In the past, other posts have touched on the different preparation points if you plan to migrate to VOIP.  The structured cabling team at ITN was recently given an opportunity to design and quote an emergency structured cabling solution for a client.  Most folks don’t re-wire their office on an emergency basis so you might wonder what the rush was all about.  It turns out that another vendor sold this client a ShoreTel VOIP telephone system.  While the ShoreTel VOIP system isn’t as strong as the AVAYA IP Office solution, no VOIP system should be installed onto a Category 3 infrastructure with subpar Ethernet switching.  Sadly the ShoreTel vendor may have seemed eager to “make a sale” and either never had the best interest of the client in mind or simply did not possess the basic knowledge concerning VOIP and Ethernet switching on a Category 3 cable infrastructure.  ITN was asked to provide pricing on replacing the 15 year old Category 3 infrastructure with Cat 5e so that the new ShoreTel phone system would work properly.  There is a great deal more preparation that goes into providing VOIP for business clients than just “selling a box and some phones”.

Some people think that having a VOIP telephone system will eliminate their long distance charges.  The short answer is that a new AVAYA IP Office with VOIP will eliminate only some of your long distance charges (remote users, office to office calls, etc..) but the details of that story should be covered in another post. 

Let’s talk long distance ONLY and how $ 400/month or more can be vastly reduced.  A powerful solution from VoSky (www.vosky.com) leverages Skype technology to bring you outbound calls placed from your current phone system out over the internet.  The VoSky box is installed (logically) in between your current phone system and your incoming internet connection.  A few ports of your phone system are programmed for all outbound long distance calls which routes them into the Vosky box and out over the internet.  For a small monthly fee for your Skype membership, you receive significantly reduced long distance charges.  One ITN client reduced their monthly long distance bill from $ 5,000 to $ 800 per month!   The VoSky system can be installed and work with any phone system and will be a powerful technology to reduce costs.