VoIP and the SME

Copyright © 2007-2008, Gordon Henderson

Examples and Case Studies

Here are a few examples to give you some idea of how VoIP can be deployed and how it can be made to work for you.

Self-employed person working from home

Someone starting out in self-employment has a need for a new telephone number/line indepenant of their home phone. With a good quality internet connection, they can use a VoIP solution. They can then have new phone number registered and a separate VoIP phone to use with it. They can make outgoing calls via their business phone and have features such as divert to their mobile phone when they are out and about. If they diverify, and have a second trading name for their business, then they might want a second phone number. This can be delivered to the same phone, and the phone can let them know which number is being called, so it can be answred appropriately.

Self-employed person expands into a partnership

If the above self-employed person join with one (or more) others, each working from home, then they could all have a oIP phone on the same system, then they could all chat to each other via VoIP for free, and they could make/take calls independant of their own home phones. They would also have one "company" phone bill, fully itemised which may make accounting easier.

Partnership expands into small company

The above partnership expands and decides to more into an office - the VoIP phones can simply be moved to the office and if neccessary a VoIP PBX provisioned to give them more control over the telephone system. The advantage here is that the telephone numbers do not need to be changed!

Small office which has a need for work from home capability

The typical small office might have a single phone line plus a fax line. You pick up a shared phone in the hope that no-one else is using it, or you have a DECT phone system. You have started to use the FAX line as an additional outgoing call line. you might be looking to take on more staff, or just find the current system a bit to busy for you to easily use, staff may also be looking to work from home, or need to communicate while travelling.

Enter the VoIP capable PBX. It can connect to your incoming lines, and provide a phone on everyones desk. People can call each other internally, and pick up the phone to dial out. The system will pick a free line automatically. At this point, it's no different to any other small office PBX which can be bought off the shelf for a few hundred pounds. The advantages you have now are that staff members can now work from home and take their extensions with them. Not quite physically (although that would work!), but they can have separate extensions at home, or use a soft-phone on their PC with the same extension number as their desk phone. They could go to a colleagues house and use their phone to key-in a "follow-me" code, then their colleagues phone will ring when someone calls their phone. Their voicemail can be emailed to them, so they can access it remotely, or it can be made available via a web interface. Incoming FAXes can be captured digitally and emailed, and you still have the old FAX machine when you can't use one of the many email/web to FAX services. We're not quite at the stage of the paper-less office, but getting there...

As the business expands, rather than take on additional phone lines it may be possible to start to use an external VoIP to PSTN termination service to add to the number of outgoing (or incoming!) lines. The PBX can auto-answer calls, "Dial 1 for sales, 2 for support, or hang on for a human" and so on.

Even if the business is not expanding, it may still be a good idea to start to use the Internet to place outgoing calls on, as call rates are generally very competitive when compared to BT.

Small business - new remote sales office

You are an SME and business is going well and you open a sales office in the next town. You don't need anything fancy, but one phone line and an ADSL connection is all that's required. You have a VoIP capable PBX in the main office. You want to call your colleagues in the new office? Just give them IP phones and call them over the Internet. Their outgoing calls will be over the Internet to your PBX and then out to the PSTN through your PSTN connections. One phone bill, knowing that the analogue line in the remote office should only ever get used in emergencies. (or possibly for FAXes if you can't get away from paper!)

Remote sales office expands

In time, your remote sales office gets bigger, to the point where they need more than 2-3 telephones. At this point, it is probably worthwhile putting in their own VoIP PBX which can "trunk" over the Internet with the one in head-office, and look to expanding their local outgoing PSTN connectivity - either by adding more lines (getting in a dedicated ISDN line), or a 2nd ADSL line dedicated to VoIP, connecting to the same VoIP to PSTN termination service that the main office uses (if they went down that route).

This model is very expandable - each new office starts small as extensions of an existing office before getting their own VoIP capable PBX. Any office can call any other office over the Internet, and they all have some form of local PSTN connectivity (or dedicated VoIP to PSTN connectivity) for dialling out.

Case Study: Shops with a central warehouse

The Devon Furniture Forum is a not-for-profit social business working in Devon and the South West, dedicated to recycling and reuse of household materials, furniture, white goods and much more. Please see their website for more information.

