Ten reasons why SA companies should look towards hosted VoIP

Gail Holt Zycko | 15 February, 2011

According to trends analysts IDC, IT strategies in Africa for the year 2011 will be characterised by technologies including the cloud and virtualisation
This trend is being driven in large by increasing availability and affordability of bandwidth, making hosted services more of a reality than ever before.

This combined with an almost insatiable appetite for ever cheaper and better quality communications is driving an increasing interest in hosted Voice over IP (VoIP) in the business world. VoIP has long been a technology of interest due to its ability to bring down the cost of telephony and provide greater flexibility, but with the additional availability of bandwidth in the African region, the prospect of running VoIP as a hosted service is now possible and no longer a pipe dream.

A hosted VoIP solution means that organisations in Africa can harness the advantaged of VoIP as well as all of the well known benefits of outsourcing a solution, from access to scarce skills, better uptime and easier management to the ability to incorporate a range of advanced features and functionality that may not have been affordable with a traditional system in place.

Benefit #1 - Lower Total Cost of Ownership

A hosted VoIP solution enables savings right from the onset as it is no longer necessary to purchase expensive 'boxes' or systems. All an organisation needs are VoIP-ready handsets and the hosting service provider will take care of the rest. The service provider will also manage both the phone and data lines, enabling further cost savings. Organisations can obtain access to the most advanced technologies without having to invest large sums of money in hardware, making this an affordable option even for smaller businesses, and allowing them to access communications technology that was previously only available to larger companies.

Benefit #2 - Simpler IT support

Traditional phone systems are fairly complex and require a high level of skill to maintain. However a hosted VoIP solution removes this barrier to entry, as it uses a simple web interface and therefore requires very little IT support or training to administer. Users can be quickly added or deleted and additional features enabled by administrators from their computers through the intuitive interface, thus making additional support or staff members unnecessary. This in turn leads to further cost savings through simplified maintenance of the system as the resources can be allocated to other areas of the business.

Benefit #3 - Reduced Capital Investment

With hosted VoIP it is no longer necessary to spend large amounts of capital on expensive systems. Other than the actual handsets there is no investment required and no large capital expenses to depreciate over time. Hosted VoIP is an operating expense rather than a capital expense, so all businesses need to pay is an affordable monthly service fee to have access to a range of capabilities that can improve productivity and connect the business to advanced telephony.

Benefit #4 - Improved Business Continuity

Communication is at the heart of any modern enterprise and the last thing any business needs is for phone services to go down. Hosted VoIP solves this problem by incorporating failover systems that kick in should things go wrong. Because the physical box does not reside on the business premises but in a redundant and secure data centre off site, even if the building is affected by floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters the phones remain unaffected. A web-based portal enables users to quickly forward calls to cell phones or unaffected locations so that business can carry on without affecting customers.

Benefit #5 - Easy scalability

Hosted VoIP is a highly flexible solution as the number of employees on the system is not constrained, so expanding or reducing the number of users is a simple and cost-effective process. If resources become tight or the number of employees needs to be reduced this can easily be accommodated, and in times of growth it is quick and easy to scale up without incurring massive costs or disruption to the business. This gives organisations the ability to immediately make changes and scale up or down with fluctuating business needs.

Benefit #6 - Added functionality

A hosted VoIP solution gives businesses access to a wide range of functionality that can be activated on demand to suit the needs of any organisation. From HD voice to automatic voicemail forwarding and remote call following to phone systems integrated with Outlook or CRM systems, the potential for expansion is practically limitless. Hosted VoIP gives any size business the ability to access features and functionality that were previously only available to large enterprise because of cost constraints.

Benefit #7 - Automatic Upgrades

Outsourcing VoIP to a hosted provider means that businesses no longer need to upgrade hardware to take advantage of new features and technologies. All upgrades will be done by the host and will be delivered through software changes that happen automatically in the background. So businesses will always have access to the latest technology without the need for expensive upgrades every time something is updated.

Benefit #8 - Productivity Anywhere

Traditional telephony systems are highly desk bound, which in today's world is no longer the ideal scenario. A hosted VoIP solution gives businesses the ability to gain access to constant connectivity and productivity anywhere, anytime, whether employees are at their desks, in the boardroom or on the road. Workers can access the communication features of the VoIP system no matter where they are, improving productivity dramatically.

