IP telephony is the way of the future, according to Numerates Research, for a number of reasons.

First, vendors are no longer investing research and development dollars into legacy TDM equipment.

Second, IP telephony has simplified communications for numerous organizations and their positive results have been shouted from rooftops (or at least highlighted in well-respected trade journals). With TDM, there's no interoperability, transferring between offices is not an option, and employees are often on different voice mail systems so forwarding messages is not possible. With IP telephony, companies instantly improves productivity with robust feature sets such as built-in conference call capabilities, four-digit dialing across locations, call center capabilities, and integration with desktop applications. Because of robust features like the ability for an employee to log in from any phone, employees are not tied to a desk.Office communications can be enhanced by multimedia applications, to improve staff productivity, make collaboration more effective and support advanced contact centre functionality. functionality.

A Network World special report suggests that organizations should consider transitioning to IP telephony when:
•    They are using IP Centrex lines that will support phone and Internet service on the same network. Moving to IP telephony solutions will immediately reduce costs because these lines are so expensive.

•    The organization is moving to a new building. Since the wiring does not yet exist, it's simple to create a consolidated data and voice network.

•    They are coming to the end of a PBX lease agreement or the current phone system is outdated, obsolete or unsupported by a vendor or service provider.

•    The company has offices in different area codes and employees dial a lot of long-distance numbers. The reduction in toll charges will be immediate and significant.

•    You will also want to consider IP telephony for your organization if your locations shift in size often

•    Locations are added regularly

•    You have a relatively small technology staff

•    You use a great deal of outsourced telephony services that are beginning to add up

•    Many of your employees frequently work remotely

Once you've evaluated your organization carefully, analysing the costs of your current telephony solution along with your employee productivity and customer service needs, and decided that indeed, IP telephony is the way to go, the next chapter will help you with the vendor evaluation and selection process.