Understand VoIP risks, boards and execs warned

Igal Brightman, Deloitte global managing partner, technology media and communications, said in a report into corporate interest in and takeup of voice over Internet Protocol systems that, despite recent advances in reliability and performance, "the risk of business disruption remains a valid concern".

"Businesses have learned to tolerate a certain amount of downtime from computers and networks," Brightman said. "But they expect their phone systems to work all the time. That's the main reason voice over Internet Protocol is an issue for CXOs and the board of directors, not just the [information technology] department".

While generally lauding voice over Internet Protocol as "coming of age for the enterprise," Deloitte warned there were a number of prospective pitfalls if companies elected to proceed with a full-scale deployment.

These included; the relative lack of maturity of voice over Internet Protocol systems at the desktop level; the fact companies are forced to rely on their data network rather than using separate voice and data networks; the vulnerability of voice over Internet Protocol systems to viruses, worms, electronic surveillance, eavesdropping and denial of service attacks and; the fit of such systems for enterprises which may be better suited to an all-mobile solution.

However, despite the pitfalls, enterprises seem to be racing to embrace voice over Internet Protocol. Deloitte said its report revealed that by 2006, two-thirds of the Global 2000 companies would have started deployment of voice over Internet Protocol to the desktop.

The key driver was cost reduction, with 84 percent of those surveyed citing the issue as a key driver. However, beyond cost, voice over Internet Protocol had potential to deliver benefits to enterprises in call centres, offshoring operations and telecommuting tools. Seventy-nine percent of early adopters said they were either 'mostly' or 'highly' satisfied with the technology to date.