VoIP solutions offer 'significant' cost reduction

VoIP solutions can provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with "significant" reductions in telecoms costs, according to an expert.

Sue Hogg, director of Microsoft UK's information worker business group, wrote on Computer Weekly that Microsoft-commissioned research by AMI-Partners found that UK SMEs are expected to spend £22 billion on IT and telecoms this year.

It was also revealed that competition and profitability were among SMEs biggest business concerns.

This meant that VoIP solutions were part of their "fast IT goals", and Ms Hogg explained that such technology was within reach of most companies.

"VoIP is a technology that was once the exclusive domain of the enterprise, but it now offers a significant opportunity for [SMEs] to reduce communications costs and is very easy for small businesses to set up," she wrote.

Ms Hogg also felt that communication and collaboration between locations would become vital, with 21 per cent of SMEs planning to add new offices in the next 12 months, furthering the argument for VoIP solutions.