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Migrating to VoIP - Choosing the Right Vendor
VoIP_News 29 days ago | Comments (0)
Once youve determined how VoIP is going to
impact the various stakeholders in your
business, along with the right deployment
model for your network environment, its time to
look more closely at the vendors. Just as VoIP
technology has evolved, so has the variety of
vendors, especially for SMBs.

The definition of a vendor can be quite broad,
and when it comes to VoIP, there are many
paths you can take. Under the right conditions,
any of them can do the job, but you need to
understand the full landscape to make a good decision. This post is akin to a tree
diagram, showing you what the basic branches are and how to determine which ones
are worth evaluating.

Defining the Main Branches
When thinking about VoIP vendors, the starting point will usually be for the phone
system, since thats likely what youre looking to replace or update. In the majority of
cases, there will be two main branches here to consider Tier 1 and Tier 2 vendors.

Tier 1
As the term implies, these will be the industry majors, with the most familiar being
Cisco, Avaya (including Nortel), Unify (nee Siemens) and to some extent, Alcatel
Lucent.

Regarding VoIP, there are two common elements for these companies. First, they are
large companies, and second, they are leading players in the VoIP space. Some are
stronger than others in term of their focus on SMBs, so you need to consider each
one more carefully on that basis.

While these are the most familiar names, two exceptions need to be noted:

All of these companies offer VoIP phone systems along with other types of VoIP
solutions. There are other Tier 1 companies that are important players in this
space even though they dont offer VoIP phone systems. Microsoft is the best
example, especially with their Lync platform. To a lesser extent, IBM could be
considered here as well, but that would be more of a stretch. The important factor
here is that while Microsoft is not yet established as a major VoIP player with
SMBs, they are quickly moving in that direction, representing a new branch on the
Tier 1 VoIP decision tree.
1.
There are yet other vendors that would very much be considered Tier 1 2.
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companies, especially on a global basis but are really second tier players in the
VoIP space. In North America, SMBs would likely be familiar with NEC, Panasonic
and Toshiba, all of which are good examples of this variation. They will generally
have more financial clout than true Tier 2 vendors, and you should not
underestimate their ability to compete directly with the Tier 1s cited above.
Tier 2
For the most part, these vendors are secondary both in overall size and VoIP market
share. While the Tier 1 vendors can leverage their size to dominate the VoIP
telephony space, SMBs in particular often gravitate to Tier 2 vendors. A key reason is
the basic business fit, since SMBs will be more valuable to Tier 2s as customers.
These vendors also tend to be more accommodating for the needs of SMBs, and are
often more agile when it comes to the latest trends driving VoIP adoption.

The best known names serving North American SMBs would be ShoreTel and Mitel
(now including Aastra). In addition to the other Tier 2s listed earlier Panasonic, NEC,
Toshiba there is another group of Tier 2 vendors that do not come from the
traditional phone system space, but do offer various forms of VoIP phone systems.
Well-known names here would include ADTRAN, Switchvox, 3CX, plus a multitude of
vendors specializing in Asterisk-based open source VoIP phone systems.

While all the above vendors can provide complete VoIP phone systems, there is an
important sub-branch to add in the form of IP phone vendors. There are many
situations where a business does not need a full IP PBX system, especially where
they already have a setup in place that provides the VoIP horsepower. They may be
running this onsite or via a cloud-based partner, but in either case, all they need are IP
phones. Sometimes the business needs a full complement of IP phones to get their
VoIP system going, and in other cases, they may just be expanding their footprint and
adding new phones.

In this category, Polycom is easily the best known vendor. Their role in the VoIP
ecosystem has been evolving, and while you would probably consider them a Tier 1
phone vendor, they are closer to being a Tier 2 vendor when their overall impact on
the VoIP telephony market is considered. Joining their ranks in the IP phone space
would be snom, Grandstream and Yealink, along with a handful of much smaller
players.

Conclusion
While this overview is not comprehensive, it addresses most of the vendors youll
likely come across as you formulate a migration plan for VoIP phone systems. The
important message is to distinguish between Tier 1 and Tier 2 vendors and then see
which path makes more sense based on the vendor youre using now for telephony.
Thats where Ill continue the analysis next, so to prepare, I would urge you to review
your recent buying history for telephony.

Other articles in Jon Arnold's "Migrating to VoIP" series:
Migrating to VoIP Where to Begin?
Migrating to VoIP Three Key Questions
Migrating to VoIP How Three Stakeholders will Benefit
Migrating to VoIP How Management will Benefit
Migrating to VoIP Choosing the Right Deployment Model
Migrating to VoIP How IT will Benefit


About the Author
Jon Arnold is Principal of J Arnold & Associates, an independent telecom
analyst and strategy consultancy based in Toronto, Ontario. The
consultancys primary focus is providing thought leadership and go-to-
market counsel regarding IP communications and disruptive
technologies. You can follow Jon's everyday insights on his influential Analyst 2.0
blog and on Twitter.

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Keyword Tags: VoIP; voice over internet protocol; business telephony; VoIP features; VoIP
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