October 16, 2006
Enterprise IP Telephony: It Costs How Much?!
While there are a number of reasons that businesses have been slow to adopt Internet telephony, there are companies doing big deals for enterprise VoIP migrations. Williamette Dental in Midwest USA operates 69 offices in the states of Idaho, Oregon and Washinton. They signed a deal with Qwest Communications International Inc. to set up a data networking and VoIP system over three years. At a cost of US$3.8M. The VoIP system will be used to transfer calls from customers to their call center.
The amount took me aback. That seems like a lot for VoIP. That's just over $55K per office. Now I don't claim to know the costs of traditional telephony systems - despite having worked for a large telecom - but $55K per office sounds like an awful lot. Then again, they may need to lay down coaxial, put in IP PBXes, interconnect offices. configure the software and the system, do any necessary training, and possibly manage the services. There's also the cost of call minutes and reportage, although these will likely be less than for PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) systems.
But the good news for businesses that cannot afford to spend $55K per office is that there are probably probably plug-and-play IP PBX solutions that are SIP-based (open standard) and which cost less than that. One possible option is an Asterisk solution, maybe even the hybrid Skype-Asterisk solution for businesses, from Pika Technologies. I'll try to expand on business options in future posts.
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