An IP phone system enables the flexibility and business leverage of unified messaging technology. The VOIP telephone system typically provides features such as teleconferencing, unified messaging (voicemail in email) Vic Beasley Jr Falcons Jersey , web collaboration, mobile integration (cell phones), presence (to locate employees quickly), instant messaging Devonta Freeman Falcons Jersey , video conferencing and application integration (sales, accounting, CRM, etc.). What sets apart one vendor's small business phone systems from the next? In his speech Julio Jones Falcons Jersey , Mr. Combs outlined a structured evaluation process when implementing office telephone systems with VOIP for business. He advises using an evaluation team of key players and using 8 evaluation criteria for selecting new small business phone systems: *Usability. There must be an onsite demonstration with the actual hardware being proposed by the vendor. Mr Combs highly recommends having two or more vendor demonstrations side-by-side, or alternatively to install alternative prototypes at two separate company locations and then exchange systems and locations to find out which one was best. *Reliability. What is the probable failure rate, based on actual fielded systems using BellcoreTelecordia standards? Mr Combs pointed out that speculative laboratory estimates are not sufficient for confidence in deploying a new system. You don't want to the the "guinea pig" for a vendor's prototype or Beta testing. *Availability. Make sure you understand the effect of downtime on the business based on the planned configuration. How many points of failure are there in the vendor's configuration? *Scalability. What are the costs should you need to double the planned configuration? *Architecture. What methodology was used to design the system? Was it built according to a plan or technology patched together from disparate systems and mismatched architectures? *Total Cost of Ownership. In many cases upfront costs (hardware, network and implementation) amount to only 20% of the complete system expense in the long term. Day-to-day costs (training Women's Austin Hooper Jersey , moveaddchange, system management, network and utilities) can easily add up to 80% over the system lifetime. What estimates are available from vendors being considered? *V.