Introduction
VoIP has been underrated for a long time because businesses have not realized the benefits that come with this new technology. It has the potential to increase the productivity in business (Wi-Fi Planet, 2006a, Intel, Kornak et al., 2004). The arguments and debates have brought a lot of confusion and opportunities. Through VoIP, it is possible to make phone calls over the Internet. For this reason, many households have started using VoIP to communicate using the voice over the Internet. VoIP is gaining popularity in enabling voice transmission over the Internet.
Kontak, a travelling company that is located in Latin America, contacted Digiserve Company, which provides data and voice solutions, in the year 2007. The objective of the company was to look for a solution to reduce the cost of transmitting voice due to high costs of telephone services. Given the fact that Kontak has many sites in various countries like Tokyo, Japan, Campinas, Brazil, and Osaka, Japan, it was indeed necessary that they come up with a better voice communication solution to reduce the costs that was associated with the calls across these branches.
Kontak has many branches and relies on making telephone calls for effective communication within the company. The communication need to be between the staff, clients the staff, management, and employees. All these groups of people need to have an effective communication in order to have smooth running of activities. The various branches need to have connection in terms of communication. They are also seeking to increase the call rate time with the customers. This is because there have been complains by customers that phone calls made by the customers went unanswered. The international calls that are made to the overseas branches are seen to be expensive. The introduction of VoIP will be a solution to this.
How VoIP improved operations
With the use of VoIP, there are applications that were installed that helped to improve operations. One of the applications that were installed is Skype. This application uses the Internet to transmit voice signals. With the use of Skype, the operations were improved a great deal. This is so given that many people can communicate using Skype at the same time. The use of traditional telephone system does not allow teleconferencing to take place. With Skype, various management and employees can communication using one connection. The operations of the various branches can therefore be improved.
Advantages of using VoIP in Kontak
One of the benefits that Kontak will gain in using VoIP would be the reduction in call cost. There will be the reduction of cost that could have been incurred in the installation of the telephone system. The company will benefit if they use the IP that has been installed already and the telephony service provider (Dodd, 2005).
Another benefit that will be realized with the use of VoIP at Kontak is that of flexibility. Flexibility comes in the sense that the technology is based on software and therefore, it will be easier to update the technology when it will be necessary to do so.
Another benefit is that of simplification, where the integration of equipment and infrastructure will lead to standardization of equipment. This will lead to reduction in operational costs. With integration of operations and processes, it will be simpler to standardize the services and products that are found within the organization.
The last benefit of using this technology is that of scalability. When Kontak will need to upgrade due to changing needs, it will be easier to do so. From time to time, there might be the need to expand the communication space of the company. It will therefore require that the existing communication setup be changed. VoIP is found to be highly scalable (Rainer, Turban, & Poter, 2006).
References
Dodd, A. (2005). The Essential Guide to Telecommunications. London: Prentice Hall.
Kornak, A., Teutloff, J., & Welin-Berger, M. (2004). Enterprise Guide to Gaining Business Value from Mobile Technologies. London: John Wiley & Sons.
Rainer Jr., R., Turban, E., &. Poter, R., (2006). Introduction to Information Systems. Supporting and Transforming Business. London: John Wiley & Sons.
Wi-Fi Planet (2006a). Will Security Concerns Hold Back SMB VoIP Adoption? Retrieved on 9 June, 2011 from http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3562436 2006-03-15
