While all this is going on, the VoIP industry is continuing to make strides forward, especially in the form of hosted VoIP technology. The technology is being further refined every day, and this is really getting people excited.

With a barrage of fly-by-night VoIP service providers popping up daily, business owners are having an increasingly difficult time sifting through the mess to find a legit service. With this in mind, I’ve decided to create a quick and easy checklist so when it comes time for you to choose the right hosted VoIP provider you know what to look for.

1. Make Sure Voice Quality, Is “Business Voice Quality.”

Many companies out there, ourselves included, have put serious time and money into developing and refining call-handling architecture in-house to cut out jitter, echoes, and the other disruptions. Today, a hosted VoIP provider can easily deliver the same type of call quality as a premise based system or the public telephone network. Before committing to a hosted service, make sure you confirm that the call quality is up to your standard. The best ways to do this are to take a test call using their service or to ask a current customer about their experience with the product.

2. Double Check the Feature Offering

One of hosted VoIP’s big draws is the range of features offered. Here are some features that should come standard with your system:

• 3-Way Calling
• Call Transfer
• Hold Music
• Do Not Disturb
• Speed Dial
• Speakerphone
• Off-Hook Call Placement
• Call Mute
• Distinctive Rings

3. What Additional Perks are Offered By the Service?

Many hosted VoIP services have additional perks. These usually come in the form of added features and services, which, depending on the service, can come at no extra cost to you. Here are some perks to keep an eye out for.

• Unified Voice & Fax Messaging: Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a single phone number for both voice and fax. How about if you could send all voicemails and fax messages as email attachments to the addresses of your choice and access everything through email or an online control panel? There are services out there that provide these unified communications capabilities at no extra charge.

• Outlook Integration: Make sure your hosted VoIP service integrates with Outlook. This will save you time and you’ll love the easy to use click to dial feature.

• Recorded Calls: Can your hosted service record some or all of the calls you receive? With this feature you can cut down on taking notes, improve quality control, and review disputes..

• Advanced ACD & Call Queue: Advanced automatic call distribution allows you to choose how your calls are forwarded, including round-robin, simultaneous, least-time, and skills-based distributions, while advanced call queue lets you better control calls during peak hours. Some services offer these capabilities, allowing you to better manage call volume and get calls in the appropriate peoples’ hands.

• Internet Control Panel: Hosted VoIP phone service runs over the internet, so why wouldn’t you have the benefit of an Internet control panel to manage things like call routing features, voice and fax messages, call reports, account information, and more. Make sure your hosted provider gives you this level of access, you and your employees will enjoy being able to easily manage voicemail and change personal settings online.

• Visual Call Reports: These reports allow you to clearly see everything taking place on your business phone system at anytime. With this feature you’ll be able to generate, filter, and export detailed call reports online with easy-to-read spreadsheets and graphs. You’ll also be able to view a display of which employees are logged into their phones and be able to listen in on live calls. A select group of providers offer these features, make sure it’s part of your service.

• Voicemail Transcription: This technology is coming onto the scene fast! Imagine being able to convert your voicemail messages to text and deliver them to your email or mobile phone. This is a great feature, but not every provider offers it, make sure to ask!

4. Is the Service Compatible with the Right Phone?

There are a variety of phones that work with hosted VoIP service, some are obviously better than others. We’ve always found Polycom to be a top notch VoIP phone. Make sure that the phone you want to use works with the service you are interested in purchasing.

5. How is their Customer Service?

When you’re using a hosted provider customer service is key. Remember, you’re not going to have someone onsite to help you troubleshoot issues, so you’re going to want to have access to a qualified representative over the phone. Make sure your hosted VoIP provider prides themselves on customer service, because if something does go wrong, you want to make sure there is someone available to get you back on track.

6. Finally, How Much Does it Cost?

You can’t shop a hosted VoIP provider on just price alone, the saying that, “you get what you pay for” definitely applies here. At the same time, you need something that fits within your budget. Make sure you pick a product that is not too cheap, and at the same time does not seem overly expensive after you have evaluated the complete product offering. The good news is that you will undoubtedly be saving money once you switch to VoIP. Remember, a professional phone system tells customers they are dealing with a professional business. You’re going to want a hosted VoIP service that makes your company shine. When picking a hosted provider, make sure the provider fits your company.

