Knowledge of voice over IP has become so ubiquitous that many falsely believe it’s a simple, ubiquitous technology available to business environments of all sizes. The truth is VOIP integrated with PBX and SIP trunking services has a low penetration in small businesses, those with fewer than 25 seats.
New technologies are bringing integrated VOIP and PBX systems with enterprise-class functions to the small business. And that’s opening new and interesting deployment and services opportunities for solution providers.
A few vendors have recognized that and have pushed the envelope to create business services and communications gateways that do a great deal more than just ring a phone. Vendors such as Allworx, Critical Links and Sutus are looking to make VOIP a ubiquitous portion of IT services for the small office by offering a hybrid solution that rolls VOIP into a business appliance, which addresses a multitude of needs. It’s those additional capabilities that build the integration, support and training opportunities for solution providers addressing the market, which is a far cry from the install and forget approach normally associated with VOIP.