VoIP guide launched for small businesses

Small businesses thinking of switching over to VoIP-based communications have been offered a guide to try to help them with their decision.

Launched by Australian group the Small Enterprise Telecommunications Centre (Setel), the guide looks at what benefits VoIP can bring to a smaller business and attempts to give advice without using technical terms to make it easier to understand.

It advises that "small businesses must skill up on VoIP before venturing into this new domain... [and] must carry out their own self-assessment to determine if VoIP is suitable for their business practices and situation...

"Small business must be alert as there are almost no VoIP consumer protection measures."

However, despite these warnings, Setel told IT Wire: "The attitude towards VoIP is positive provided time is taken to gain the necessary knowledge - not necessarily a simple task for time-poor small businesses."

The guide adds that there is no 'quick fix' to making the decision to change over from traditional telecoms systems to VoIP, but the "potential for productivity gains from the increased communications functionality of VoIP" still remains.

The full guide can be viewed on the Setel website.