprise are many, these are the three main categories. Improved voice recognition, call centre related functions, and integrating with office tools such as Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook are the three main VOIP application types. A critical VOIP application is the ability of the software produced by NetFabric to check outgoing calls against an online do-not-call list automatically, according to the NetFabric executive. Such information can be entered by the customers into Microsoft Outlook with the help of NetFabric's FUS1ON call controller. When vice president at VocalTec, Scott Wharton helped with the production of the first IP telephony product. VOIP application developer BroadSoft now has him as the vice president of marketing where he has taken over the supervision of the growth of IP telephony. There is a toolbar in Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer, click-to-dial, with the help of which by right clicking on a name the full information of the contact is brought up including the phone number. This is one of the applications of VOIP. As per analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, VOIP services that will be used by businesses will triple by the end of this year. There can be more applications for VOIP which includes conference calls that help the user search for database using voice. BroadSoft's Wharton says that VOIP will bring about a revolution. |