About the Author: As a Marketing Communications Manager at FreedomVOICE, John E Lincoln is responsible for educating consumers about the tremendous benefits that the FreedomIQ® Hosted VoIP PBX has to offer. This includes cost savings, productivity increasing features, unique support for remote workers, quality customer service, and more. Find out more about FreedomVOICE and the FreedomIQ Hosted VoIP PBX at http://www.freedomiq.com. John E Lincoln can be reached via email at john.lincoln@freedomvoice.com or by phone at 800-477-1477 ex 831.

The first FreedomIQ Review by FreedomVOICE focuses on the Cisco WIP310 Wireless-G IP Phone. As a dynamic and powerful device, the introduction of the Cisco WIP310 marks a new level of maturity in wireless VoIP.  The WIP310 works within 300 feet of an Internet connection, provides impressive browsing capabilities, and allows for 3 hours talk time and 40 hours standby between charging.

Due to an overwhelming amount of requests for a Wi-Fi phone, FreedomVOICE kept a close relationship with Linksys Cisco for over 9 months in anticipation of the WIP310 release. During that time, FreedomVOICE tested almost every option on the market, however, the Cisco WIP310 proved to be the superior device. The FreedomIQ Hosted VoIP PBX by FreedomVOICE is the first VoIP service provider to offer the WIP310.

The Cisco WIP310 Wireless-G has been an exciting addition to the FreedomIQ hosted VoIP service. The product has created a tremendous buzz in the business community, and has even become a driving force behind some business owner’s decision to adopt the FreedomIQ service.

Watch Episode 1 of the FreedomIQ Review where FreedomVOICE Tier 2 Engineer, Cory Dzbinski, highlights the most important features to consider when determining whether a product is correct for your business.

John Lincoln
Marketing Communications Manager
www.freedomiq.com
800-477-1477 ex 831

There are five assessment criteria for SMBs to consider when investigating the migration from TDM to VoIP to SIP Trunking. VARs need to familiarize themselves with the assessment areas and prepare appropriate responses. Properly responding to the assessment criteria will ameliorate the risks in favor of the benefits and potential.

Cost: The current economic environment creates an opportunity for SMBs to address cash flow and profit margins. SIP Trunking allows an SMB to implement converged services (voice, data, video), immediately eliminating the need for separate dedicated lines. Moreover, when SMBs deploy SIP Trunking with an IP PBX the resulting savings can easily increase their profit margin. Unlimited local and long distance calling over a converged connection (DSL, T1 or DS3) can drop monthly telecom costs from $2800 to $840, a 70% savings, because entry SIP Trunks average $11-13 per month per call session while POTs lines are usually twice that amount or more.

In addition to the cost of the service, the second major item of savings is the actual IP PBX. It can represent significant cost savings over a TDM platform. IP PBXs range from very simple PC servers running open source software to proprietary implementations, all at a much lower cost than their predecessors.

Quality of Service (QoS): A business needs its phones and they must work reliably with good voice quality. Historically, POTs lines have led the way and many SMBs were disappointed with the public Internet VoIP voice quality and service. Today, private IP networks are available, offering QoS and reliability equal to that delivered over a TDM network. SIP Trunking deployed on a private network, such as the robust nationwide network built and engineered by Broadvox, is proven to satisfy the most discriminating customers. Quality of service also requires a strong customer service capability, availability and trouble ticketing process. The correct network supplier will have all of these elements in place.

Solution Offering: What is the existing telecom equipment and what is proposed? VARs can assist SMBs in defining their unique communications requirements. SMBs may realize that their legacy equipment is feature rich, but lacking in ability to maximize use of the Internet or migrate to a converged infrastructure. SMBs need to compare the added value of new equipment versus adopting a hybrid solution using legacy CPE with SIP enabled IADs and gateways versus doing nothing. Properly defined solutions can be deployed with minimal disruption of daily business transactions and short training periods. Deployment can be staged or cutover all at once; the strategy should be identified within the solution proposal.

