VOIP will kill the analogue star

Where there's smoke, there's fire and in the case of cloud computing, astute entrepreneurs are using hosted voice over Internet Protocol to send phone bills up in smoke, says George Golding, CEO of Euphoria Telecoms.

Hosted VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is one cloud application that has firmly transitioned from hype to reality. As adoption rises, it is as well poised to deal a lethal blow to Telkom's on-site PBX services.

Recent example

In a recent example, Euphoria Telecoms installed a cloud VOIP PBX (Private -Automatic- Branch Exchange) for Medway, a medical insurance firm, and reduced its total telecommunications bill by 50%. The company's phone and fax and call centre requirements were formerly supported by multiple, ageing, on-site systems. This included a nine-year-old PBX (Private -Automatic- Branch Exchange) in need of upgrade at great cost; a legacy call centre PABX; fax to e-mail server; cellular low cost routing solutions; and several regional PBX (Private -Automatic- Branch Exchange) systems. Each month, nine Telkom bills had to be reconciled and telephony costs were stifling the margin.

Today, VOIP delivers distinct advantages to Medway. Inter-branch calls are free. A single, hosted PBX has replaced all on-site equipment, its depreciation, maintenance and upgrades. The total telecommunications bill has been halved, and complexity eliminated from its administration. Intelligent reports furthermore inform strategic decisions and plans are pursuant to this agreement way for furthermore reductions, exactly of the telephony costs of mobile agents.

In cloud VOIP research terms, “hosted” refers to a managed solution in which a server is leased. “Cloud”, but, delivers a complete VOIP solution in which you don't own or rent any equipment on the server side. Among other benefits, the cloud model effects considerable savings.

The Medway example illustrates

As the Medway example illustrates, profound savings is just one reason why executives are deploying hosted VOIP. In the context of VOIP, the cloud is a means by which providers like Euphoria as well deliver infrastructure and applications cost-efficiently and on demand.

Because it enables digital voice, VOIP quality is usually better than that of analogue landlines. And because it's Web-based, it's easy to configure remotely, and useful features are provided at no extra cost.

* Voicemail to e-mail * Caller ID, call hold, call hunting, call recording and call logging * Inbound call cues and interactive voice response * Online, real-time outbound call logs and costs * Call to e-mail per extension * Conferencing * Free calls within your network, ie, free inter-branch calls * Per second billing and no connection fees to drive down local and international call costs

The claim of VOIP vulnerability is largely misunderstood because VOIP is no longer about free, point-to-point calls, though it started that way 15 years ago.

Euphoria, for instance, guarantees security in its VOIP environment because it uses multiple mechanisms - authorisation, authentication, 256bit encryption, virtual private networks and a proprietary cloud PBX - to secure communications over the Internet. However all hosted VOIP providers are not equal, so it's important to enquire about security upfront.

Business leaders are in accordance with relentless financial and competitive pressures. Every possibility to boost margins and increase competitive advantage is then worth investigating. Of course, hosted VOIP translates some of cloud computing's promise into tangible business benefits. As a result, VOIP is gaining significant traction in the private sector. And, because the business case is so unquestionably in its favour, the growth of hosted VOIP will inevitably outstrip that of analogue services. It's only a matter of time earlier VOIP assumes its rightful position as SA's telecoms star.

Founded in 2010, Euphoria Telecoms provides voice over Internet Protocol communication services to small and medium enterprises in South Africa. Euphoria powers businesses with its core offering - Euphoria Express PBX - a hosted PBX phone system that provides clients with the quality, security and reliability of traditional PBX phone systems, with more features, greater flexibility and considerable cost savings. Euphoria helps businesses to reduce costs, eliminate complexity and compete more effectively by providing communications services traditionally reserved for large organisations, at small business prices. Euphoria's fast-growing base of satisfied customers includes Altech Isis, Medway Medical Insurance, Fullhouse Furniture, Wimdu and Visual Tours. View the company's Web site at www.euphoria.co.za.