VoIP: Hype or Reality?

VoIP is the technology used to transmit voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network. With VoIP, voice conversation is broken up into packets of data that are transmitted over the Internet or over a proprietary broadband network before being reassembled on the terminating end of the call.

Business-class VoIP provides tight integration between the desktop employees who use it every day and the phone system that runs on a separate technology. Now, the e-mail, calendaring and instant messaging on desktops becomes integrated with the telephone, video, audio conferencing and facsimile of the VoIP solution. The benefit to the firm and its users? Single directories, unified messaging and self-management of phone configurations ' all from one interface.

Fad or Legitimate Trend?

Recent research indicates that VoIP is here to stay. A November 2007 report by Gartner indicated that hosted VoIP would increase from $315 million in 2006 to $3.165 billion in 2011. Osterman Research also believes that the market for VoIP will increase substantially, growing from 13% of all e-mail users in 2005 to 64% in 2009. The bottom line is that consumers and organizations of all sizes are using VoIP today in a stable, secure and productive manner.

Benefits of VoIP

VoIP solutions, unlike traditional phone systems, are not separate from the data infrastructure. Voice and data networks are converged, reducing operating costs and increasing employee productivity. Nearly three out of four organizations surveyed by Osterman Research indicated that lower telephony costs were a motivating factor to move, while many feel that improved user productivity and improved communications with remote sites are key motivators.

Indeed, there are three major reasons to use VoIP:

1. Increased functionality;
2. Improved productivity and mobility; and
3. Lower cost.

Increased Functionality

VoIP makes easy some things that are difficult to impossible with traditional phone networks. Standard features include call forwarding, hold and transfer and three-way conferencing. Advanced features include:

• Simultaneous ring, enabling one incoming call to ring multiple phones simultaneously, so that users can answer that call on their cell phone or home phone, for instance, when someone calls their desk number.
• Selective call forwarding, enabling calls from certain individuals, or within certain time periods, to be forwarded to a different phone number.
• Remote forwarding, enabling users to use any phone located anywhere to remotely forward calls from one phone to another.
• Unified messaging, enabling users to receive and listen to voice mail in their mail inbox; the voice mail is attached as a .wav file.
• User self-service, enabling users to control various features and functionality either from a Web browser or by telephone.
• Click-to-dial, enabling automatic dialing when users click on a phone number in their email, on a Web page, in a corporate or personal directory or in other LDAP directories.

Improved Productivity and Mobility

The predominant tools the firm and its employees use every day are e-mail and phone. VoIP solutions integrate these tools to make employees more productive. When users get a voicemail in their VoIP mailboxes, they also receive an e-mail in their Outlook inboxes with the voicemail attached as a .wav file. Employees can then save, delete, organize and manage voicemails in the same way they manage their e-mails.

VoIP is a great time-saver and productivity tool for all telecommuting employees, mobile workers, and 'road warriors.' It can enable the firm's employees to connect anywhere in the world and appear as though they never left the office. Employees can forward all calls to a cell phone or other landline, forward calls from specific numbers to a cell phone or other landline, allow desk and cell phones to ring simultaneously or sequentially with the same incoming call, and receive calls transferred from anyone in the office to the user's VoIP phone, cell phone, or landline regardless of location. Employees can take their phone or use a 'softphone' right on their desktop to make VoIP calls.

The firm's IT staff also becomes more productive, as they spend less time providing Help Desk support for the telephone system. This is because users are able to independently perform all their calling and configuration management in a familiar interface (through their e-mail client or Web browser), managing their phone calls from wherever they are. In addition, the IT staff doesn't have to reconfigure the PBX with every move.

Lower Cost

Many law firms find that the cost for a managed VoIP network can be significantly less than a traditional PBX environment. VoIP providers offer flat fee telephony plans that include local phone calls as well as domestic long distance.

If the firm has multiple offices, VoIP typically provides cost savings because expensive PBX systems do not have to be set up at each location. There are also some cost savings due to using a single network to carry voice and data. This is especially true if the firm has existing, under-utilized network capacity that can be used for VOIP without any additional costs, or if the firm is expanding to new offices and does not have to wire multiple networks.

Security

Even with all of these benefits, law firms should still ask a critical question: Is VoIP secure enough for my organization to depend on? The answer is ' 'it depends.' More than half of businesses surveyed by Osterman Research cited security as a potential issue in their deployment of VoIP systems. But many providers offer business-level security through their VoIP solutions.

The key lies in the firm's network security ' if the network is adequately secured for running critical business applications, then that security will also effectively protect voice systems. In fact, according to Cisco Systems, a provider of on-premise VoIP solutions, a properly secured IP telephony network can be more trusted than a PBX system because of the coverage and sophistication of network security technologies. In addition, converting voice traffic to data bits prevents the most common methods of service theft, eavesdropping, and disruption that are used on traditional PBX and voicemail systems.

