Posted By: Neal Gilbert, Business VoIP Specialist, AVAD Technologies

One of the biggest challenges facing the Hosted VoIP industry is communicating the real value of VoIP message effectively to our current and future client base.  In the case of the small to medium size market, many of these companies are drawn to VoIP technology because of the "Savings" argument thanks to constant advertising by companies like Vonage.

As we all know, the monthly recurring expenditure of a VoIP solution is only one piece of the true cost of a telecommunications solution.  It is hard for businesses to justify expenditures in a recession by pointing to increased efficiencies of a proposed expenditure.  This is exactly the situation the VoIP industry finds itself in.  There are great products coming out all the time that can benefit any business, but these benefits do not directly lower the monthly costs, at least not in a way that can be demonstrated by a typical accounting analysis.

 In many cases a VoIP solution for a small company (50 to 250 employee range) will not result in much savings from their current provider. It is at this point that VoIP companies generally loose this customer unless the salesperson is capable of disusing the real benefits of a VoIP solution i.e. flexibility, the ability to rapidly deploy a solution, the ability to mitigate risk by having the ability to increase or decrease telecom expenditures and future proofing. This is a challenge for many VoIP Providers. A VoIP company’s ability to discuss these points is critical. The problem is that most VoIP companies do not have enough salespeople that have the ability to discuss these types of issues with a senior manager at current or prospective client. Call Center Agents or order takers are not able to make these arguments.

This is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry, in my opinion.

SIPthat has a great article on this topic, "Communications on the Premises or in the Cloud: How do You Make the Choice?"