Shoretel's CEO, John Combs, gave the keynote address recently at IT Expo West, providing pertinent counsel to IT managers and business owners buying a voice over IP (VOIP) phone system. He cited the MAC iPhone as an analogy, to illustrate how quickly new technology can dominate an industry. In the case of a VOIP business phone system, IP technology is poised to dominate similarly over today's predominant analog (TDM) systems. VOIP telephone systems can greatly increase user adaption rates, which can also improve productivity in an organization.

An IP phone system enables the flexibility and business leverage of unified messaging technology. The VOIP telephone system ordinarily includes features such as teleconferencing, unified messaging (voicemail to email), web collaboration, presence (locating employees' whereabouts), mobile (cell phone) integration, instant messaging, video conferencing and business process integration (sales, accounting, CRM, etc.).

What are the key elements to consider when selecting one vendor's IP phone system over a competitor's? In his speech, Mr. Combs outlined a structured evaluation process when choosing office telephone systems with VOIP for business. He proposed 8 evaluation criteria to be used by the evaluation team making the choice of a new VOIP business phone system:
Usability. A live demonstration is mandatory including the exact hardware to be deployed. It is often advisable to have two or more vendor demonstrations side-by-side, or instead to deploy different prototypes at two separate company locations and then swap systems and locations to find out which one was best.
Reliability. What is the probable failure rate, based on actual deployed systems using Bellcore/Telecordia standards? Mr Combs pointed out that academic failure rates are not sufficient for confidence in deploying a new system. In other words be very careful about deploying anything that is not field tested.
Availability. Make sure you understand the impact of downtime on the business based on the planned configuration. Count the points of failure exist in the vendor's solution?
Scalability. Examine the anticipated cost should your organization double in size.
Architecture. What design philosophy was used in the system? Was it built ground-up vs. piecemeal from different merged business entities?
Total Cost of Ownership. In many cases upfront costs (hardware, network and implementation) come to only 20% of the aggregate system outlay over the system's lifecycle. Day-to-day costs (training, move/add/change, system management, network and utilities) can amount to 80% over the system lifetime. What is the case with the systems under consideration?
Vendor Financial Strength. Evaluate the vendor's balance sheet to get comfortable with the fact that they'll continue to be able to support your office telephone system.
Vendor References. Everyone on the team should contact their peers for information regarding the ip phone system vendors considered. Did they make a wise decision with this vendor? Do they know of other references? What is their actual cost experience vs. vendor estimates at the start? Is the system a support nightmare? What about any "raving fans?"

When choosing new small business phone systems, the usual choice is a VOIP business phone system. The suggested evaluation criteria and especially the presence of "raving fans" for any VOIP business phone system are critical in getting all the benefits of VOIP for business.