Benefit #9 - Access to Powerful Video Conferencing

Travel can be an added expense that during tough times many businesses cannot afford. Video conferencing enables the productivity of face-to-face interactions without the cost of travel. Hosted VoIP enables organisations to quickly and easily access video calling capabilities (part of Unified Communications), making calls far more personal and productive than traditional phone calls.

Benefit #10 - Focus on core business capabilities

By removing the worry and maintenance of phone systems, organisations can better focus on their core business capabilities. The management of these increasingly complex business communications systems is outsourced and handled offsite, so the telephony system continues to work while employees can get on with their jobs safe in the knowledge that the telephony system will just work, whenever they need it to, and they can access features like voice and video without having to know why and how they work.

To conclude

Hosted VoIP has numerous benefits that can help telecommunications in Africa to be brought onto a level with the rest of the world. Now that bandwidth is not the obstacle it once was, and IT spend is expected to increase in Africa over the next year, hosted solutions such as VoIP have become a reality and can drive greater productivity and efficiency in business operations.

PBX in the Cloud or in the Closet?

Bryan Johns January 26th, 2011

In advance of a planned panel discussion on this topic at IT Expo in Miami next month, I decided to take a moment to formalize my thoughts on the merits of both the hosted and premises PBX deployment models. At risk of coming off as indecisive, I am going to go ahead and say that there are arguments both for and against hosted and premises solutions that depend heavily upon customer size, needs, network infrastructure, planned use and growth forecasts. Generally, the way in which these variables come together supplies the best determination as to which deployment model makes the most sense and why.

Let’s take a minute to look at that assumption in more detail.

First I want to say that over the course of my career I have designed, implemented and supported VoIP network solutions in both hosted and premises architectures. I hold no specific bias one way or the other but I believe that one strategy has advantage over the other based upon attributes of the company proposing to utilize the solution and their specific needs. In my experience, the following factors weigh most heavily in determining whether a company should consider a hosted or a premises solution:

Company size (count of end users to be supported)

Very small companies (fewer than 20 users) almost invariably find a better value in a hosted architecture than a premises deployment. This due to the fact that the recurring monthly expense of a hosted solution in these quantities is typically digestible and (assuming the availability of quality bandwidth) they can typically be purchased without an extended contract term which leaves the door open to change providers if needed. In a range from 20 to 50 users, the economies of a hosted solution are dictated by a combination of bandwidth cost / availability and anticipated monthly maintenance expense for telephony platform. Above 50 users, the economies of hosted solution typically collapse and higher recurring monthly expense overshoots the potential savings in operation, maintenance and upgrades.

Number of physical facilities (count of company locations to be supported)

The count of branch facilities to be supported also plays heavily in determining the value of hosted solutions versus premises solutions. For companies with a single facility that has 50 to 100+ users, a premises deployment will be both architecturally and financially more attractive. For companies with up to 3 branch facilities, a premises installation in each facility linked together via SIP or IAX2 trunks provides both financial efficiency and site isolation from bandwidth or machine failures. Above 3 branch facilities, the potential redundant expenses in each location begin to make the argument for a centralized, hosted design for purposes of ease of management / maintenance, price efficiency and disaster recovery.

Amount of daily or monthly PBX maintenance anticipated

Many companies shopping VoIP infrastructure are anticipating some ability to handle daily maintenance activities inside of their own doors. The “point and click” simplicity of solutions such as Digium’s SwitchVox appliance puts much of the day-to-day configuration and management within the technical capabilities of the average IT guy and reduces the necessity of outside maintenance assistance. Still, those companies that anticipate a high amount of monthly management requirements can benefit from the inclusive support provided by many hosted operations. Essentially, where a customer can receive significant value from inclusive support in a hosted configuration, this deployment design has distinct advantages.

Condition of WAN and associated carrier contracts

One of the more compelling ROI opportunities available in a conversion to a VoIP infrastructure is powered by cost savings through disconnection of conventional TDM service connections and replacing them with public or private data connections.

