Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) has received continued attention for its increasing penetration of the business telecommunications marketplace. While the attributes of VoIP-lower cost, enhanced features, greater network flexibility-are responsible for this increased usage, these same attributes have disproportionate advantages for certain vertical markets and industries. One of these is the small and medium business (SMB) call center market.

The traditional approach to customer service has been the use of call centers-groups of employees answering calls from customers asking for assistance. The three most significant costs of this solution are the staffs themselves, the cost of purchasing and installing a call center phone system and related software and applications, and the ongoing telephone usage costs associated with the customer calls.

Due to the inherent expense of the call center solution, and particularly the setup costs associated with equipment and software, smaller companies often choose to either do without a competitive customer call center or to outsource the function to offshore facilities. This outsourcing approach has a number of drawbacks-the personnel at the offshore firm do not know the products and services as well as a call center staffed with company employees, education and language skills vary, and the SMB is only one of many clients, with each client paying for support for different products and services. The net effect is that the SMB loses control over the quality of its customer care in the interest of controlling costs.

When the hosted VoIP phone service is packaged with a hosted call center application suite, the SMB can further reduce costs.

Hosted VoIP applications and services offer SMBs a way to alleviate this problem. With hosted VoIP, SMBs avoid the setup expense of buying and installing a phone system for their call centers. Even a basic phone system, with the minimum necessary capacity and features for a small call center, can cost from $5,000 to $25,000. A hosted VoIP service package can eliminate this upfront cost.

In addition to this initial capital savings, the SMB can reduce ongoing monthly telephony costs by 30 percent to 40 percent of what they would otherwise pay. For a five- to 10-person call center, this can range from $1,000 to $5,000 in monthly savings.

A well-established hosted VoIP network services provider will offer, in addition, an array of business communication services, including digital or analog, local, long-distance, toll-free and international calling, as well as enhanced features such as fax mailboxes, unified messaging and follow-me services.

Finally, when the hosted VoIP phone service is packaged with a hosted call center application suite, the SMB can further reduce costs. These application suites eliminate the need for hardware and software upfront costs, and enable small organizations to operate virtual contact centers with agents working from home and/or multiple sites.

These application suites can unify customer communications from phone, voice mail, e-mail and Web channels into one routing, queuing and tracking system for maximum staff efficiency.

The SMB should shop carefully for a reputable hosted VoIP provider, as the transition from traditional telephony to VoIP requires some expertise and professional service support from the hosted provider. SMBs interested in transitioning their call centers to a hosted VoIP solution will also want to look for a provider that will offer professional service support without hidden fees.

Kent Hellebust is the chief marketing officer of AccessLine Communications,
a division of Telanetix. Telanetix is an Internet protocol solutions provider offering telepresence and voice-over-IP services. The company' s telepresence offering creates interactive meeting environments that incorporate voice, video and data from multiple locations into a single environment.

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