Support: Before deploying a SIP Trunking solution, SMBs must have the assurance that support will be available for the solution should a problem occur. With Broadvox, support is provided through an experienced customer service organization, strong team of SIP engineers able to address any interoperability or provisioning issues and a 24×7 Network Operations Center continuously monitoring all traffic and network conditions.

The VAR has support responsibility as well. The VAR must be ready to address equipment issues, configuration questions, router installs, etc. Support must be available as part of the proposal or on a pay per need basis. Understanding the commitment of both the VAR and service provider is a key criterion for the SMB, and should be spelled out in the proposal and service level agreement.

Standards Compliance: Most new telecom equipment is IP enabled and SMBs must search for solutions that will enable them to take advantage of the available productivity enhancements. Today, SIP enabled servers and services are not plug and play. Similar to the early days of T1s, SIP Trunks need to be tested between the OEM IP PBX, IAD or media gateway prior to being deployed in a customer environment. The testing should result in the equipment and service being certified by either the OEM or the service provider.

Interoperability that is certified has the highest potential to support the next generation of converged service applications such as unified communications, presence, find me/follow me, and many others. VARs again can step in to guide end users to the best solution to enable SMB infrastructures when implementing this new software.

In summary, SMBs must not stagnate during these economic times. VARs must assist them in quickly assessing the best strategy to move forward in implementing IP communications. The five key assessment criteria are cost, quality of service, solution offering, support and SIP standards compliance. Deployed properly, SIP Trunking will deliver the level of VoIP communications SMBs and enterprises require and want.

Written by:

David Byrd

VP of Marketing and Sales

www.broadvox.com

800-273-4320

This new product is the VoSKY Pro VIT/E1 gateway. This plugs into larger PBXes which normally receive incoming T1 or E1 lines. T1 has the ability to carry 24 standard phone circuits of 64 Kbps each with a 1.5 Mbps throughput. A E1 is a 2 Mbps European standard that can carry 30 phone circuits. This is far more effective than previous exchanges from VoSKY which only had the capability of handling 4-8 simultaneous phone calls at one time.

Even small companies can gain a lot by combining VoSKY with a Skype service. They could have the ability to place gateways in two branches and send traffic between the two using Skype, also known as trunking. They can also make all outgoing calls via SkypeOut, which would cost about the same per year as it would per month using a traditional phone service. The savings and ease of internet connected calling are worth looking into!

Article written by Erin Laing

In order to phone with the cheapest rates of set of providers and/or to receives call from on different DID (virtual geographic numbers) without My SIP Switch, you would need as many phones as provider or to buy expensive pieces of hardware (so that they can support multiple SIP registrations) . My SIP Switch allows you using all your SIP accounts easily and effectively.

You need to create your dial plan (based on Asterisk syntax or in Ruby) which will control your outgoing and incoming calls. Note that the dial plan can also be made in RUBY and that creates another enormous bunch of possible features: number blocking, adding timers in call redirection, ENUM lookups, etc.

The service is completely free since the project it only based on signaling, it is cheap to host. It is being improved on a regular basis by a team of developers. The source code is written in C# and can be downloaded from: http://www.codeplex.com/mysipswitch

My SIP Switch can prove to be a handy tool for VoIP enthusiasts!

Some features include:

• SIP account creation
• Setting up a customised dial plan
• Setting up 3rd party SIP Registrations
• SIP traffic forwarding
• SIP Accounts activity monitoring via the website
• SIP traffic monitoring via telnet
• Online switchboard: call hold/resume, call transfer/forward, call hangup
• Usual security features
• Click to Call (Beta)
• Possibility to run it on a local computer
• Multiple call forwarding
• RUBY Dial plans

Take a look and let us know what you think. It seems like a great open source product that would work for anyone.

SPIT is not only a reality these days, it’s a quickly growing problem. No, it’s not as common as the Viagra spam in your email bulk folder, but it has definitely arrived. Skype users, in particular, are seeing a rise of instant messages from spammers with fake accounts. As companies scramble around in an attempt to stem these attacks, we the users are left to defend ourselves.

