In an article, 5 Disruptive VoIP Trends to Watch in 2016 recently published by VoIP News, the writer highlighted what to expect in 2016 as the market heads to a subscriber base of 348 million and a global VoIP services market worth nearly $137 billion by 2020. Obviously that is immense growth as the writer states and the key trends the market are likely to face in 2016 include increased FCC regulations, fraud risks and decreased interoperability issues are mostly what one would who has been in the industry would expect. However, what amazed me about the article was the final trend discussed.
The article states that “If your organization doesn’t consider end-user satisfaction a key metric in measuring the success of your phone system, 2016 is the year you should integrate human factors in your analysis. Per TruTower, experts predict that IT budgets will shift more funds toward measuring end-user satisfaction of telecommunications solutions, driving critical cost-savings factors like adoption, planning and strategic management.” I would not consider this a disruptive trend but a scary one to say the least. Many companies out there have an extremely poor customer retention rate. In order to take a larger piece of the pie, companies are offering extremely low monthly rates to get people to move over to VoIP. Many of those customers are blinded by the significant savings obtainable on their telecommunications budget without looking at the ifs ands or buts surrounding those savings.
As we are all aware there are no free rides in this world (how many hitchhikers have you run into lately?). VoIP might be able to reduce costs but when you see an unbelievable offer you have to ask questions. There are certainly cost savings to be made by migrating to VoIP. However the supplier still has costs in order to provide you that service and if the price seems to be too good to be true you might just be right.
If your telecommunications costs are an issue and the move to VoIP seems to be a practical way to reduce that cost look at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) before moving forward. What are you really getting for your Buck? What guarantees are being offered in terms of Quality of Service and what happens if the supplier does not deliver? There are other ways to reduce the stress telecommunications play on your capital and operating budgets. If replacing all of your handsets and replacing them with IP phones and all that implies is a concern, utilize Citel’s Portico™ TVA™ to SIP enable the legacy handsets so that you do not have to replace them with IP phones and install upgraded cabling and PoE switches. This will certainly reduce your capital costs leaving a little more money available to ensure the operating service you acquire is of the quality to ensure no problems down the road so you don’t need to be looking for another service provider after your contract expires. Food for thought!
Another benefit of utilizing the Portico™ TVA™ is that whether you go with a premise or cloud based system you can try it out without much in the way of cost. Unplug the handsets from the PBX, plug them into the Portico™ TVA™ and then route them to the VoIP platform. You can test the system to make sure it gives you what you want. If it does, move forward. If it doesn’t unplug the handsets from the Portico™ TVA™ plug them back into the PBX and away you go. How much simpler can you get than that. A simple way to test what you are being offered. No more taking what you are given. Now you have some control over what system you buy and whether it delivers what it promises. Food for thought indeed!!!