However, if a company is under contract for telecommunication services, the cost to break these contracts can have a significant impact on available monthly savings. Customers in fresh telecommunications contracts are stronger candidates for premises deployments while those who are not encumbered by contracts are typically better candidates for a potential conversion to a hosted or co-located solution where their other attributes make them a strong candidate for this design.

Up time requirements

There has been a heavy focus on business continuity and disaster recovery for all aspects of IT infrastructure in recent years. While conventional PBX solutions have not historically provided any measurable level of redundancy, the migration of these technologies into IP network environments has raised the bar for availability in business telecommunications solutions. If business continuity is a high priority, the advantage can go to a hosted design. This is not to say that a premises deployment cannot be engineered for high availability, but the costs to supply this ability can slant the value proposition toward a hosted or co-located solution design.

The third option: Hybrid or “Co-located”

There is a third, hybrid deployment design that is best described as “co-located” that supplies the efficiency and assurances of a hosted design with a financial structure more akin to a premises deployment. This structure includes customer-owned equipment running in a data center with private network connectivity to both the customer facility and VoIP carrier networks. A co-located design raises the bar for quality and performance on the company WAN but can be far more economical than the higher recurring expense associated with hosted solutions above the previously-mentioned economic tipping-point of 50 seats or so. A co-located design is preferred in most instances where a hosted solution is preferred but where the user count is above 30 seats and where the customer is comfortable handling the majority of their maintenance needs in-house.

So in summary, for a company with fewer than 20 seats and with fewer than 3 facilities the advantage most frequently goes to hosted. Between 20 and 50 seats there are a other variables that need to be considered before one can say whether a premises, hosted or co-located design is best. Above 50 seats the advantage usually goes to a premises deployment unless the customer has more than 3 locations which slants the preference to co-located.

Please remember that the information in this article is opinion gathered from 10 years of implementing VoIP solutions and is not backed up by scientific data. Still, I hope that it provides you insight as you consider VoIP technologies for your business. Happy implementing!

Hosted PBX from Vox Orion // MyBroadband

Staff Writer | 12 January, 2011

Vox Orion has launched a hosted PBX service, Verto, which promises to bring all the benefits of hosted services to South Africa’s corporate telephony market

“Verto takes the traditional PBX out of the box and puts all that intelligence into the network,” says Vox Orion MD Jacques du Toit. “It’s based on robust and reliable commercial open source technology that’s already supporting more than 550,000 extensions.”

Du Toit says Verto is a natural progression of the Vox Telecom group’s strategy to become a complete alternative telecommunications provider.

“It’s a perfect fit with our Cristal Vox converged voice and data network, and our customers have responded with enthusiasm to this development of our managed services.”

Verto is particularly attractive, adds Du Toit, because of the low risk to the client. “Provided we have conducted a full LAN audit to ensure that the client’s network is voice-ready, we guarantee that if they are not happy with the quality of the service they can cancel at any time."

The basic Verto feature set for Level 1 users includes conference calling, call forwarding, call waiting, alerts, a ‘do not disturb’ setting, dial-by-name functionality, redials, return calls and pick up groups. Level 2 users also get access to voicemail, voicemail to email conversion, call recording, hunt and page groups, call screening and summary call histories.

Verto can also integrate easily with external applications including voice loggers, predictive diallers and telephone management systems.

“It combines all the functionality of a traditional PBX and an advanced IP telephony platform,” says Du Toit. “Verto is future-proof as the software is constantly being upgraded and developed to include new technology developments.”

Microsoft OCS update promises to replace PBX

By Denise Dubie, Network World
March 24

Microsoft unveiled its updated unified communications software that the company says will help customers move off PBX systems, but industry watchers wonder if the previewed Communications Server "14" will integrate with more than just Microsoft-approved software and hardware.

"Obviously this release has been much-anticipated. The industry was waiting for the release when OCS became a full PBX replacement," says Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group. "Microsoft has a good vision of where they want to take this industry, and it is similar to other vendors like Cisco, except Microsoft will argue they don't make the hardware. Yet the company does dictate with which hardware the unified communications software will work, and it's only a handful like Polycom."

