SME costs 'can be cut by VoIP'

Installing a hosted PBX or voice over internet telephony (VoIP) can provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with additional profits and growth, it has been suggested.

Reasons for this include savings on call costs and the added flexibility such internet telephony systems can offer a commercial business and its staff, which can see efficiency improve.

A spokesperson for the Communications Management Association (CMA), Paul Fegan, said that VoIP appeals strongly to its users as it makes their call system more "personalised and manageable".

"They can log on to any phone in the office and have their profile," he said.

"It’s not down to wires, which the traditional... telephony platform offered; this is now user-profiling based on a log in. So it becomes more like your computer on a telephone."

While Mr Fegan accepted that there may be more cost per individual for the basic desk instruments compared to traditional systems, taking a wider view of IP telephony "the overall deal is cost-effective".

He added that the benefits are especially clear for firms which operate on more than one site, as "intra-organisational calls are going to be free and people can go from one office to another, take their log in and they have their profile wherever they are".