IP Telephony

IP Telephony

Already established in the US, IP telephony will be standard in most UK businesses by 2010.

The importance of IP to a business person is the ability to deliver voice calls and data (email and connecting to the internet) and video simultaneously down one pipe. Quite straight forward so far? What is significant is the stepping stone from IP services to hosted services.

Hosted services mean that companies no longer have to own and maintain their own servers for email or switches for telephone systems; in fact they no longer need to own their own telephone systems. The use of IP means that for less than they currently spend on in-house systems they can have better functionality piped to each of their sites.

Instead of buying a small PBX which you install on your company premises, a hosting solution usually means sharing a portion of a large soft PBX which sits off-site in a data centre. The key drivers for Hosted Telephony are that all of the support and maintenance is taken away, there are no upfront costs - this is a rental model and the solution is scalable and not constrained by the capacity of the hardware.

How it works
The expensive all singing all dancing phone system sits in the heart of a data centre and is maintained by engineers. The Telco simply installs a fully featured IP handset onto your desk which is connected to a data centre via a dedicated private network.

This completely managed telephony solution cuts out the costs associated with owning your own telephone system such as network line rentals, PBX maintenance, system upgrades and expensive engineering call outs.

The Telco handles the installation process for you, all you need is a secure connection to a data centre and handsets on your desk. If you have multiple sites, then great, the Telco manages the installation at each site giving you crystal clear free calls between sites and advanced features.

Handsets
For end users, the "look and feel" of their telephone system will not have changed. They still have a range of sophisticated desk handsets, headsets, cordless, fax machines and the rich telephony feature sets they have come to expect.

Costs
Hosted telephony solutions provide you with clear and significant savings. No capital outlay, fixed monthly costs and free calls between sites. We can route your calls via the cheapest carrier given the destination of the call for the time of day.

Key Features
Aside from cost savings, flexibility and mobility are the key features of hosted. To add a new user simply order a new phone and the rest is done back at the data centre.

In today's flexible working environment employees may work from one of many offices, or from home or even whilst on the move. Voice and data convergence allows an employee to have one number to be contacted on no matter where they are. In fact an actual phone is not needed, just a headset and microphone plugged into their pc will suffice. The internet connection will provide connectivity back to the data centre - which houses the phone system. This is of course merely scratches the surface.

Key Benefits

• A 'phone system' with minimal capital investment
• Multiple locations, one centralised 'phone system'
• Only one connection is needed for voice and data (traditionally two required - ISDN30 for voice and a broadband provider for data).
• Pay only for telephony services you use
• Lower & predictable running costs
• Reduced telecoms network charges and call costs
• Self install new extensions quickly and easily
• Free calls between all your offices and staff
• Adapts and expands easily to your requirements
• Full and comprehensive telephony functionality
• Fully managed service with localised user control
• One centralised single bill for your voice services and call costs
• Migration to IP telephony at your own pace
• PBX to PBX connectivity, connects to your existing phone system

* Compiled by Excell Group