Below are five ways to protect yourself against SPIT:

1. Block Suspicious IMs – If you’re a Skype user who is suddenly garnering a lot of attention from scantily clad anonymous women, it’s time to go on the defense. Sorry to burst your bubble, but someone is either trying to hack your computer or sell you something you don’t need.
2. Demand Authentication – No matter what kind of VoIP provider you are using, SPIT can be a problem. By demanding authentication from your nearest and dearest, you can limit your incoming calls to a trusted inner circle. Mind you, this isn’t really an option for business users.
3. Install Additional Security Measures – Programs are arriving, such as VoIP SEAL, which are getting smart about detecting known untrusted callers. This could give more freedom to business users who can’t narrow down their incoming calls to just a few people.
4. Screen All Calls – Sadly, many of us resorted to this defense on our regular landlines long ago. If all inbound callers have to pass some voice-automated recognition or even leave a message in your inbox, then you can easily dodge those nasty SPITters.
5. Improve All Security Measures – SPIT isn’t the only security problem faced by VoIP users. Research conducted by VOIPshield Systems Inc. found many flaws in three of the leading VoIP vendors’ products. By increasing security measures on all fronts, you will lower your risk of SPIT.

Has the VoIP industry been lulled into a false sense of security? Since there hadn’t been a widespread breech of security problems with VoIP before now, many people assumed it wasn’t going to happen. However, that was merely due to the lack of VoIP usage. The technology is becoming much more commonplace, which is why security problems are rising now. By going on the defense and nipping some of these problems in the bud, we could prevent a potentially debilitating setback.

By-line:

Heather Johnson is a freelance business, finance and economics writer, as well as a regular contributor at Business Credit Cards, a site for best business credit cards and best business credit card offers. Heather welcomes comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address: heatherjohnson2323 [at] gmail [dot] com .

As part of its sustained campaign to dominate the emerging world of on-demand applications, salesforce.com has announced a version of the Skype Internet-based telephone software to work with its Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) package.

The special version of Skype, developed by the German voice-over-IP specialist PamConsult will enable salesforce.com users to incorporate phone communications in their CRM applications. The package is available free through salesforce.com’s on-demand software directory AppExchange.

Users of Skype for Salesforce can make and receive calls or initiate text chats directly with other Skype users. Contact names and presence indicators can be added manually or imported automatically into Salesforce. Non-Skype users with traditional telephones can be called with a single click and the package can be used for conference calls with up to ten Skype or non-Skype users.

Phill Robinson, chief operating officer for sales at salesforce.com, says the Skype extension is another important component in the AppExchange portfolio which will help promote the platform as the leading on-demand application environment: “We are trying to build a developer community around AppExchange and with this announcement developers can embed Skype in high order applications. There are 575 applications in AppExchange now and we want it to be to on-demand computing what Windows was to client server.”

He says there is a gathering momentum around AppExchange and the Skype development represents a shift in the type of technology being built for the platform: “The profile is changing. A year ago, they were building on the CRM application because of salesforce.com’s presence in the market. But now I think people are choosing AppExchange because it is the best platform.”

The Skype development follows a number of moves by salesforce.com in recent months to promote its on-demand AppExchange platform including links with Adobe’s Flex.

Article Source: The Register

Traditional IP telephony is failing to meet people’s needs at work. Workers waste 30 minutes per week in phone tag and for 50 per cent of calls workers make they have to look up the number (according to research firm Harris Corp.). E-mail also has its shortcomings, with information overload and misinterpreted emotion. There is the need for the resurgence of the voice back in business and it doesn’t need to be a costly endeavour.

For several years now, customers have been asking Microsoft for solutions that help people work better together, Rushe said. And he identified three main problems with regards to setting up business communications with people: Scheduling, varying online identities, and differing communications technologies.

“There’s a mental cost associated with moving from one communications technology to another . . . the solution we’re bringing through our unified communications platform simplifies this,” he said. “With Office Communications Server 2007 you have the ability to get additional information as it pulls from Exchange Server and information in your calendar.”

Unveiled at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2007, Microsoft and nine OEMs — ASUSTek Computer Inc., GN, LG-Nortel Co. Ltd., NEC Corp., Plantronics Inc., Polycom Inc., SAMSUNG, Tatung Co. and ViTELiX — are introducing a new generation of devices that connect the workplace phone to e-mail, instant messaging, real-time presence information, conferencing, VoIP, and mobile communications.

