SMEs look to boost productivity through VoIP

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are poised to turn to IP telephony and hosted unified communications systems so that they can take advantage of its ability to boost productivity, according to research group Dimension Data.

A study by the firm found that the benefits of greater flexibility and increased productivity from employees are the greatest attractions to SMEs pondering the introduction of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) systems.

The reduction in call costs and increased customer satisfaction were also highlighted as factors driving the uptake of VoIP in the eyes of those businesses surveyed.

Rob Lopez, managing director, solutions at Dimensions Data, told recruitment website onrec.com that SMEs were moving on from introducing virtual private networks (VPNs), which allow data to be shared across the company, to IP telephony services.

He said many SMEs "would like to offer VoIP telephony or softphone [telephony through computer terminal], indicating that these technologies are very much a future focus of enterprise flexible working and convergent communication strategies".