Hosted VoIP solutions automatically provide strong, carrier-grade security by centrally managing firewalls and server security patches and fixes. Hosted service customers do not have to spend many time-consuming man-hours doing these activities. Hosted equipment also typically has excellent physical security because it is in a well-guarded, secure data center. To minimize and eliminate threats from outside of the network, it's a good idea to implement a private connection to the firm's carrier.

Reliability

The greatest concern among prospective VoIP users is quality; consumers have complained about poor sound, dropped calls and intermittent loss of service. The best way to ensure quality is to get VoIP from a business-class provider that specializes in providing VoIP for small ' and medium-sized organizations. A business-class VoIP provider ensures quality by providing:

• An enterprise-class switch and infrastructure;
• Bandwidth directly from the firm's site to the provider's network, instead of over the public Internet; and
• Trained engineering staff.

Additionally, get a dedicated Internet connection separate from the firm's data network. This not only ensures availability of the phone service, but also allows the firm to isolate its VoIP system from any viruses or attacks that threaten the organization.

The On-Site vs. Managed Service Question

Once the firm has decided to implement a VoIP solution, it needs to determine whether to deploy it on-premise or as a hosted solution. Both types of implementations can be managed by an experienced Managed Services Provider ('MSP').

The key benefits to purchasing an on-premise system are greater control and the potential for customization that leads to greater integration of the phone with applications. But along with control and better integration come responsibility and cost.

One key advantage of deploying hosted VoIP services is the ability to continue operations (specifically phone usage) during and following any disaster, such as a snowstorm or hurricane that causes a power outage and makes your offices unusable. In such an unfortunate event, your employees can still make and receive phone calls using their main business number. As long as they can connect to the Internet, they can use and manage their phone service. The benefit to the firm is clear: users do not miss a beat. They can continue to work.

Other benefits of the hosted model are the following:

• Ease of growth and expansion;
• Simplicity and speed of deployments in multi-office environments; and
• Savings in upgrades (upgrades are performed by the MSP behind the scenes).

Conclusion

Integrated voice and data will make significant inroads over the next five years. As vendors increasingly focus their production and R&D efforts on VoIP systems, legacy PBX systems are becoming more costly and difficult to maintain. The future is VoIP.

Whether law firms implement an on-premise or hosted solution, the organization can join others in realizing a powerful combination of benefits: lowered telephony cost, improved productivity, and increased mobility for employees.

VoIP is the technology used to transmit voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network. With VoIP, voice conversation is broken up into packets of data that are transmitted over the Internet or over a proprietary broadband network before being reassembled on the terminating end of the call.

Business-class VoIP provides tight integration between the desktop employees who use it every day and the phone system that runs on a separate technology. Now, the e-mail, calendaring and instant messaging on desktops becomes integrated with the telephone, video, audio conferencing and facsimile of the VoIP solution. The benefit to the firm and its users? Single directories, unified messaging and self-management of phone configurations ' all from one interface.

Fad or Legitimate Trend?

Recent research indicates that VoIP is here to stay. A November 2007 report by Gartner indicated that hosted VoIP would increase from $315 million in 2006 to $3.165 billion in 2011. Osterman Research also believes that the market for VoIP will increase substantially, growing from 13% of all e-mail users in 2005 to 64% in 2009. The bottom line is that consumers and organizations of all sizes are using VoIP today in a stable, secure and productive manner.

Benefits of VoIP

VoIP solutions, unlike traditional phone systems, are not separate from the data infrastructure. Voice and data networks are converged, reducing operating costs and increasing employee productivity. Nearly three out of four organizations surveyed by Osterman Research indicated that lower telephony costs were a motivating factor to move, while many feel that improved user productivity and improved communications with remote sites are key motivators.

Indeed, there are three major reasons to use VoIP:

1. Increased functionality;
2. Improved productivity and mobility; and
3. Lower cost.

Increased Functionality

VoIP makes easy some things that are difficult to impossible with traditional phone networks. Standard features include call forwarding, hold and transfer and three-way conferencing. Advanced features include:

• Simultaneous ring, enabling one incoming call to ring multiple phones simultaneously, so that users can answer that call on their cell phone or home phone, for instance, when someone calls their desk number.
• Selective call forwarding, enabling calls from certain individuals, or within certain time periods, to be forwarded to a different phone number.
• Remote forwarding, enabling users to use any phone located anywhere to remotely forward calls from one phone to another.
• Unified messaging, enabling users to receive and listen to voice mail in their mail inbox; the voice mail is attached as a .wav file.
• User self-service, enabling users to control various features and functionality either from a Web browser or by telephone.
• Click-to-dial, enabling automatic dialing when users click on a phone number in their email, on a Web page, in a corporate or personal directory or in other LDAP directories.

