Hosted telephony 'offers savings'

Installing a hosted telephony system rather than traditional VoIP hardware offers organisations a variety of benefits, according to a report.

Burain Nadeau, writing in techLearning.com, said that many school districts are attracted to VoIP solutions, because VoIP is "one of the most powerful digital technologies for education [and] can reduce communication costs by routing calls over a district's internal network rather than the more expensive phone network".

However, they are often unsure whether to install VoIP hardware or use hosted telephony.

But Mr Nadeau provides the example of Gary L Allen, the chief technology officer for the Amarillo Independent School District in the USA, who chose a hosted solution.

"Early on, I came to the realisation that it cost about the same over five years to have a company do everything for a monthly fee," said Mr Allen.

"The big pay off was that there was no money needed up front and they did it all."

Additionally, the district was able to make more cash savings by reusing 1,800 of its analogue phones.