The DFF currently has a head-office and 3 outlying shops. The head-office is also a shop and has extensive repair and recycling facilities for white goods and so on. It's a large warehouse type place with many separate offices and departments. They have 2 phone lines - one FAX, one voice, and were finding it troublesome using these systems as the enterprise was expanding. They had a DECT phone system which they could use to take calls and transfer them to other staff members, but they were experiencing frustration when trying to make an outgoing call when the line was in-use (it was hunt the second DECT phone connected to the FAX machine time!)

The DFF were slowly expanding and they needed more phones and a way to better to manage their calls as they grew, and were also looking at ways to use the Internet to communicate from the head office to the outlying shops. They had tried Skype and found it wasn't working too well for them.

We installed a DSX-10 PABX system in their main office with new phones for all staff. The phones are a mixture of standard desk phones, and individual DECT phones for staff members who are rarely at their desk, and for the shop-floor staff who frequently have to walk round the shop area checking goods for customers who call in with queries about specific items. The DSX enabled them to make better use of their existing phone lines, as the system would automatically dial-out on the FAX line first, then the main line if that was busy, and a set of phones were nominated to ring when an incoming call happened on the main line. Whoever answered the call could then transfer the call to appropriate person, which then freed up their own phone to make outgoing calls, or to call other internal extensions.

Phase 2 was to get the outlying shops connected up to the head office, and this was accomplished using DECT phones which have a dual PSTN and Internet connectivity base station (The Siemens C460IP) Shop staff simply pick up the phone and dial a number as usual, and it is then placed over their existing BT line, or they dial an internal extension number followed by a star, and it connects them to the person at the far-end. They can even dial between shops using the system, all entirely over the Internet for free.

Latterly the head office started to use the Internet to place outgoing calls through. We are able to route their calls to the PSTN and arrange the correct caller ID number presentation of their main office. They are saving money by placing their outgoing calls in this manner.

For the future: DFF are looking to take on more staff as they get involved with more recycling and reuse projects. We will provide them with more telephone numbers for these projects which will be delivered over their Internet connection. They are also now using a FAX to email system which saves paper and makes it easier to delete junk FAXes!

A collaborative business networking project

A new business collaboration project is getting underway. Communication between the members is of the utmost importance, so it is decided to use a central VoIP exchange with everyone having either a desk phone, or a soft-phone on their laptop. Due to the open nature of VoIP system, members are free to choose what communication device or software they prefer. Even video phones can be supported if they choose to go down this route.

VoIP technology is used to allow this to happen, and each member pays a very modest subscription fee to support the infrastructure. The system is expandable as new partners come on-board with the partners using a variety of mechanisms to connect in. Each partner gets allocated a number and a central directory is published to allow anyone to call anyone else in the network. Businesses with a small number of staff can be allocated a range, so each member can have their own number in the system. Eventually small businesses become part of the network, and if they already have their own VoIP PBX, then they can peer this directly into the network with a unique prefix (think of UK area codes). Then anyone can directly dial anyone inside the business, or calls can be fielded by a receptionist, as the business dictates.

The system is expanded to accommodate PSTN to VoIP connectivity, and each member is given a real UK phone number, so people outside the collaboration project can call in. A member can now answer the phone, and if they are unable to directly help the caller, rather than just say "Sorry" and hang-up, can do a quick search on the members list, and transfer the call through the network. The caller doesn't have to carry on looking, they get through the the person most able to help them without re-dialling.

Members can now use the out-dialling capability if they choose, and various charging plans can be accommodated to help fund the VoIP to PSTN connectivity.

Business expands into building next door

Or, why take 100 lines when 1 will do...

Businesses expand, take over new rooms, move into the building next door, and so on, and one major issue is the networking infrastructure. Telephone lines are traditionally one per phone. To expand and take on 100 new members of staff would require 100 telephone lines in a traditional environment.

Enter the VoIP PBX. VoIP is carried over IP, and IP is carried over Ethernet, and a single 100Mb Ethernet line can carry 1000 telephone conversations.

Each desk is still going to require one or more Ethernet connections back to a central switch for that part of the building, but getting to that switch can be made much simpler when you just need to connect a single Ethernet line from the switch back to the central switch/patch-panel area. It's also worthwhile noting that some IP desk phones have a built-in Ethernet switch too, so now you only need a single Ethernet line going to each desk, rather than one for the PC and a separate voice line for the phone.

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