VoIP News: September 2007

Children need not be left at home while their mothers head off to work in the office, it has been suggested. The growth of homeworking, supported by VoIP telephony systems, means that women have the opportunity to keep up with their career while still being a mother, claimed Karen Gill, the founder of business resource and support service everywoman. "Working from home is an enormous motivator for women with children, who still do the lion's share of home and family care," she said.

In a new online advertising twist, one US-based VoIP provider has created a method of sending ads to the user depending on what they are talking about. Pudding Media is trying to take advantage of the advertising potential of its user base by allowing marketers to display adverts of users' screens if the conversation mentioned topics highlighted in new terms. "For example, a consumer talking about movies may see links to trailers, reviews and show times," the company explains.

Ensuring VoIP telephony systems are well maintained and providing good customer support have been described as "critical" to the success of service providers. The latest InfoTrack report examining the quality of maintenance and the level of customer satisfaction in the VoIP industry concluded that these two issues were having the largest impact on the success of an installation. Warren Williams, the senior program director for InfoTrack for Enterprise Services and the author of the report, said that decision-makers in firms may pay attention to the features on offer, but assurances of reliability and low levels of risk were most likely to drive a VoIP systems purchase.

In order to show companies the way forward in using information technology (IT) to reduce carbon emissions, cabinet minister Gillian Merron has urged government departments to invest in 'green' IT systems such as VoIP. Speaking at a European e-government conference in Lisbon, Ms Merron told public sector information officers to take responsibility for sustainable IT projects and set an example for the rest of the UK.

Strong growth of Voice over Wireless Local Area Network (VoWLAN) in Europe is increasing the ability of workers to keep in touch with the office when on the move, it has been suggested. Such is the growing popularity of the web-based voice communication that market research firm IDC has predicted a 67 per cent increase in its use by 2011 to become an industry worth £350 million. "VoWLAN in the enterprise is only now starting to attract widespread attention," said Evelien Wiggers, research manager for European Enterprise Networks at IDC.