About IP Telephony
What is IP telephony? Simply stated, it is technology that sends voice communication over your data network using Internet Protocol (IP). This is in contrast to traditional phone systems where data and voice networks were totally separate. More companies of all sizes are replacing their traditional phone systems with IP telephony to realize both productivity benefits and infrastructure cost savings.
The reasons for making the switch to IP telephony vary from company to company; however, the most common benefits can be categorized in two areas: Cost savings and business advantage.
Cost savings can be realized by reducing infrastructure and operating costs because IP telephony systems have a single infrastructure across multiple offices for voice and data, and these systems are easier to manage and change with the needs of the business. In addition, companies may experience lower long distance calling fees by eliminating toll charges.
Business advantages are driven by increased productivity and enhanced collaboration for employees, customers and partners. These are achieved through:
- Advanced voice applications such as
- Contact centers, where organizations can drive customer satisfaction and business revenues;
- Unified messaging, which includes voice mail/email integration and find me/follow me capabilities;and
- Advanced collaborative applications such as
- Instant messaging
- Presence, and
- Highly-scalable audio conferencing capabilities.
IP telephony solutions built on open architectures and industry standards like
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) provide the most flexibility to connect to the third-party applications the business requires.
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