Improved Productivity and Mobility

The predominant tools the firm and its employees use every day are e-mail and phone. VoIP solutions integrate these tools to make employees more productive. When users get a voicemail in their VoIP mailboxes, they also receive an e-mail in their Outlook inboxes with the voicemail attached as a .wav file. Employees can then save, delete, organize and manage voicemails in the same way they manage their e-mails.

VoIP is a great time-saver and productivity tool for all telecommuting employees, mobile workers, and 'road warriors.' It can enable the firm's employees to connect anywhere in the world and appear as though they never left the office. Employees can forward all calls to a cell phone or other landline, forward calls from specific numbers to a cell phone or other landline, allow desk and cell phones to ring simultaneously or sequentially with the same incoming call, and receive calls transferred from anyone in the office to the user's VoIP phone, cell phone, or landline regardless of location. Employees can take their phone or use a 'softphone' right on their desktop to make VoIP calls.

The firm's IT staff also becomes more productive, as they spend less time providing Help Desk support for the telephone system. This is because users are able to independently perform all their calling and configuration management in a familiar interface (through their e-mail client or Web browser), managing their phone calls from wherever they are. In addition, the IT staff doesn't have to reconfigure the PBX with every move.

Lower Cost

Many law firms find that the cost for a managed VoIP network can be significantly less than a traditional PBX environment. VoIP providers offer flat fee telephony plans that include local phone calls as well as domestic long distance.

If the firm has multiple offices, VoIP typically provides cost savings because expensive PBX systems do not have to be set up at each location. There are also some cost savings due to using a single network to carry voice and data. This is especially true if the firm has existing, under-utilized network capacity that can be used for VOIP without any additional costs, or if the firm is expanding to new offices and does not have to wire multiple networks.

Security

Even with all of these benefits, law firms should still ask a critical question: Is VoIP secure enough for my organization to depend on? The answer is ' 'it depends.' More than half of businesses surveyed by Osterman Research cited security as a potential issue in their deployment of VoIP systems. But many providers offer business-level security through their VoIP solutions.

The key lies in the firm's network security ' if the network is adequately secured for running critical business applications, then that security will also effectively protect voice systems. In fact, according to Cisco Systems, a provider of on-premise VoIP solutions, a properly secured IP telephony network can be more trusted than a PBX system because of the coverage and sophistication of network security technologies. In addition, converting voice traffic to data bits prevents the most common methods of service theft, eavesdropping, and disruption that are used on traditional PBX and voicemail systems.

Hosted VoIP solutions automatically provide strong, carrier-grade security by centrally managing firewalls and server security patches and fixes. Hosted service customers do not have to spend many time-consuming man-hours doing these activities. Hosted equipment also typically has excellent physical security because it is in a well-guarded, secure data center. To minimize and eliminate threats from outside of the network, it's a good idea to implement a private connection to the firm's carrier.

Reliability

The greatest concern among prospective VoIP users is quality; consumers have complained about poor sound, dropped calls and intermittent loss of service. The best way to ensure quality is to get VoIP from a business-class provider that specializes in providing VoIP for small ' and medium-sized organizations. A business-class VoIP provider ensures quality by providing:

• An enterprise-class switch and infrastructure;
• Bandwidth directly from the firm's site to the provider's network, instead of over the public Internet; and
• Trained engineering staff.

Additionally, get a dedicated Internet connection separate from the firm's data network. This not only ensures availability of the phone service, but also allows the firm to isolate its VoIP system from any viruses or attacks that threaten the organization.

The On-Site vs. Managed Service Question

Once the firm has decided to implement a VoIP solution, it needs to determine whether to deploy it on-premise or as a hosted solution. Both types of implementations can be managed by an experienced Managed Services Provider ('MSP').

The key benefits to purchasing an on-premise system are greater control and the potential for customization that leads to greater integration of the phone with applications. But along with control and better integration come responsibility and cost.

One key advantage of deploying hosted VoIP services is the ability to continue operations (specifically phone usage) during and following any disaster, such as a snowstorm or hurricane that causes a power outage and makes your offices unusable. In such an unfortunate event, your employees can still make and receive phone calls using their main business number. As long as they can connect to the Internet, they can use and manage their phone service. The benefit to the firm is clear: users do not miss a beat. They can continue to work.

Other benefits of the hosted model are the following:

• Ease of growth and expansion;
• Simplicity and speed of deployments in multi-office environments; and
• Savings in upgrades (upgrades are performed by the MSP behind the scenes).

Conclusion

Integrated voice and data will make significant inroads over the next five years. As vendors increasingly focus their production and R&D efforts on VoIP systems, legacy PBX systems are becoming more costly and difficult to maintain. The future is VoIP.

Whether law firms implement an on-premise or hosted solution, the organization can join others in realizing a powerful combination of benefits: lowered telephony cost, improved productivity, and increased mobility for employees.