Hosted VoIP is finally ready to fulfill its promise because significant platform-level technology advances, improved service delivery and an increasingly savvy channel combine with end-user demand for cost-effective telephony solutions that ensure very high Quality of Telephony (QoT). The business case for Hosted VoIP is ideal in today’s “frugal economy.”

Channel providers are now motivated to offer Hosted VoIP and related Unified Communications services because “QoT” has improved dramatically to rival and even surpass legacy TDM-based PBXes and call centers. Six-figure monthly recurring revenues from even smaller VARs and MSPs show the way to a profitable model for channel providers who make the commitment to Hosted VoIP.

Analysts predict that the Hosted VoIP PBX market in this segment is strong and growing. According to the Dell'Oro Group, 11 million SMBs are using hosted VoIP in general, with this number expected to grow to 35 million before 2010. In addition, In-Stat says revenue for hosted IP PBX-type services are expected to top $2.1 billion by 2010, up from $476 million last year.

Meanwhile, the addressable market stats also are encouraging: According to Gartner, there are 10 million small business telephone systems in the United States with less than 100 lines, and this segment annually spends more than $60 billion worldwide for basic telecommunications. Analysts also assert that SMBs are 2x to 3x more compelled than enterprises to adopt hosted VoIP and Internet

Hosted VoIP Markets
To serve the SMB and SME market, Ring Carrier’s MVP alliance partners can focus on key vertical or regional markets niches where they have an established presence.  SMB/SME customers require a flexible, feature-rich telephony system that is easy to install and fully Web-provisioned. With Ring Carrier’s approach to Hosted VoIP, the customer’s non-technical administrator or business manager can make all IP PBX and Call Center configurations, additions and account changes online. And in general, only a managed IP PBX or Call Center can integrate voice and Web applications, with features such as multiple extensions, IVRs, call logs, answering rules, call forwarding to any phone, voice mail to e-mail, call controller and softphone, Outlook integration, call screening and VoIP to PSTN integration." The Hosted IP PBX or Call Center gives even very small businesses the ability to look much larger and modern.

The SMB/SME market for VoIP and Internet Telephony has long been underserved. Products were designed priced, and packaged for deployment in larger enterprises with dedicated technical staffs, and vendor’s “techno-speak” was undecipherable by the business manager. What’s more, a typical channel provider might approach a business customer only only to encounter their resistance to convert to telephony systems that are perceived to suffer from questionable quality.  Now, Ring Carrier’s approach to Hosted Virtual VoIP, PBXes and Call Centers enables channel providers to come to market with robust, high-quality and cost-effective offerings upon which they can build a profitable business with recurring revenues. Ring Carrier offers low/no-maintenance solution that can be set up in minutes to reduce phone bills by up to 80 percent.

The next wave for SMB and SMEs is the move to the massively scalable Virtual VoIP PBX in the Communications as a Service (CaaS) model in which the scalable virtualization of the PBX is integrated with unified communications. In the CaaS model, the IP Telephony Service, PBX or Call Center is located “in the cloud.” Users and even managed providers outsource the day-to-day management responsibilities and pay for and sell usage, versus dedicated ownership. For an SMB or SME, the lack of capital investment is the critical factor; the business can gain the productivity and efficiency benefits of unified communications with only a minor investment in capital equipment, such as phones and media gateways. There is a particularly timely opportunity in today’s “frugal economy” for channel partners to target businesses with multiple locations that can realize significant savings in equipment, maintenance, installation, and long-distance calling. They also benefit from enterprise-class PBX and Call Center features, such as simultaneous ring, remote work, and voice mail to e-mail, which are very popular in today’s enterprise environments.

For the typical SMB/SME, the channel provider’s first step is to help them replace their legacy analog system and evaluate the capabilities of their existing Internet access lines. The business sees immediate savings through unlimited local and long-distance calling. The next step is to make the move to a managed IP PBX or Call Center.

To smoothly migrate from legacy voice systems to hosted IP PBX, there are technical requirements to consider, such as integration with existing premises-based equipment, like proprietary voice mail systems. There is an increasing need for mobile and remote communication, wireless mobility within and outside the office, local site survivability and disaster recovery supported by easy-to-use premises-based systems where required. The “whole product” opportunity for SMB/SME customers is for turnkey solutions that combine VoIP calling, IP PBX, Call Center, user-specific IP phone configurations, Unified Communications Services and interoperable media gateways and router/switch configurations along with installation and ongoing going support.

Bottom line, SMB/SME market drivers for Hosted and Cloud VoIP offerings must align with core business objectives and the changing work environment. Companies are striving to survive by improving business efficiencies through productivity-enhancing technologies like unified communications, but must accomplish this on limited budgets and with staffs that possess limited technical savvy, and in workplaces where more and more employees are working at home or are truly mobile. The quality of VoIP calls was an obstacle to adoption in 2006 and 2007; however, Ring Carrier’s Hosted VoIP offerings take an unsurpassed approach to Quality of Telephony. This means that the SMB/SME and their trusted providers can confidently make the move to VoIP for substantial cost savings and productivity enhancements even in 2009’s “frugal economy.”

To partner with Ring Carrier, emailto: partners@ringcarrier.com