Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are amongst the companies that stand to benefit most from installing new Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions, according to an industry expert.

Colin Duffy, a council member of the Internet Telephony Services Providers' Association (ITSPA), argued that VoIP could integrate communication services and thereby make it easier for firms to maintain contact with both employees and clients.

Mr Duffy said: "With voicemail, your inbound call is answered by the network, the message is left, and then converted to an MP3 file and emailed to you.

"So you can pick up your voicemail wherever you are, so long as you have access to the internet."

He also claimed that landline number are increasingly being forwarded so that workers can take calls even when they are out of the office.

Recent research by iLocus suggests that the amount spent on VoIP technology has increased over the past year, with overall VoIP traffic rising by 35 per cent.