Napier University

Voice over IP: opportunities and challenges for companies that adopt it

Traditionally, communication between companies was made by using telephone, fax, e-mail� Companies communicate internally using private networks, but voice was still using the traditional phone lines. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is changing this. It is possible to use IP networks for telephone voice transmission. With VoIP companies can communicate at lower costs and they also can have access to other services, the most important of them is the convergence of voice and data into the same network.
The aims of this report are to evaluate the possibilities and potential uses of VoIP for UK companies and to appraise the challenges that VoIP represents for the companies. In order to achieve this, the report will provide with an understanding of how VoIP works, it will investigate what features of VoIP companies are benefiting from, it will also study the problems that companies are facing.
The method of investigation will be an interview with different companies that have implemented VoIP.
The deliverable of the project will be an evaluation of the possibilities that VoIP use offers to UK companies and some recommendations to face the challenges.