Tim is a senior administrator who managed an upgrade of his company's phone system five years ago and is now planning a new VOIP system. VOIP can provide better functionality while saving costs compared to traditional phone systems, but requires investment in new equipment and addressing issues like call quality. There are resilience tradeoffs to consider regarding reliability during power and internet outages. Overall VOIP may be more environmentally friendly by running on managed servers.

1. Cloud Telephony- VOIP in Practice Tim Watkins-Idle Lasa Senior Administrator

2. Tim is Senior Administrator a Lasa, where he managed a major upgrade of the phone system five years ago, and is curently deep into planning a new VOIP telephone system for the organisation

3. Voice over Internet Protocol There's a lot more jargon there, though: POTS ADSL ISDN PSTN POE PBX IVRS

4. New Phone Systems are complicated and expensive - Deal with it That's the same with standard ones and VOIP. Both have their jargon, and there isn't really a shortcut- you have to struggle to know what it means in order to engage QoS PoE

5. If it aint broke, why are we fixing it? Better functionality Save Costs Are you sure it will stay not broke?

6. Why VOIP Cheaper- especially for multi-site operations Can do useful things, like seamless transferring of calls

7. Issues It's expensive New router (QOS enabled) Upgrade broadband connection New handsets (£100 a pop) It will work differently (e.g. you have to dial the area code for ALL numbers) and this will upset your more conservatively minded colleagues Call costs aren't very different Line rental isn't always much cheaper Can you integrate with Outlook- or whatever other software you're using. Your colleagues are unlikely to be able to articulate what would be most helpful.

8. No-one knows how much bandwidth you'll need Providers recommend things, but you'll only find out how much you need when you do it.

9. You need a lot of new kit QoS Router PoE switch- but check CTX

10. There are two kinds of people- those with iphones and people who will scream if they hear another word about another useless app What's this got to do with VOIP? Some providers have very nice VOIP apps for smartphones, and that helps

11. Resilience is expensive- how much do you need? VOIP breaks is you have a power cut- but so does a normal Phone system VOIP breaks is your internet connection breaks, but so does your internet connection, and for a lot of us that's even more serious There are very expensive things you can do- line bonding, when you can glue two or more lines- any lines, be they ADSL, cable, 3G or whatever- to the internet is a solution, but costs hundreds of pounds a year. You can always call out on your mobile

13. VOIP won't take all you landline capability Do you have a Fax BT Redcare

14. Which one is greener? Probably VOIP, because things run on managed servers. It is a bigger deal for us because our current system uses a PC to run the voicemail, and is using a lot of electricity- £240 a year, in fact.