The new wave of phones and devices would become available for use in the public beta program of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, officials said. Microsoft is providing the device manufacturers with design specifications, helping to assure customers that the new phones and devices work easily with Office Communications Server and Office Communicator.

For the end user, all forms of incoming communication — whether an e-mail, voice message, or instant message — are posted in his/her Outlook inbox. Through Outlook, one could respond or interact with the sender as one sees fit.

“There remains a heavy reliance on e-mail . . . there’s been a lot of questions raised about ‘has business gone too far in terms of its reliance on e-mail?’ A lot of that has to do with the mental cost of using what’s easiest,” he said. “What we’re trying to offer customers is a lot of choice around how they want to deliver Voice over IP.”

The phones and devices would work out-of-the-box with Microsoft’s unified communications software, Rushe said. The 15 phones and devices include Internet protocol (IP) phones, Universal Serial Bus (USB) phones, wired and wireless headsets, conferencing phones, LCD monitors and laptops.

The other side of the story Rushe said is that with these devices and Microsoft’s solutions, the software giant is aiming to help companies that have PBX infrastructures to prolong the lifecycle of those networks. He said companies recognize VoIP is the future communications platform though PBX infrastructures typically stay in place for up to a decade. That the move to IP-PBX is potentially very costly, by providing a software-powered VoIP solution alongside an existing telephony infrastructure, the customer could reap the benefits of VoIP functionality at a lower cost.

“A lot of what we’re trying to do with our channel partners in order to bring these solutions to market includes investing heavily both on our traditional Microsoft partners with expertise in Exchange Server and Office Communication Server as well as ramping them up on voice capabilities,” he said. “We’re also looking at traditional telecommunications channel partners to help ramp them up on the Microsoft technologies . . . partners with capabilities around PBX technology and the integration with telephony environments. One of the big advantages of our software-powered VoIP solution is the ability to integrate it into legacy environments.”

Rushe added Microsoft would bring the new solutions to market in a services to an on-premise continuum. Customers could purchase either the on-premise solution (buying the servers, software and implementation) or as a hosted model through hosting partners customers could buy on a per user, per month basis.

“Customers want the ability to communications-enable business processes,” he said. “We’re providing the ability through applications people are already using daily to launch communications from all of those applications regardless of what mode it is.”

All 15 VoIP devices will begin rolling out to the public by July, Rushe added.

Article Source: eChannel Line

I personally use Skype for my home business and personal calls. With my previous employers, most of the phones we used were Cisco VoIP which worked pretty darn well. The Cisco package even included what’s called a “soft phone” where I installed software on my laptop which simulated my desk phone.

So when I was on business in Japan and someone called my work line, my laptop rang. It was just like I was sitting at my desk. Talk about cool technology. Next time maybe I’ll take the call from the Caribbean and pretend I’m working from my cube.

The VoIP phones just keep getting cooler as well. The latest wireless self-powered phones allow you to use the service without having your computer even on. Pretty cool.

Additional highlights from the report include:

VoIP Access Points – VoIP Access Points for enterprises are expected to reach over $5bn in revenues by 2012, growing from $930m this year. North American revenues are expected to grow from $442m in 2007 to $1.75bn in 2012. EMEA and Asia Pacific revenues are expected to reach $1.7bn and $1.6bn respectively by 2012.VoIP WLAN Switch/Mobility Controllers – VoIP WLAN Switch/Mobility Controllers for enterprises are expected to reach almost $8bn by 2012, growing from just under $1bn in 2007. North American revenues are expected to grow from around a $0.5bn in 2007 to $2.7bn in 2012 with EMEA and Asia Pac revenues reaching $2.7bn and $1.4bn respectively by 2012.

VoIP over Wi-Fi handsets (single mode) are predicted to ship $155m worth in 2007 increasing to $1.5bn by 2012. North American revenues are to grow from $93m this year to $600m in 2012. EMEA and Asia Pac are expected to touch $480m and $324m respectively by 2012. The report found that Spectralink (acquired by Polycom) is expected to lead the single mode VoIP over Wi-Fi handset market for the coming few years aided by its powerful OEM relationships with Avaya, Inter-Tel, NEC, Alcatel and Nortel.