For small business, telcos don't come to mind for VOIP - survey

When it comes to business VOIP and especially small business it seems that the established telcos are facing a serious marketing and perception challenge - namely that they don't come readily to mind when SMBs are considering acquiring VOIP.

WiFi Planet reports on a survey by John Macario, president and CEO of Savatar, a consulting and research firm.

"Right now it's like a bad date -- they aren't speaking the same language."

In a survey of 300 SMB decision-makers released at the Fall 2005 Voice Over Net (VON) conference, Savatar found there's interest in VoIP, but also a lot of confusion.

When asked which type of provider comes to mind for business VoIP, answers were all over the map:

• nontraditional telecoms, 25%
• equipment vendors, 17%
• traditional telecoms, 14%
• cable companies, 13%
• no one in particular, 13%
• ISPs, 10%
• resellers, 7%
• other, 2%.

Macario said the responses aren't encouraging for traditional telecoms, rating just one percentage point above "no one in particular".

Savatar has reviewed virtually every business VoIP offering on the market and said that the feature-sets are remarkably similar.

WiFi Planet noted the comments of another speaker at VON, Mark Spencer, president of Digium/Asterisk, who said the lesson of Skype is that the users and market value "low-cost, high-performance and ease of use" in VoIP products.

Technorati Tags:
VOIP Skype IP telephony SMB VOIP

---

How do you think that VOIP can best be sold to small business?  Post your Comments.  How can I help? Email me; Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632 (direct); +1(817) 382-4453 (SkypeIn USA); +852-8199-0189 (SkypeIn HK);

"We hired Walter to complete a technology audit, but he gave us much more -- he has the ability to identify business opportunities that benefit all sides, creating networks of customers, suppliers, investors and intermediaries. His breadth of knowledge and willingness to push himself beyond the brief are tremendously valuable." Zenon Pasieczny, Director, Saphet Capital Management

---

Comments

[Chad]

This is so very true. My firm works in the SMB market and implements VOIP phone solutions. Upon initial discussion of VOIP many firms believe that it's free after install. Business and personal usage VOIP are in two completely different playing fields. It will take awhile before the majority will come to understand the difference.

Great post. Thanks.