In a juxtaposition with the residential VoIP market, the business VoIP market has massively increased demands on the VoIP service provider. Quality of service is by far the largest requirement and very stiff guarantees need to be provided to the small business. The complexity of a VoIP telephony system goes up dramatically as each new line is added to the system.Also the features that are sought after by the VoIP system end user are vastly different as well.

There are a couple of different models that are provided to the end user in the business VoIP scenario. One is the completely hosted VoIP system which until recently has been the most popular of the two. In this situation all of the hardware and the management responsibilities of the VoIP system are kept with the small business VoIP provider.

In the second method all of the hardware is kept at the client site, and all of the system management is done by the purchasing business. All that the small business VoIP provider does is provide the installation and the VoIP provision. Some offer support contracts in variation of the two methods where they either remotely or with actual presence maintain the VoIP system for the small business that has no IT department.

Any small business VoIP plan should have a clear cut breakdown of all the costs that will be incurred when moving over to the new VoIP system. Not only does this mean the VoIP PBX and the handsets but the DID's, minimum monthly spend with the business VoIP provider and so on. If it is hosted there will be minimal hardware expenses but it will need to be remembered that the VoIP phones themselves need to be purchased.

The reason the hosted model is losing popularity is tha small business is becoming a lot more educated as far as things like least cost routing and being tied to a single VoIP provider are concerned.Least cost routing is where your VoIP PBX is programmed to send the call through the cheapest provider. Having more than one provider can be a great thing but not likely to happen if the single business VoIP provider is hosting your entire VoIP set up.

The typical business VoIP solution set up will almost always include the same standard features. Basic services that all businesss VoIP systems will support are multiple extensions, call waiting, caller ID, three way calling ability, voicemail, speed dial, etc. Most will offer a range of much more advanced features of a VoIP PBX business solution as well such as.......

• Call hold with music on hold- this is the ability for the small business to have their own personalised music or messages while the customer is on hold, and to allot a time frame before this customer is connected to voicemail.

• Conference calls- this can be the link between three to fifty calls at the same time.

• Click to dial- this is the ability to click on a name in your address book on your PC and for the number of that person to be dialled by your system and not you. This can be integrated into outlook or any other program such as excel.

• Call queuing- this is the ability to have the incoming calls placed into a que to be answered by a group of operators or designated extensions as they become free. 

• A VoIP attendant console- this is a web based interface that allows a company to manage it's own telephony system, from individual calls to features.

• Call grouping- This is the ability to group types of calls/extensions/employees together to function as a single entity, and make/receive calls as a single entity.

• Roaming extensions- This means an employee can have their call routed to them wherever they are located.

• Triple zero (000) calling- just as in the residential market if the VoIP system is the only phone line in the premises then there needs to be the ability to call emergency services by regulation.

The biggest difference between business VoIP providers is if they are hosted or client site based. As we have seen both have their own benefits. Hosted services are cheaper in the short term for a small business VoIP solution and have less headaches for the business manager as far as maintenance is concerned, and client site based models are cheaper in the long run and give the buyer much more control over the telephony system.

All client site business VoIP solutions must have a clear outline as to exaqctly what is the responsibility of the purchasing party and exactly what is under their ownership before official hand-over of the VoIP system takes place.

The final part of the look at small business VoIP providers is about service level agreemants. Most business VoIP providers have different levels of service and different levels of guarantee. Exactly what these differences are can have a huge impact on the end user. For a company to be a business grade provider of VoIP they have to have very high levels of redundancy to be able to provide the guarantee to the end user of premium service that the small business will be asked to pay for.

The general consensus within the Australian telecommunications industry is that VoIP providers have recently reached a level of quality and service that renders them in the same grade as the PSTN/ISDN providers of old. The increase in functionality and huge reduction in call costs make them the only way of the future.