Microsoft Wednesday introduced its updated Office Communications Server – code-named Communications Server "14" -- at VoiceCon Orlando 2010, and company executives demonstrated during a keynote presentation there how the next version of Microsoft Office Communication Server integrates with applications such as SharePoint, Exchange and Office. Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Unified Communications Group said during the keynote address that the company's updated unified communications software, Communications Server "14," will provide IT organizations with the next-generation platform on which to collaborate with voice and video applications as well as a simple, cost-effective alternative to aging PBX systems.

"This system works with the communications systems you have in place, and it will sit next to it and work well with it, because you may not want to throw away the PBX," Pall said. "But this product, when ready to move, will be ready to carry the entire load that your PBX is carrying."

According to Pall, in the next three years more than 75% of new business applications will include embedded unified communications and standard business calls today will become outdated with more than 50% of VoIP calls incorporating more than just voice. Industry watchers agree companies and consumers are moving away from traditional voice systems and embracing collaboration tools that are tied to social media and other technologies. But the transition might not be as quick.

"People are using other forms of communications, that's true, but the move away from voice won't happen as quickly as Microsoft thinks it will, but then Microsoft doesn't make money on phones," Kerravala says.

Microsoft's demonstration at VoiceCon lacked a few things for Kerravala. The company didn't go into great detail about branch office survivability solutions or 911 services, for instance, but Microsoft also didn't explain how it would work with third-party systems. Polycom, HP and NET, and several others, announced earlier in the week that they would separately be expanding relationships with Microsoft to better integrate with OCS and the company's UC products.

Competing with Cisco, Avaya, Siemens and IBM, Microsoft will need to differentiate itself, Kerravala suggests, with customer examples of how the Communications Server "14" changed the way they worked and helped them to cut costs in the process.
"Cisco and Microsoft will compete most directly because they are both trying to do everything, going after the whole suite, they both have e-mail packages, but Microsoft will say it doesn't do hardware, it just dictates the hardware specifications," Kerravala says. "If Microsoft is going to win in this market, it will have to depend on developers, they are what makes the company successful."

Gijima on the prowl for telecoms deal | TechCentral

by Candice Jones.

JSE-listed technology group Gijima has its sights on the local telecommunications market. It says it will either acquire or partner with a company that has its own network.

CEO Jonas Bogoshi says Gijima has decided to play a more direct role in cloud computing, including hosted services and voice and data technologies.

However, he says the company lacks the network infrastructure to make the new focus work properly for the business.

“It is the last requirement to make a consolidated go of the market. If we don’t do it, we will lose out,” he says.

Over the next 18 months, Gijima will actively look for a telecoms business that has its own infrastructure. It will then acquire or partner with that company.

Bogoshi says Gijima does not plan to seek its own telecoms network licence or to roll out its own infrastructure, mainly because that would prove too expensive. “It is a costly exercise, and it will cost more to train the skills we need to run a telecoms network,” he says.

However, he says the group is willing to pay for another business that already has the skills and infrastructure in place.

There are several market players Gijima could go after. At the beginning of 2009, around 300 communications providers were licensed by the Independent Communications Authority of SA to build their own networks, independent of larger players such as Telkom, MTN and Vodacom.

Though Bogoshi won’t say which companies Gijima is eyeing, analysts say unlisted ECN Telecommunications is a possibility. Another is AltX-listed Vox Telecom, which has a market value of nearly R500m.

Gijima already serves PABX — or traditional business telephony — solutions to approximately 2 000 customers and has plans to provide voice-over-IP services to at least some of those.

Bogoshi says managed voice services will boom in the next few years, especially given cuts in interconnection rates — the fees operators charge each other to carry calls on their networks.

Gijima has already started work on the first phase of its cloud computing plans and will have an integrated service centre up and running by October.

It’s building a data centre to provide remote hardware support and monitor systems that Gijima has put in place at its customers.

The company put together a task team at the beginning of the year to investigate cloud services and create a roadmap for the group to bring cloud computing to its customers.

“We can’t ignore the fact that cloud computing is becoming more popular in SA. Customers may still be a little reluctant, but they will eventually take up some cloud services,” says Bogoshi.